Against the Current
A Remarkable Literary Discourse on Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe in Terms of Self and Other
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/Poliarchia.03.2015.05.05Keywords:
European Union, Western Europe, discourseAbstract
The political reality of the European Union is not reflected in the general discourse on the relationship between Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe, which is characterized by an adverse attitude towards the latter. This impacts identity construction on the European level, where Central and Eastern Europe has long been regarded as the “Other” against which the European “self ” was defined. However, a new discourse on this relationship has emerged in literary works written by scholars and journalists that are able to take an overarching perspective. The present study analyses four publications to see how the relationship between Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe is portrayed in terms of the self and the Other, employing the Discourse Historical Approach and a spectrum of the self and the Other perspectives. It emerges that the discussed authors share a discourse which respects differences, focuses on similarities as well as differences and shows an awareness of the interwovenness of the narratives of the self and the Other. This new, shared discourse holds directions for the further development of a European-wide discourse that includes the same notions of respect and the interwovenness of narratives, and which could in turn influence European identity construction.
References
I. Printed sources:
– monographs:
Applebaum A., Between East and West. Across the Borderlands of Europe, New York 1994.
Connolly W. E., Identity, Difference. Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox, Minneapolis 2002.
Davies N., Europe East and West, London 2006.
Davies N., Heart of Europe. The Past in Poland’s Present, Oxford–New York 2001.
Fairclough N., Critical Discourse Analysis. The Critical Study of Language, London–New York 1995.
Guillaume X., International Relations and Identity. A Dialogical Approach, London–New York 2011.
Judt T., Postwar. A History of Europe Since 1945, New York 2005.
Neumann I. B., Uses of the Other. “The East” in European Identity Formation, Minneapolis 1999.
Rash F., German Images of the Self and the Other. Nationalist, Colonialist and Anti-Semitic Discourse, 1871-1918, New York 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137030214_4
Ricoeur P., Oneself as Another, trans. by K. Blamey, Chicago 1992.
Said E. W., Orientalism, London 1978.
Snyder T., The Reconstruction of Nations. Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999, New Haven 2003.
Stuurman S., De Uitvinding van de Mensheid: Korte Wereldgeschiedenis van Het Denken over Gelijkheid En Cultuurverschil, Amsterdam 2009.
Titscher S., Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis, trans. by B. Jenner, London–Thousand Oaks, CA 2000.
Waldenfels B., Topographie des Fremden, Berlin 1997.
Wodak R., Critical Discourse Analysis, London 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446286289
– collective works:
Judt T., Snyder T., Thinking the Twentieth Century, London 2012.
Wodak R., Meyer M. (eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, London 2001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028020
– chapters in collective works:
Fuchs D., Gerhards J., Roller E., “Nationalism versus Eurocentrism? The Construction of Collective Identities in Western Europe”, in M. Martiniello (ed.), Migration, Citizenship and Ethno-National Identities in the European Union, Aldershot–Brookfield–Ashgate 1995.
Neumann I. B., “Foreword”, in B. Rumelili, Constructing Regional Community and Order in Europe and Southeast Asia, Basingstoke 2007.
Neumann I. B., “National Security, Culture and Identity”, in V. Mauer, M. D. Cavelty (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Security Studies, London 2010, [online] http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203866764.ch8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203866764.ch8
Van Dijk T., “Critical Discourse Analysis”, in D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, H. Hamilton (eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Malden 2001, [online] http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470753460.ch19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470753460.ch19
Van Dijk T., “Comments on Context and Conversation”, in N. Fairclough, G. Cortese, P. Ardizonne (eds.), Discourse and Contemporary Social Change, Bern–Oxford 2007.
Vessey D., “The Polysemy of Otherness: On Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another”, in S. Gallagher et al. (eds.), Ipseity and Alterity: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Intersubjectivity, Mont-Saint-Aignan 2004.
Wodak R., “The Semiotics of Racism: A Critical Discourse-Historical Analysis”, in J. Renkema (ed.), Discourse, of Course. An Overview of Research in Discourse Studies, Amsterdam 2009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/z.148.29wod
Wodak R., Meyer M., “Critical Discourse Studies: History, Agenda, Theory and Methodology”, in R. Wodak, M. Meyer (eds.), Methods of Critical Discourse Studies, London 2016.
Wodak R., Reisigl M., “Discourse and Racism”, in D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, H. Hamilton (eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Malden 2001, [online] http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470753460.ch20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470753460.ch20
Wodak R., Weiss G., “Analyzing European Union Discourses: Theories and Applications”, in R. Wodak, P. A. Chilton (eds.), A New Agenda in (Critical) Discourse Analysis. Theory, Methodology and Interdisciplinary, Amsterdam–Philadelphia 2005. – articles in scientific journals: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.13.10wod
Kendall G., “What Is Critical Discourse Analysis? Ruth Wodak in Conversation With Gavin Kendall”, Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung, vol. 8, no. 2 (2007).
Lane T., “Book Review – Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations”, Lituanus – Lithuanian Quarterly Journal of Arts and Sciences, vol. 50, no. 4 (2004).
