Abstracts
Luís Machado de Abreu
The construction of the European Union has made decisive progress in the economic, social and political fields. Nevertheless, in the field of cultural politics there is still much to do. Cultural Europe is a territory full of contradictions and complexities, where visionary intuition will have to challenge the strength of tradition and the egocentrism of national identities.
The aim of this contribution will be to reflect on some of the most enlightened ideas about the present and the future of Europe made during the 20th century. We will focus on the works of Paul Valéry, Ortega y Gasset and Peter Sloterdijk. More than simply utopias, Europe needs prophetic words, which criticise in the present day the errors and impasses of the past and show the way to more security and depth in Europe.
Prof. Dr Luís machado de abreu is a Professor of Portuguese Culture at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He received his PhD in Philosophy at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium and at the University of Aveiro. He has several publications on Spinoza. Recent publications: Ensaios anticlericais. Lisbon: Roma, 2004; Percursos do Oitocentismo Português. Aveiro: Universidade Aveiro, 1998. Discurso do anticlericalismo português 1850-1926. Aveiro: Universidade Aveiro, 1998.
Phillip Alday
The promise of a unified, peaceful Europe realised through an already long envisioned federalism often strikes the imagination as an unqualified positive, but beneath this happy hope looms a precarious problem. Supranational unity and national identity are locked in an apparent zero-sum game, and Europe must strike a balance. Fears of cultural loss have stopped the advancement of the dream, and a stalemate has developed, evident in the vacillating designs for a European constitution and calls for devolution.
The border area of South Tyrol functions as a microcosm of this federalist dilemma and shows how to strike a win for both unity and identity out of the current stagnation. Although the nationally dominant Italian culture and language had coexisted with the local Germanic in South Tyrol for centuries, the transformation of the region into a sub-entity of a larger (Italian) political framework following annexation ignited fears of cultural hegemony, which were very nearly realised during a programme of Italianisation under Mussolini. Attempts to statically balance Italian national unity with local identity left neither requirement satisfactorily met. The evolution of a ‘dynamic autonomy’ created a dynamic equilibrium, where both local and national concerns could be addressed effectively. Like all compromises, some aspects of each side were less than ideal, but the overall balance was much better than either extreme, and South Tyroleans increasingly recognise that peaceful community with another culture can lead to enrichment instead of dissolution. The change to this optimistic perspective, i.e. embracing this situation as a net gain for both interests, provides a palatable solution to the dilemma.
The concerns about cultural hegemony, economic dominance, self-determination and national sovereignty in the European Union can be addressed by similar political processes. A dynamic equilibrium can satisfy the required balance of peaceful, supranational unity and national sovereignty and identity, with the result that both players in this zero-sum game tie for the win. In this way, this tiny agricultural area is leading the way into the common European future. Although we cannot yet see the final form, we already have a very good idea of how the long awaited European federalism will look when we observe the success of South Tyrol and other border regions.
Phillip Alday has been a Master’s student in Linguistics at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany since 2008. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame, USA with degrees in German Literature and Mathematics, and wrote his senior thesis on ‘The South Tyrolean example of multilingual administration in border regions’. Research fields: Administration and Governance in Multilingual Contexts, Neuro/Psycholinguistics.
Onésimo T. Almeida
Scholars of cultural identity often ignore an obviously very significant fact: that the word ‘identity’ is generally used mistakenly (in the classic sense of the Aristotelian origin of the word). This means the term is used both ways indiscriminately: identity as past and common cultural characteristics (sometimes considered as homogeneous) and unity regarding the future. Confusion and disagreement are inevitable if this mistake is not clarified. In the case of European identity it will be impossible, as has been reflected in debates about what constitutes the common past of Europe, to discover such a unity. The Greco-Roman world is not exactly the Christian world. Christianity itself has never been an identity (in the first meaning of the term) except during the long period of the Middle Ages. And even then divisions between Orthodox and Roman Christianity occurred at a very early stage. Afterwards, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation created a divide that lasted for at least 400 years. The debate on European identity should therefore focus on a kind of utopia or ideal unity for the future. Yet if we focus on the philosophical work of the past two centuries in the field of ethics, we can conclude that this utopia cannot go beyond a rather general set of ideals emerging from the Enlightenment, even if postmodernists refuse to recognise this fact. Essentially they refuse only the absolutism of modernity, not its basic axioms (see my essay ‘Modernity, postmodernity and other nebulous ideas’ [Culture — History and Philosophy 22 (2006), pp. 29-69].
Given this scenario, the American model, which is based on the axioms of this paradigm, must be ignored. Many Europeans are horrified when faced with this possibility, but the only possible response seems to be to paraphrase a famous statement by Churchill: ‘Modernity (Enlightenment) is the most horrible of utopias’ (see for example John Gray, Enlightenment’s Wake, Routledge, 1995 and Black Mass. Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia, Penguin Books, 2008).
Essential to this process is an inevitable dose of voluntarism that is not provided by the empirical-rationalist paradigm which is predominant in current Western ideology, but an emotional and volitional intervention of a collective project. The last resort of rationalism may not be given by Descartes but rather by Pascal.
Prof. Onésimo T. Almeida has been a Professor of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at Brown University, USA since 1990. He earned his PhD in Philosophy also at Brown in 1980, and since then he has been teaching, also at Brown, under the auspices of the Wayland Collegium for Liberal Learning, a course on Values and World Views. Research fields: Problems of Cultural Identity, particularly the Struggle of Portugal and the Lusophone World with Modernity. Recent publication: ‘Science during the Portuguese maritime discoveries – a telling case of interaction between experimenters and theoreticians’ in: Daniela Bleichmar / Paula De Vos / Kristin Huffine / Kevin Sheehan (eds.), Science in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, 1500-1800. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008, pp. 78-92.
Paul Angoli
Marked by the diversity of cultures, customs, traditions, languages, rhythms, oral literatures and in particular, a civilisation rich in human and mythical values, the African continent has been a target of radical transformation since the arrival of the Europeans. The destruction of the cultural values, the establishment of a strong administration for the exploration of the African culture influenced the emergence of a European myth in African literatures.
In the course of this essay, we shall analyse Les Soleils des indépendances by Ahmadou Kourouma and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. We will refer to the literary effects of the imposition of Christian religion and colonisation in Africa.
