Identity in Central Europe Cover Image

Tożsamość w Europie Środkowej
Identity in Central Europe

Author(s): Michał Masłowski
Subject(s): Political history, Comparative Study of Literature, History of Communism, Theory of Literature, Politics and Identity
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Central Europe; East-Central Europe; Europe médiane; cultural canon; identity; civilization; national poet; cultural nationhood; intelligentsia; essentialism; processualism; universality; Bohemia;

Summary/Abstract: The notions of Central Europe and East-Central Europe (in opposition to Naumann’s Mitteleuropa), as well as Europe médiane, have replaced after the fall of Communism the term Eastern Europe, which was in universal use since the war. The metaphors offered by Miłosz, Kundera, and Braudel inspired the studious historical works of Halecki, Kłoczowski, Wandycz, Bibó and Szűcs, and Snyder, which, in turn, have revealed from their longue durée point of view a cohesiveness in the structures and identities of nations situated “between Germany and Russia;” the three historical kingdoms of Bohemia, Hungary, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The distinctive identity of this region was expressed in the nineteenth century under the influence of Herder’s philosophy and Romantic poetry, by the figure of a “national poet” and the idea of “cultural nationhood,” which was distinct from the “nation state” associated with the Enlightenment paradigm.

  • Issue Year: 16/2019
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 166-180
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Polish