Joy Charnley Libri

The constitutional reform of 1848, which created the present political structures and legal system of Switzerland, bordered on the ideal in the regulation of human affairs, but has been adjusted over the years in the light of changing circumstances. Arguably, the political arrangements which enable the cultures of Switzerland to live together in relative harmony can be viewed in the year 2000, when Europe remains scarred by repression and violence between ethnic and language groups, as being closer to Utopia than arrangements obtaining in other places. The essays in this third volume of Occasional Papers in Swiss Studies discuss differing notions of Utopia from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries in relation to Switzerland and the often chastening confrontation of these notions with reality. Following on the constitutional reform put in place in 2000, Visions of Utopia in Switzerland aims to set in context the current debate about the kind of society Switzerland wishes to become - isolationist or open to Europe, narrowly traditional or widely multicultural.

Switzerland and War addresses the paradox that Switzerland, a country neutral for over four centuries, has an equally long tradition of bearing arms. The communal decision after the defeat at Marignano in 1515, to avoid hostilities against external powers, was confirmed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and Switzerland managed to remain neutral, but over the same period there has been armed conflict within Switzerland the last example as late as 1847. Although Switzerland was spared physical destruction in the twentieth century, the country was inevitably marked by the measures necessary during war-time and by the changes wrought as peace was established. The six contributions to this second volume of Occasional Papers in Swiss Studies trace the effects of war on Switzerland over the last 150 years from a historical, sociological and literary perspective and show the impact of war on a non-combatant nation.

Images of Switzerland: Challenges from the Margins , appearing at a time when Swiss identity is under severe pressure, deals with perceptions of Switzerland held by a variety of minority groups. A historical review of attitudes to Jews prior to World War Two precedes chronologically essays on recent perceptions of marginalisation in literature written by women, manifestations of the Fremdarbeiter in German-Swiss literature, the outsider in the work of Lukas Hartmann and socially disadvantaged figures in recent Italian-Swiss writing.

It was not until 1971 that Swiss women acquired the right to vote at federal level. Since then, they have been assuming their rightful role in Swiss public life. Women who exemplify this evolution discuss its various aspects in 25 Years of Emancipation? : two historians examine the struggle for women's suffrage; two sociologists describe the role now played by Swiss women in public life; two leading politicians draw on their experience to assess past difficulties, present achievements and future challenges; several literary specialists assess writing by women since 1971; three Swiss writers and one Scottish writer discuss writing in a minority culture and read from their works and a film director identifies the problems faced by women filmmakers. Drawing on the collective expertise of this range of disciplines, 25 Years of Emancipation? provides a valuable analysis of a period of significant change in Switzerland.