Paul Angoli is a Researcher at the Centre for Literatures in Portuguese of the Universities of Lisbon (CLEPUL), Portugal and a PhD candidate. He studied Romance Studies at the Faculty of Letters at the University of Lisbon and Hispanic-American Studies at the Faculty of Letters at the Université de Cocody-Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ‘HAVE-DONES’ AND ‘TO-DOS’ IN EUROPEAN CULTURAL MEMORY
Bruno Arich-Gerz
Much like in any other concentration and extermination camp of the Nazi era, the Häftlingsgesellschaft (prisoner society) of the Mittelbau-Dora camp complex included Jews, Sinti and Roma, political opponents of the fascist regime and other individuals such as ‘criminals’, Italian military internees or Jehovah’s witnesses. With the exception of one single internee – a Haitian – they were deported to the Harz region in Northern Thuringia from those nations which have in the meantime come to be members of the European Union or belong, as in the case of Russia and Ukraine, to the ring of adjacent countries. A look at the record of memoirs and accounts of those who survived the ordeals in the ‘Hell of Dora’ that existed from August 1943 until April 1945 reveals an extremely diverse picture. Belgian, French and Dutch survivors produced comparatively many of these reports after their liberation by outspokenly or implicitly betraying a great acceptance and honour in view of their past endurances in a ‘système méritocratique’ (Chaumont). The reports from German political opponents, mostly communists, tell a different story if one re-inspects them through the optics of today: written after the war and published mainly in the Eastern part of Germany, these foreground the heroic fight against fascism even within the enemy’s camps, borne as it was by an adherence to those ideological tenets which would then become the state doctrine of the GDR, rendering their writers into worshipped examples of anti-fascist resistance. Yet another story – a mainly untold one – is that of the Russian and Ukrainian survivors: with the exception of some taped interviews conducted at the Mittelbau-Dora memorial site (Gedenkstätte), their post-war ordeals in the Gulags and the difficulties of re-integrating into their native societies have not yet reached a larger public either in the Western part of Europe or in their home countries.
Given this heterogeneous picture of accounts which draw on a period in the past of Europe that was – and still is – all but ‘European’ in the sense of today’s political agenda of a consensus-orientated and ‘let’s grow together’ politics, the suggested contribution to the Ideas of Europe conference points at the to-dos in present-day memory culture. By recognising the disparate individual memories and collective (non-)remembrance in general as a prerequisite for the identity formation of a Europe as an eventual supranational entity which explicitly pays heed to its more painful and markedly ‘anti-European’ chapters in the past, the presentation wishes, firstly, to inspire more urgently needed data-collecting and research activities in countries such as Poland, Czechia or Slovakia and Slovenia. Morover, and secondly, it proposes a considerate look at the entirety of European suffering in the Nazi Mittelbau-Dora camps, exemplary as they were for a distinctly chauvinistic politico-cultural approach to ‘unifying’ the continent, for the aim of creating a present that not only learns a lesson from its more recent past, but also finds a suitable equilibrium between governable unity and cultural diversity.
Juniorprof. Dr Bruno Arich-Gerz is a Junior Professor at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. He graduated from the University of Cologne, Germany in English Studies, Spanish Philology and Theatre, Film and Television Studies, and received his PhD in 2000 from the University of Konstanz, Germany with a thesis on Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, reader response criticism and Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. Research fields: Survivor Narratives and Other Representations of the Concentration Camp Mittelbau-Dora, Namibia in (Post-)colonial Literature, E-learning. Recent publications: Namibias Postkolonialismen. Texte zur Gegenwart und Vergangenheiten in Südwestafrika. Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2008; ‘When the first tower collapsed, I told them it was Pearl Harbor and Titanic combined.’ Film als Deutungsmuster in Augenzeugenberichten von Überlebenden des 11. September.’ in: Sebastian Domsch (ed.), Amerikanisches Erzählen nach 2000. Eine Bestandsaufnahme. Munich: edition text + kritik, 2008, 159-173.
Joshua Bandoch
To understand Europe and the Union it is forming, we must begin by looking at the thinkers and ideas which inspired it. One of the seminal philosophers to study for these purposes is Montesquieu, the 18th century Frenchman. In his De l’esprit de lois (1748) Montesquieu is principally concerned with how the identity of a community, state or nation is understood, formed, maintained and changed. To accomplish this task he analyses myriad factors which constitute the spirit of a community – religion, history, laws, commerce, culture, religion, mores and manners. By carefully analysing many societies and incorporating these concepts into his analysis, Montesquieu provides both general and particular maxims for forming a good, cohesive spirit within a state. Yet in spite of his careful investigation, Montesquieu reminds us that it is very difficult to accomplish the task of forming a good spirit. He thus identifies a core problem which we face today, namely if, how and to what extent different communities can be brought together to form a more cohesive identity.
As the European Union moves forward and attempts to both further integrate the communities already within it and incorporate new nations, states and communities, this problem is especially acute. The question arises as to whether and to what extent a ‘European’ identity can form. That is, to what extent is it possible for this Union to be ‘European’? What would be the costs – political, economical, social and spiritual – of doing so?
Using Montesquieu as my guide, I then apply his thought to the contemporary quandary facing the European Union, namely the extent to which different communities can and should be integrated into a larger European community. I argue that it might be possible to form what I will refer to as a ‘loose’ European spirit, but that it is very difficult and in fact undesirable to form what I will call a ‘tight’ European spirit because the cost of cutting ties with the values of more local communities is too high. By a ‘loose’ European spirit I mean a basic level of consensus about what it means to be European in these five areas – political, economical, social, historical and spiritual. By a ‘tight’ European spirit I mean close agreement in these five areas. Only by approaching the matter this way can the European community move forward in developing a better European Union.
Joshua Bandoch is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, USA, where he also earned his MA in Political Science. He graduated cum laude from the University of Maryland, USA and holds a BA in Government and Politics (with highest honours). Research fields: Early Liberal and Modern Republican Thought, Theories of Statecraft, Montesquieu.
