Death of the Father

Key Concepts
Limited Associations/Indexical Leads

Allied powers:
the victorious World War II coalition composed of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain (joined by France after the war for purposes of occupying Germany)
Axis powers:
the losing World War II coalition of Germany, Italy, and Japan
brotherhood and unity:
slogan invoking the fraternity and united purpose of various ethnic, national, and religious differences, the central transcendent appeal of Tito's Yugoslavia
capitalism:
an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that determined by private decisions, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined by competition in a free market
Cold War:
the historic period following World War II of hostility and confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, when they encouraged and fought proxy wars rather than engage in a direct confrontation with each other
communism:
a theory advocating elimination of private property and collective ownership of the means of production according to the doctrine "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need"
death, social:
the moment in which something is consciously acknowledged as having ceased all vital functions, which can be either before or after a physical death
death, physical:
the biological cessation of vital functions
democratic authority:
a form of governing that is minimally bicephalic (with a ruling party and an opposition, where the place of Power (the People as a unity) is empty, and where the People dissolve into a contingent collection of atomized individuals in regularized ritual elections
dissidents:
label for those opposing authority in "actually existing socialist states" of East-Central Europe during the Cold War
East Germany:
the German Democratic Republic, a socialist state founded in 1949, dissolved in 1990
Emperor:
the sovereign or supreme authority of a monarchy or empire
end:
the point at which something ceases to exist; a termination or cessation
ethnic:
of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common features such as cultural or biological origin, language, and religion
Fascism:
a philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism
Father:
the source of authority and locus of meaning; the leader; the paternal authority
Führer:
a leader, used chiefly to describe Hitler, the Nazi leader; has come to mean the exercise of tyrannical authority
futurism:
a movement in art, music, and literature begun in Italy about 1909 and marked especially by an effort to give formal expression to the dynamic energy and movement of mechanical processes
genitor:
the reproductive source; by the late 19th century, in Europe, the biological father
gulag:
the penal system of the USSR, begun by Lenin, then developed and perfected by Stalin, consisting of a network of labor camps
glasnost:
openness or transparency, a term most frequently heard to describe a new openess and leniency in the Soviet Union under Gorbachev, just prior to its dismantling
identification:
a largely unconscious process whereby an individual models thoughts, feelings, and actions based on similarity and difference to an object choice
imperialism:
the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and domination of a polity by territorial expansion or by gaining indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas
mourning:
a period of time following a loss marked by grief and sorrow that redefines death as life-affirming
Nazism:
the doctrines of the National Socialist German Workers' Party in the Third German Reich including the totalitarian principle of government, state control of all industry, Aryan racial superiority, and supremacy of the Führer
pater:
ecclesiastical or spiritual father
patronage:
the support or influence, frequently through the distribution of economic resources or political benefits, of a special guardian or protector
perestroika:
economic renewal and reorganization, particularly used to refer to policies initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union
republic:
a polity in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected representatives responsible to them and governing according to law
revolution:
a fundamental change in political organization, usually through the overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed
sacrifice:
the act of offering something precious to a supreme authority, or the killing of a victim
socialism:
an economic system premised on collective or governmental ownership and control of the means of production and distribution of goods
Shinto:
an indigenous religion of Japan consisting chiefly in the cultic devotion to deities of natural forces and the veneration of the Emperor as a descendant of the sun-goddess
sons:
potential inheritors of patriarchal authority
sovereignty:
supreme power, especially over a body politic
soviet:
an elected governmental council in a Communist country
Soviet Union:
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), a union of 15 constituent republics bordering on eastern Europe and Asia, replaced Czarist Russia in 1919, dissolved in 1991
trauma:
a temporally delayed and repeated suffering of events that can only be grasped retrospectively
trauma, national:
delayed and repeated suffering of events having to do with membership in an imagined community of the national type
unity:
the quality or state of not being multiple, Oneness
unification, German:
refers both to the 1861 Bismark-orchestrated unification of German principalities into a single German state, and the 1990 dissolution of the (eastern) German Democratic Republic and its absorption into the (western) Federal Republic of Germany
vanguard of history:
the doctrine that one held a position at the forefront of historical change
Wall:
the Berlin Wall, built in 1962, dismantled in 1989-190, came to symbolize the "Iron Curtain" dividing the Cold War world into two
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(c) Prepared by John Borneman & Linda Fisher, February 1999