Rash F., “Images of the Self and the Other in Paul Rohrbach’s ‘German Idea’”, Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 45, no. 5 (2011), [online] http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0031322x.2011.624751. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0031322X.2011.624751
Rumelili B., “Constructing Identity and Relating to Difference: understanding the EU’s mode of differentiation”, Review of International Studies, no. 1 (2004), [online] http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0260210504005819. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210504005819
Syriatou A., “An Interview with Norman Davies”, European Review of History. Revue europeenne d’histoire, vol. 4, no. 2 (1997), [online] http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13507489708568192. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13507489708568192
Van Den Hengel P., “Paul Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another and Practical Theology”, Theological Studies, vol. 55, no. 3 (1994), [online] http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/004056399405500302. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/004056399405500302
Yu C. C., “Between ‘Homeworld’ and ‘Alienworld’: Waldenfels on Interculturality”, Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions, no. 3 (2005).
II. Electronic sources:
– press releases:
Applebaum A., “Nationalism Is Exactly What Ukraine Needs”, New Republic, 13 May 2014, [online] http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117505/ukraines-only-hope-nationalism.
Ash A., “Interview – Anne Applebaum on Memoirs of Communism”, Fivebooks, 5 March 2012, [online] http://fivebooks.com/interviews/anne-applebaum-on-memoirs-communism.
Bos-Karczewska M., “INTERVIEW: Prof. Norman Davies: Speech of Sikorski Signals a Shift in Political Patterns in Europe”, Polonia, 3 December 2011, [online] http://polonia.nl/?p=6815.
Degens W., “Interview – Tans Lecture by Anne Applebaum: Does Eastern Europe Still Exist?”, Observant Online, 27 November 2013, [online] http://www.observantonline.nl/Home/Artikelen/tabid/126/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1958/Tans-Lecture-by-Anne-Applebaum-Does-Eastern-Europe-still-exist.aspx.
Freund M., “Book Review: Tony Judt’s Postwar”, The Vienna Review, 1 October 2006, [online] http://www.viennareview.net/vienna-review-book-reviews/upcoming-literary-events/a-history-of-two-europes.
Grillot T., Sémelin J., “A Decent and True Understanding of the Past – An Interview with Timothy D. Snyder”, Books and Ideas, 14 February 2013, [online] http://www.booksandideas.net/A-Decent-and-True-Understanding-of.html.
Horn H., “How Historians Can Rewrite the Future”, The Atlantic, 2 February 2012, [online] http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/how-historians-can-rewritethe-future/252436/.
Judt T., “Edge People”, NYRblog, 23 February 2010, [online] http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/ny rblog/2010/feb/23/edge-people/.
Laity P., “Uncomfortable Truths”, The Guardian, 17 May 2008, [online] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/may/17/politics1.
Masanauskas J., “Visiting Historian Says Crimea’s Annexation May Strengthen Ukraine”, HeraldSun, 10 April 2014, [online] http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/visiting-historian-says-crimeas-annexation-may-strengthen-ukraine/story-fni0fit3-1226880351674.
Rapp T., Spörl G., “Europe’s New Status Quo: ‘Ukraine Is Fighting Our Battle’”, Spiegel Online, 23 May 2014, [online] http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/experts-discuss-whatukraine-crisis-means-for-future-of-europe-a-971032.html.
Snyder T., “The Battle in Ukraine Means Everything”, New Republic, 12 May 2014, [online] https://newrepublic.com/article/117692/fascism-returns-ukraine.
Snyder T., “Edge of Europe, End of Europe”, The New York Review of Books, 21 July 2015, [online] http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2015/07/21/ukraine-kharkiv-edge-of-europe/.
Truchlewski Z., “Timothy Snyder, A Historian of Eastern Europe (first Part of the Interview)”, Nouvelle Europe, 11 February 2013, [online] http://www.nouvelle-europe.eu/en/timothy-snyder-historian-eastern-europe-first-part-interview.
Tusa J., “John Tusa Interview with Norman Davies”, BBC, 1 October 2000, [online] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00nc3t2.
Verhofstadt D., “Interview – Goelag of the de Geschiedenis van de Sovjetkampen”, Liberales, 10 October 2003, [online] http://www.liberales.be/interviews/applebaumgoelag.
Wheatcroft G., “Tony Judt Obituary”, The Guardian, 8 August 2010, [online] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/aug/08/tony-judt-obituary.
Yerxa D., “Postwar: An Interview with Tony Judt”, The Historical Society, 14 November 2005, [online] http://www.bu.edu/historic/hs/judt.html.
Websites:
Website of Anne Applebaum, [online] http://www.anneapplebaum.com/anne-applebaum/.
Website of Barnes and Noble, [online] http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/between-eastand-west-anne-applebaum/1001927646.
Website of Norman Davies, [online] http://www.normandavies.com/author.
Website of Timothy Snyder, [online] http://timothysnyder.org/united-europe-divided-memory.
Website of Yale, [online] http://history.yale.edu/people/timothy-snyder.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