Maria Manuel Baptista
The identity discourse has a tragic history in Europe (both inside frontiers and outside its own geographic space). The first part of this paper will try to present an overview about some of the most important literary, political and philosophical theories of this concept in Contemporary Europe and its main sociological and historical consequences. In a second part we will aim to discuss the importance, the need and utility of such a concept in our multicultural Europe that has ambiguous and contradictory discourses about cultural identity/ies. Finally we will try to compare European Contemporary perspectives on this issue with other ways of understanding identity in other continents such as Asia or Latin America in order to develop and bring more complexity, ductility and theoretical and practical richness to this concept.
Dr Maria Manuel Rocha Teixeira Baptista has been a Teacher and Researcher on Portuguese Culture at the Department of Languages and Cultures at the University of Aveiro, Portugal since 1993. She graduated from the Universities of Porto, Coimbra and Aveiro in Philosophy, Social Psychology and Culture. She defended her PhD thesis on the work by Eduardo Lourenço. Research fields: Philosophy of Culture, Iberian and Latin-American Cultural Studies. Recent Publication: ‘Símbolo, metáfora e mito na Comunicação Intercultural’ in: Rosa Cabecinhas / Luis Cunha, Comunicação Intercultural: Perspectivas, Dilemas e Desafios. Porto: Campo das Letras, 2008.
Zygmunt Bauman
The title implies that our planet is not at the moment hospitable to Europe. It also suggests, obliquely, that we, the Europeans, experience the lack of such hospitality as a problem – that is, as a deviation from what could be legitimately expected, an abnormality that needs to be put right again. ‘Again’ – since, presumably, in the past we used to feel on the planet chez soi and wherever and whenever we went we would have expected hospitality for us and for our daring pursuits as our birthright; and we would assume that the homely feeling would continue as part of the natural order of things. ‘Hospitality’ came so naturally, as to hardly ever leap into our view as a ‘problem’ calling for special attention. As Martin Heidegger would have put it, it remained in the grey and misty area of zuhanden – and as long as things worked as they were expected to, there was no occasion to move it into the sphere of vorhanden – into the focus of attention, into the universe of ‘troubles’ and ‘tasks’.
Prof. Zygmunt Bauman is a Sociologist and Philosopher. In 1954 he got qualified as a university lecturer, after which time he was a Professor for Sociology at the University of Warsaw, Poland. Bauman lost this position in 1968 for political reasons and went to Israel to teach at Tel Aviv University. In 1971 he was offered the Chair of Sociology at the University of Leeds, GB, which he held till 1990. He currently lives in Leeds. Research fields: Modernity, Holocaust, Postmodernism, Consumerism, Morality, Globalisation. Recent publications: Flüchtige Zeiten: Leben in der Ungewissheit. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition, 2008; The Art of Life. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008. Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers? (Institute for Human Sciences Vienna Lecture Series), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008.
Ingrid Baumgärtner
Since ancient times the universal geographical term ‘Europe’ has referred to a part of the inhabitable world whereas the manner of dividing the world and the emphasis put on the three continents Asia – Europe – Africa was to be discussed. The presentation will focus on the solution of this problem in cartographic representations of the world during the Middle Ages. Which concepts were behind the global and regional mappings and the nautical maps? How was Europe established as a cartographic image? How was cognitive cartography related to the Christian ideals and morals of the Occident and which textual and pictorial strategies of argumentation were applied? With regard to the contemporary discussions of the realm of European culture, the presentation aims to comprehend geographic and cartographic images of Europe during the Middle Ages and to explain the functioning of medieval mapping for the example of Europe. Furthermore we will embed the practices of representation into their historiographic and literary contexts of knowledge and knowledge transfer processes.
Of greatest importance are two components: first, the continent Europe as a historic-geographical variable with an extended range of possible interpretations; second, the discourse on the culturally determined function of maps.
Prof. Dr Ingrid Baumgärtner has been a Professor for Medieval History at the University of Kassel, Germany since 1994 and since April 2007 a Research Associate at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy. She also is the Head of the DFG Project ‘Karten als Brücken für Weltwissen. Westeuropäische und muslimische Kartographie des Mittelalters im interkulturellen Austausch’ (Maps as bridges of global knowledge. Western European and medieval Muslim cartography in intercultural exchanges) (2007-2011). Habilitation in Medieval History at University of Augsburg in 1992. Recent publications: Ingrid Baumgärtner / Hartmut Kugler (eds.), Europa im Weltbild des Mittelalters. Kartographische Konzepte. (Orbis mediaevalis 10), Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2008; Ingrid Baumgärtner / Claudia Brinker-von der Heyde / Andreas Gardt / Franziska Sick (eds.), Nation – Europa – Welt. Identitätsentwürfe vom Mittelalter bis 1800. Zeitsprünge. Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit. 11 (2007), Heft 3/4.
