NATIONAL PERCEPTIONS AND THEIR STEREOTYPIZATION
NATIONAL PERCEPTIONS AND THEIR STEREOTYPIZATION

Summary/Abstract: The authors of this interdisciplinary volume—Slovak and German historians, ethnologists, and Slavicists—focused on an exploration into the historically contextualized objects of national perception in the form of stereotypes. They thematize them as the self-perception (self-stereotypes) and perception of others (heterostereotypes). Stereotypes are looked upon as simplified and emotionalized images, characteristics, concepts as well as prejudices, which are used both for orientation and for manipulation and often also for confirming and strengthening one’s identity with respect to others. The contributions describe stereotypes and images of the self and others in everyday life and in politics. Action forms and institutions are also exposed to stereotypization. Descriptions of the stereotypes related to the Slovak and German national perceptions have a high cognitive value. Mention is made of the stereotypes referring to the Slovaks, Germans, French, Jews, Russians, and Americans; but also of the stereotypes of East and West, of national food, national architecture, and of the transition of existing and already used stereotypes from one historical-political context to another. The authors based their studies of various processes of stereotypization on dictionaries, lexicons, guidebooks, travelogues, cookbooks, period caricatures, pictures, and last but not least, political, historical and scientific discourse.

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