IDEAS OF/FOR EUROPE IN THE FRATERNITY OF FREEMASONS, c. 1850-1930
Joachim Berger
Since the middle of the 19th century, the project of forming the ‘United States of Europe’ has gained support among European intellectuals. Not few of them were convinced that a closer union between the European powers could only succeed if it did not solely rely upon governments and their administrations. In fact, a peaceful union of states had to be backed up by a rapprochement of the European peoples at grass-roots level. Not surprisingly, this point of view was frequently uttered within the multifaceted, Europe-wide network of societies, clubs and associations. Probably the most prominent yet contended of these societies was Freemasonry – an ethical initiatory fraternity promoting brotherly love and universal tolerance. The ritual practice of Masonic lodges was designed to grind off those fundamental divides that had been separating mankind (nationality, religion, class and race). Freemasonry thus seemed to be the natural ally of internationalist, pacifist and pan-European movements from the revolutions of 1848/49 until the interwar period. Eminent pro-European Freemasons included Aristide Briand, Gustav Stresemann and Richard Coudenhove-Calergi. The editor of Les États-Unis d’Europe, the widespread journal of the Ligue Internationale de la Paix et de la Liberté (1867–1939), was the mason Charles Lemonier. The paper examines how European Freemasons came to terms with the idea of a closer union of the European peoples and its presumable effects on Masonic obedience in Europe. By focussing on key discussions in the national Grand Lodges of France, Italy, Germany and England, the paper traces the intersections of a pan-European discourse within the fraternity – a discourse embedded into changing sociocultural and political frameworks from the mid-nineteenth century until the derogation of Masonic internationalism in the 1930s. Internationalist and pacifist movements indeed had their repercussions on European Freemasonry, materialising in international congresses, publications and organisations. However, these attempts to put into practice the Masonic ideal of cosmopolitism (as embodied in the model of a universal brotherhood) were often thwarted by national(istic) sentiments on the part of the Grand Lodges, and by their fear of being accused of international conspiracy. This conflict was especially applied to ‘European’ initiatives. They were subject to growing tensions between universal values laid down in the Constitutions of 1723 and the mason’s duty for allegiance to his country. Masonic internationalism also suffered from internal disputes on the religious obligations and political commitments of the fraternity. This factionalism was incarnated in the great schism triggered by the decision of the Grand Orients of Belgium and France to leave it up to the individual lodges to adhere to the symbol of the ‘Great Architect of the Universe’. From the late 1870s, the United Grand Lodge of England ostracised all lodges that maintained fraternal relations with French brethren as ‘irregular’. The paper will discuss how the ideas of and for ‘Europe’ as a cultural and political entity were embedded in Masonic discourse on intercultural encounters and transnational rapprochement. Where exactly did ‘Europe’ rank between the local lodge, national obedience and the ideal of a ‘universal brotherhood’? How Christian, how secular was this ‘Europe of Freemasons’ (P.-Y. Beaurepaire)? Did Freemasons regard their ‘European fraternity’ as morally and culturally distinct (or superior) within the worldwide ‘chain of brotherhood’? Which part did (Western) European Freemasons ascribe to themselves in the quest for a closer union between the European states? The paper thus aims at a deeper understanding of Masonic internationalism and will contribute to a social history of ‘European’ thought.
Dr Joachim Berger has been a Research Co-ordinator at the Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany since 2009. Before entering the Institute in 2004, he worked for the Weimar Classics and Arts Collections Foundation in the field of historical exhibitions. He graduated from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany in History and Art History. His PhD thesis dealt with the scopes of thought and action of a German princess in the Enlightenment. Research fields: Western European Freemasonry (c. 1850–1930), Court Society in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Hero-worship in the Early Modern Period. Recent publications: ‘Eine “europäische” Residenz? Besucherverkehr und Außendarstellung des Weimarer Hofs um 1800’ in: Gerhard R. Kaiser / Olaf Müller (eds.), Germaine de Staël und ihr erstes deutsches Publikum. Literaturpolitik und Kulturtransfer um 1800. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2008, pp. 75-97; ‘Hercules Vinariensis? Aneignungen eines europäischen Mythos in der frühen Neuzeit’ in: Hellmut Th. Seemann (ed.), Europa in Weimar – Visionen eines Kontinents. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2008, pp. 77-104.
Benjamin Beuerle
In my lecture I will study different ideas of Western Europe as expressed in political reform discussions of the late Tsarist Empire, and the role of these ideas within these discussions.
It is widely accepted that Peter the Great opened Russia to Western Europe and that in the last two centuries of the Tsarist Empire adherents and adversaries of a development modelled on Western Europe struggled to find the right way to Russia’s future. However, in the last decades of the Empire this dichotomy already belonged very much to the past. Although it was still disputed if and to which degree Russia should (or could) follow Western Europe in a cultural way, since the Crimean War (1854-56) it was largely undisputed amongst Russian elites that Russia would have to modernise its economy, its infrastructure and more broadly its administration and at least part of its political system if it was to survive as a grande puissance amidst powers like France, Great Britain and Germany. And there was – as far as Russian elites were concerned – hardly any doubt that what represented modernity was Western Europe, or (as was used on many occasions as a synonym) the West (Zapad). Thus it is not surprising that Western European models were largely present in political discussions of the late Empire and were widely used as political arguments in order to prove the value of one’s own proposals or to reject proposals of political adversaries. This was even more the case in the last decade before the First World War, during which – at the latest after the start of the 1905-07 Revolution – there were a huge number of political reforms to discuss and almost no censorship barriers to open political discussions (and thus to political plurality) left.
Now, while it was – with certain exceptions – generally acknowledged that Russia would have to modernise more or less along Western European lines, it was not at all predefined what ‘Western Europe’ meant in the Russian context – Western Europeans thought this way at that time and they still think so. Which European countries could be regarded as representative of Western European modernity? Which belonged to it and which did not? Could the French Republic be regarded as more modern and more European than the German Empire or the Italian Kingdom (or vice versa)? Was it, for example, European, was it modern (or – another favourite term occurring in Russian political discussions of the time – suitable for ‘civilised countries’) to resort to the death penalty – as it was applied throughout large parts of Western Europe (but neither in Italy nor in Norway)? And which conclusions could be drawn from these ideas of and attributes to Western Europe for the Russian context?
It might be enough for now to state that the answers to these questions (as others related to them) were not homogenous, but that they differed very much depending on the political player who gave them, on the party or social group he belonged to and on the point he wanted to make. It will be the purpose of my lecture to study these different ideas of Europe expressed in Russian reform discussions of the late Empire – in the Duma and the State Council, in political publications and within the bureaucracy – and the role and function of these European models within these discussions. Besides the (important) fact that these different models and images of Western Europe became relevant when it came to forming the political reforms that would shape Russia’s future at the time, it might be of interest to see in which way these ideas of Western Europe, as expressed in the Russian context, corresponded to or differed from ideas of Western Europe in other peripheral (or non-European) societies, as in Western Europe itself.
Benjamin Beuerle has been a PhD candidate at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany since 2007 where he is also a Research Assistant at the Collaborative Research Centre 640 (Changing Representations of Social Orders) since 2008. In his PhD thesis he is working on Images of Europe in Late Imperial Russia. In 2005 he graduated from the Humboldt University of Berlin in History, Philosophy and Public Law. In 2006 he was working as a Lecturer of German and Western European History at the Voronezh State University, Russia.
Christian Blasberg
Today’s European order has many features in terms of structures, mentality and political thinking of the Europe created by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. It even seems as if the following interwar period, the Second World War and the whole complex of the Cold War order had only been temporary disturbances of the Versailles order to which Europe, in the end, had to return. The intentions of the leaders of the Versailles Conference then badly welcomed by many Europeans and by the peacemaker’s own political elites, now seem to have known a late rehabilitation, proving that they had been basically right. Germany is not a threat to its neighbours anymore, it has been cut off from its Eastern, most irredentist and dangerous parts; its remaining Western and Central parts have a stable and modern democracy. Poland’s Eastern frontier corresponds mainly to a line set in Versailles; the principle of national self-determination has been realised to a degree never known in Europe before, the Baltic Republics, Ukraine and even Byelorussia and Moldova are independent countries. A League of Nations, renamed the United Nations, exists with the participation of the USA and a non-soviet Russia, as well as a huge number of now independent former colonies.
On the other side, two of the States newly created in Versailles, the Czechoslovakian and the Yugoslav States, are now dissolved, but is not this dissolution, in the end, only a consequence and even a victory of the leading spirit of the Treaty, the principle of national self-determination? Also a European Union was not foreseen by the Treaty, but is surely to be seen as a natural development out of its guiding spirit. A weakened continent after the First World War tried to establish new structures in order to overcome its old divisions.
On the other hand, the Versailles Treaty also works in a negative sense today. The problems that this treaty did not manage to resolve for the interwar period are today’s problems. The Second World War as its tragic consequence and its outcome did not constitute a solution to these problems or put an end to the Versailles order, but it was only a shock event that generated changes temporarily subordinated to it. When the Cold War order vanished, the structures created at Versailles broke through again, stronger than ever before. If the Versailles Treaty has to be seen as a revolution, World War Two and the Cold War were a counterrevolutionary period that came to its natural end because the revolutionary ideas were too strong to be suppressed. When dealing with problems like European Politics in the Georgian-Russian conflict or the Kosovo question, as well as many minor conflicts in and around Europe, the virtues and ‘defailances’ shown by the various players are those created by the Versailles order. Tools for conflict resolution in the 1920s and in post-1990 Europe are very similar, and the outcomes of the conflicts very much reflect the strengths and weaknesses of these tools.
The presentation will analyse these linking lines between the Europe of 1919 and the one we experience in 2009. The centenary of the Versailles Treaty in 2019 might lead to its rediscovery as the foundation event for Modern Europe.
Dr Christian Blasberg is an Academic Co-ordinator and Tutor for the Master’s programme in European Studies at LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome, Italy. He is a Researcher and Lecturer of Contemporary History, Political Sciences and the German Language and Culture at the Heidelberg University, Università Popolare di Roma and for the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi in Rome. He was awarded his PhD in History and Political Sciences at Heidelberg University in 2004. Research fields: Italian Post-war Liberalism and Problems of its European and International Commitment, French Third and Fourth Republic. Recent publication: Die Liberale Linke und das Schicksal der Dritten Kraft im italienischen Zentrismus, 1947-1951. Frankfurt a.M. a.o.: Peter Lang, 2008.
Paulo Borges
Following the works by Luís de Camões, António Vieira and Agostinho da Silva, Fernando Pessoa reinterprets the biblical theme of the Fifth Empire as a metaphor of human awareness of totality and universality mediated by the Portuguese language and culture. Against the traditional interpretation, in which the Fifth Empire should be the messianic kingdom of God on earth, surpassing the historical succession of Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, Pessoa sees it as a cultural and spiritual empire, resulting from a syncretic assimilation of the core of each one of the former four great civilisational moments – Greece, Rome, Christianity, Europe – which accomplishes and simultaneously transcends them with the spirit of universalism demanded by the ‘multicontinental nature of present [European] civilisation’ itself.
Prof. Paulo Borges is an Auxiliary Professor in the Department for Philosophy of the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Research fields: Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy in Portugal, Anthropology and Culture. Recent publications: Da Saudade como Via de Libertação. Lisbon: Quidnovi, 2008; A Pedra, a Estátua e a Montanha. O V Império no Padre António Vieira. Lisbon: Portugália Editora, 2008; O Jogo do Mundo. Ensaios sobre Teixeira de Pascoaes e Fernando Pessoa. Lisbon: Portugália Editora, 2008.
Daniela Rocha Brandão
Conscious of the importance of the free movement of workers within the European internal market, the European Court of Justice continues to underline the role of the principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of nationality in order to facilitate the freedom of persons. The jurisprudence makes this clear by considering it one of the key elements in the creation of the European market. The most important legal provisions governing the free movement of workers are included in article 39 CE. The scope of this study is precisely defined in article 39, 2 CE, which stipulates: ‘2. Such freedom of movement shall entail the abolition of any discrimination based upon nationality between workers of the Member States as regards employment, remuneration and other conditions of work and employment.’
Daniela Rocha Brandão is a member of Asociación de Derecho del Trabajo Española. Researcher in the Labour Law Department at Santiago de Compostela University. Research fellow of Fundação para Ciência e para a Tecnologia with a PhD thesis on ‘El principio de no discriminación en el acceso al empleo por razón de nacionalidad en la doctrina jurídica del Tribunal de Justicia de las Comunidades Europeas’.
Ulrike Brummert
If one takes a closer look at a cultural phenomenon, one easily comes to the conclusion that any cultural phenomenon is also a transcultural one. Is the concept of transculturality an inadmissible tautology created in the inebriated passion of producing a pseudo-scientific discourse? The case seems to be more complex than that. Another complementary field in need of careful analysis lies in the background of the one culturality targets.
The presentation will first analyse the potentialities of transculturality. Afterwards it will venture into the field of prospects, taking into account the signs of a change of perspective that can be detected at a European level. This lecture will be structured upon the question of suppression/conversion of the national ideal of the 19th century.
Prof. Ulrike Brummert, docteur d’Etat has been a Professor for Romance Studies at the Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany since 1997. She studied Romanic Languages and Literatures, German Studies, Politics and Education at the Universities of Münster, Toulouse and Löwen. Habilitation in 1987 at the Université des Sciences Sociales de Toulouse, France. Research fields: Gender Studies, History of Science, Culture Contact and Intercultural Communication (18th-20th centuries), History of Mentalities; History of Everyday Life. Recent publication: Plaue. Bestand im Wandel, Chemnitz, 2006.
Eduard Alan Bulut
For centuries, Europe has been dominated by an internalised law of expansion, aiming to replicate itself in vast areas of the world; hence, Europe tends to be considered differently by the peoples on other continents. As far as the standpoint of Turkey with regard to the continent of Europe and to European Union is concerned, it is necessary to extend the scope of the case to include aspects such as politics, economics, religion and legal harmonisation. Firstly, as for the political point of view of Turkey on European Union policy, the general public opinion is that the EU applies double standards in accession negotiations and the Cyprus issue without taking into consideration the Customs Union or other conventions concluded. Secondly, in terms of economics, the EU poses a good strong model, disregarding the increasing employment rates in some Member States and the vulnerability to global crises. Thirdly, considering the case from a religious perspective, the Turkish notion is that the Christian-dominant European states are biased against a candidate with a different religious background and are unwilling to accept Islamic–orientated Turkey. Lastly, the legal harmonisation has received remarkable attention due to the fact that outstanding personalities were judged by Article 301. This has led the Turkish people to think that the European harmonisation requirements have an intervening nature. These aspects are the paramount points that form a general image of the continent of Europe and of the European Union within Turkish society.
Eduard Alan Bulut is a Simultaneous Interpreter working for Nurol Holding & Cengiz Holding Joint Venture in Ankara, Turkey. In addition, he is a Regular Columnist working for the English Newspaper Land of Lights. He graduated in English Translation and Interpreting Studies from the Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey. Research fields: Relations between European Union and Turkey, Human Rights, Social Sciences, Internet Censorship, Minorities, Various Rights and Freedom. Recent publication: ‘Children at Judicial Process: Pre-Sentencing Investigation Reports’ in: Journal of the Fifth International Congress on Child and Communications. Istanbul: Istanbul University, Faculty of Communications, 2008.
Erhard Busek
Jacques Delors, the pivotal President of the European Commission for ten years, stated once: ‘You cannot love a common market. We need to give Europe a soul.’ This analysis is quite true of the current situation in Europe. European institutions are quite necessary but they do not really describe the content of the development of Europe alone. It was a challenge as the Convention discussed the European constitution to describe the roots of Europe. For sure, we can do this by means of the historical development: Greek philosophy, Roman law, Jewish-Christian thinking, Enlightenment and modernity had a deep impact on European development.
Also we are defining Europe in ‘unity and variety’. But this is very abstract. On the other hand, we can observe a growing nationalism in different countries. Also it is quite clear that – especially for the younger generation – the technical approach of the decisions of the European governments is not enough. We are also missing a European public, where we discuss what is in common in Europe.
European integration is certainly a success story in terms of the economy, now questioned by the financial crisis, but it also has to be said that on this level the activities in recent weeks have not been so bad. But community in a growing Europe also exists as a result of common feelings, of the conviction that there are common roots, and also the perception of history because a lot of tension on the bilateral level is coming or has come of this.
All this is extremely important in the situation we have, not only since 1989 with the fall of the Iron Curtain, but also in view of the question: how far does Europe reach? Not only is this a question of geographical definition; it is also a question of mutual understanding and knowledge. Sometimes we can say that emotions are really forgotten, but they are quite necessary for sound development on our continent. ‘To give Europe a soul’ has so far been a challenge, especially for the humanities and social sciences. This cannot be accomplished by institutions alone. It needs also informal society, because this is important for the real value of civil society in our days.
Dr Erhard Busek has been Chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, Vienna, Austria since 1995. In addition, since 1996 he has been Co-ordinator of the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative. He has also been adviser to the Foreign Secretary of the Czech Republic on issues regarding the Western Balkans since 2008, and since 2004 he has been President of the University of Applied Sciences of Salzburg, Austria. Recent publications: Eine Seele für Europa – Aufgaben für einen Kontinent. Vienna: Verlag Kremayr & Scheriau, 2008; Zu wenig, zu spät – Europa braucht ein besseres Krisenmanagement. Hamburg: Edition Körber-Stiftung, 2007.
Paula Carreira / Susana Alves
Strabo was born in c. 64 BC, in the Pontus. Son of a wealthy and influential family, he received a thorough education. He went to Rome in 44 BC, where he met some men of culture at that time. He was the author of one of the most important works on ancient world geography, the Geographika, which is composed of 17 books. In it, he describes the known world from a geographical and cultural point of view.
By arguing that his geographical science can be compared to Philosophy, Strabo begins a tour, describing the three continents that fulfilled the classical world perception – Europe, Asia and Libya (Africa). Europe is, specifically, the first region to be mentioned. This choice is justified by the author, when he claims that Europe deserves its rightful prominence not only for having a natural predisposition for the development of excellent men and governments, but also because it contributed advantageously to the two other continents (2.5.26). He claims that a good statesman is crucial to the prosperity of a country, setting out three dominant peoples: Greeks, Macedonians and Romans.
In the Augustinian context, Strabo’s Geographika depicts a plain idea of Eurocentrism. By analysing the world map, he outlined that we can predict the European geographical configuration that we will find in subsequent ages.
Paula Cristina Ferreira da Costa Carreira is a PhD candidate working on the classical influence in Marquês de Pombal’s work. She received her Master’s degree in Classical Studies (Greek Literature, especially the work by Apollonius Rhodius – The Argonautika) from the University of Lisbon, Portugal and also received her Licentiate’s degree in Classical Languages and Literatures from the same university. Currently she is also a Researcher at the Centre for Literatures in Portuguese of the Universities of Lisbon (CLEPUL).
Susana Mourato Alves is a PhD candidate investigating the work by Padre António Vieira. She received her Master’s degree in Classical Studies from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. In her thesis she explores the Old Testament apocryphon Joseph and Aseneth and also compares this with classical ancient literature, especially the ancient novel. She also received a Licentiate’s degree in Classical Languages and Literatures from the same university. Currently she is also a Researcher and Member of the Board of the Centre for Literatures in Portuguese of the Universities of Lisbon (CLEPUL).
João Carreteiro
Europe’s future will not be shaped by polished questions about possible constitutional frameworks but by issues triggered so brutally as a result of profound changes in the complex energy that sustains the modern way of life.
This contribution is assuming that a new reality will be imposed by the consequences of ‘peak oil’, the most spectacular of a series of insurmountable natural limits brought about by the exuberance and greed of modern life. Without energy and cheap raw materials the future will be ‘no more of the same’. As the tide turns to reach the limits of the earth a new era is about to unfold, metaphorically called the ‘Era of Sparta’, as opposed to the ‘Era of Athens’, which in fact has already started to disappear. When here, as in Athens of the fifth century BC, Europe enjoyed a culture of trade with the world and the new reality imposed by the planet will take its toll, it will resemble more the landscape of Lacedomónia, rough, parochial and inside-looking.
Signs that the natural limits are being reached are given by the current economic recession, which appears to be an inflation as opposed to the previous recession which was deflationary. The warnings from the scientific community regarding the depletion of natural resources are now supported by material expressions according to the law of supply and demand. The prices rise and this achieves what decades of environmentalism could not.
The transition to the new situation has resulted in chaotic changes in humanity. With the most of it now living in cities, it is the biggest loser in this context. The changes will be applicable on three levels: 1) a reduction in social complexity, 2) a decrease in economic and social expertise and, finally, 3) a reduction in the interdependence between different geographical areas, i.e. the suspension of ‘globalisation’.
Three players take important roles in the ‘Era of Sparta’: localism, regionalism and what is called for lack of a better expression ‘Russian-style plutocracy’. These centrifugal forces will in principle attempt to make order out of chaos and there will be opportunities created by this. However, if the state – national or European – is powerless to restore normality, the consolidation of these new powers will be a reality that will give new meaning to the phrase ‘Think globally, act locally’.
Since statements regarding the future are full of mystification, we will at first try to give an answer to the question concerning the prospects of Europe by identifying similar moments in the past. The fall of the Western Roman Empire seems appropriate to identify some realities in order to understand what a new era really means. Afterwards we will discuss collected scientific data that support the statements made: a body of knowledge already exists about geophysical phenomena and to some extent about economic phenomena. In this context, Europe has certain advantages. Identifying them will help to mitigate the problems using examples of success in the history of our civilisation. It is expected that the real European prospects for the future will be discerned in a world subject to global hopes and fears and that even more imminent danger will be spread.
Aristotle, reflecting on the consequences of the way of life of Sparta of his time said: It is the standards of civilised men not of beasts that must be kept in mind, for it is good men not beasts who are capable of real courage. Those like the Spartans who concentrate on the one and ignore the other in their education turn men into machines and in devoting themselves to one single aspect of city life, end up making them inferior even in that. The question of how to avoid a similar society in this era is at the heart of what is discussed here.
João Carreteiro has been working as a Management Assistant at SMAS in Oeiras and Amadora, Portugal since 2004. He was a postgraduate student at the University of Lisbon, where he studied Documental Sciences. In 2007 and 2008 he worked as a Researcher for the Centre for Literatures in Portuguese of the Universities of Lisbon (CLEPUL) for the Dicionário de História das Ordens e Instituições afins em Portugal.
Beata Elżbieta Cieszyńska
The proposed topic is to discuss the double vitality of the Polish and Portuguese main philosophic and cultural streams – sebastianism and sarmatism. Both streams – originating from the 16th century and growing in the 17th – served to create, if not to determine, those countries’ ‘Ideas of Europe’, as well as their visions of role and mission to be fulfilled.
The geopolitical position of both countries on the European borders brought various consequences for conceptualising European culture. Based on Christianity and strongly attached to the idea of being Ante-Murale Christianitatis, both Poland and Portugal preserved the opposition of ‘a Christian Europe to a non-Christian barbarousness’ longer than Central and Northern countries, which had earlier been willing to separate religious and cultural values when defying non-Europeans. It also inspired their focus on the outer spaces: oceans and overseas lands (Portugal) and the Eastern lands (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). The line of purposes seemed to be: Christianise – civilise and (although less explicit) dominate – explore.
The idea of the Christian destiny and exceptional role in Europe became strengthened by the national mythology (particularly by its references to the miracles and revelations). Both countries maintained the Renaissance myth of empire as the Golden Age and became marked by the loss of independence (Portugal: 1582-1640, Poland: 1795-1918), which inspired both consolation and messianic components of sebastianism and sarmatism (the former firstly in the Baroque crises but above all in its Romantic incarnations). For both, history marked in such way left some open questions about their status in Europe: that of the chosen nation, predestined to fulfil its great destiny, or that of a backward country, late for the European progress, or (even) that of a country doubtful of its European attachments.
The duality referred to still remains in both intellectual and common medial discourses, recalled and stirred up in both countries around the time of joining the European Union. The double vitality of both sebastianism and sarmatism – understood as the historically formed streams that still work as the point of reference when it comes to defying the role of the Poles and the Portuguese in today’s Europe – will be the last topic discussed in the proposed paper.
Prof. Beata Elżbieta Cieszyńska, PhD (from the University of Gdansk, Poland). President of the International Society for Iberian-Slavonic Studies – CompaRes; Researcher of the Centre of Literatures in Portuguese of the Lisbon Universities (FCT Portugal); Co-ordinator of the Commission for Iberian-Slavonic Comparative Research on the International Committee of Slavists; Associate Professor at the Department of World and Comparative Literature, Kazimierz Wielki University, Bydgoszcz, Poland; Research fields: History of Literature and Culture; Reading the Other in British and Polish Writings; Iberian-Slavonic Comparative Studies; Recent publications: ‘Polish Religious Persecution as a Topic in British Writing in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Century’, in: Richard Unger (ed.) Britain and Poland-Lithuania. Contact and Comparison from the Middle Ages to 1795, Boston-Leiden: BRILL 2008, pp. 243-260 ; (in co-operation with: Franco, José Eduardo) ‘Mitos da construção da identidade nacional e emocional: uma perspectiva comparativa luso-polaca’ in: Anna Kalewska (ed.), Diálogos com a Lusofonia. Warszawa: University of Warszawa, 2008, pp. 73-88.
Vittorio Cotesta
The author examines the critiques of Europe put forward by African or Afro-American (M. Bernal, K. Wiredu, A. Appiah, V. Mudimbe), Indian (above all D. Chakrabarty) and neo-Confucian Chinese intellectuals (Zhao Tinyang).
From the African perspective on Europe, radical critiques are made, i.e. the allegation of having annihilated African identity, of having established, through colonialism, a hierarchy of the different peoples in which the Europeans are at the apex and, finally, of having treated Africans as ‘not civilised’ people. The ‘African Renaissance’ must free Africa from the colonial identity imposed through violence by Europeans and must rediscover Africa’s own authentic values.
Within the ‘African Renaissance, two distinct intellectual paths seem to have emerged in the last two decades – both of which are particularly critical towards Europe. The first of these aims to rediscover African culture and its own values in order to construct a society respectful of the traditional structures of family and of community. The system of government cannot be taken from the paradigm of European-Western representative democracy (and therefore the majority decision principle) but it must necessarily refer to a sort of consociative democracy (as depicted by M. Bernal). The second intellectual path aims instead at de-legitimising the European pretence of having founded modern civilisation thanks to Greece and Rome. The aim of this interpretation – also known as ‘Black Athena’ – is to show that Africa is the cradle of human civilisation; that Greek and Roman civilisations are heavily indebted to Africa, and that, through them, so is the entire Western and European culture.
From the Indian point of view comes a different critique which is summarised by the formula put forward by D. Chakrabarty according to whom it is now necessary to ‘provincialise Europe’. The purpose is not that of showing that Europe no longer has a central place in the world – this is a given historical fact – but rather that of freeing Indian thought of the colonial identity imposed by European domination (in truth British). ‘Provincialising Europe’ is the first step towards the construction of a society in which European and Indian values might meet in a universalistic perspective. In other words, from Chakrabarty’s standpoint emerges the proposal of a dialogue in which European values are assumed as being part of a more general discourse on the comprehension and the construction of a modern Indian society.
The project of Zhao Tinyang aims to reconstruct the neo-Confucian model of civilisation. The formula ‘all that which is under the sky’, which once was applied to China, today must be applied to the whole world. From such a perspective, the world seems unified from the geographic point of view but not from the political one. The political government of the world can be viewed from a neo-Confucian perspective in which decisions are based on the consent of those who are actually involved. Even from this standpoint it emerges that the values of the European-Western civilisation are only one of the pillars of the construction of a new government of the world.
Prof. Vittorio Cotesta is a Full Professor of Sociology at the Roma Tre University, Italy. He is the Director of the Interdepartmental Centre for Research on Society and Education (CIRES) and a member of the Association Internationale des Sociologues de Langue Française (AISLF). Research fields: Global Society, Europe, Migration, Ethnic Conflict. Recent publications: ‘From nation-state to global society: the changing paradigm of contemporary sociology’ in: International Review of Sociology; 1, Divenire Europei. Cultura e governance nelle regioni italiane. Rubbettino, 2008. Società globale e diritti umani. Rubbettino, 2008.
Fernando Cristóvão
The travel literature that flourished in Europe from the fifteenth century onwards had its stage of glory until the advent of tourism in the nineteenth century and contributed to significant changes in Europe by reporting the news and ‘curiosities of the discovery’.
This genre, which combines literature, history and anthropology, experienced such popularity that innumerous collections of travels about cultural, political, religious beliefs, practices and customs of other peoples were sold out. Those works were so dear and indispensable that they were also published in small format, to be read on the go, like the Portative Bibliothèque des Voyages in 41 booklets and the Atlas Glossaries, which provided ample maps and pictures. This widespread and popular literature informed Europeans about the new world, and had a great influence in several regards, among others: a new and broader concept of alterity; the suggestion of social, political, religious changes; changes in habits and customs, ranging from dress to food; a push in favour of herbal medicine and pharmaceuticals for modern pharmacies. There is a lot to learn in this type of literature to understand the evolution of Europe.
Prof. Dr Fernando Cristóvão is a Professor for Portuguese Literature at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, Founder of the Instituto Camões, expert on travel literature and Lusophone literature and culture. Recent publications: Dicionário de Lusofonia. Lisbon, 2004; Condicionantes culturais da literature de viagens. Lisbon: Cosmos Literatura, 1999.
Ewa Cybulska-Bohuszewicz / Paweł Bohuszewicz
In 1564 a great masterpiece, Kronika wszystkiego świata by Marcin Bielski comes into being. The author aspired to reconstruct the history of the world from creation to contemporary times. But Kronika is something more than a reconstruction of history. It is also a great reconstruction of the contemporary world map. On this map Europe appears as one of four great parts of whole globe. Very detailed descriptions of customs which dominated the Old Continent let us to see Europe as a universal totality, however no-homogenic totality. Due to the fact that Europe encompasses many different countries, it appears as a multicultural totality. This dual character of the Old Continent: unity and multitude will be the main subject of the paper.
D
r Ewa Cybulska-Bohuszewicz is a Lecturer at the Polish Academy of Sciences. She graduated in Polish Philology from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland in 2005. She is a member of the International Society for Iberian-Slavonic Studies (CompaRes). Recent publications: ‘Mystic motifs in 17th Century Polish Poetry in the Context of Spanish Meditation Culture’ in: Beata Cieszyńska (ed.), Iberian and Slavonic Cultures: Contact and Comparison. Lisbon: CompaRes, 2007; ‘Motywy astralne w polskiej barokowej poezji miłosnej’ in: N. Minissi / W. Walecki / (eds.), Profesor Jolancie Żurawskiej. Studia ofiarowane przez kolegów i przyjaciół, Kraków-Neapol 2007; ‘O szesnastowiecznych znaczeniach rzeczownika “dom”’ in: K. Krawiec-Złotkowska (ed.), Rzeczpospolita domów. Słupsk 2008.
Dr Paweł Bohuszewicz has been a Lecturer at the Institute of Polish Literature of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland since 2006. He graduated in Polish Philology from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun in 2002. He is a member of the Science Society in Torun. Recent publications: Gramatyka romansu. Polski romans barokowy w perspektywie narratologicznej. Torun: Wydawnictwo UMK, 2008; ‘Dwoista natura miłości. O “Nadobnej Paskwalinie” Samuela Twardowskiego’ in: R. Krzywy (ed.), Amor vincit omnia. Erotyzm w literaturze staropolskiej. Warszawa, 2008; ‘American Psycho: morderstwo automatyczne jako komunikat’ in: Izabela Grzelak / Tomasz Jermalonek (eds.), Kulturowe obrazy śmierci. Od przełomu romantycznego do dziś. Materiały studenckiej sesji naukowej Łódź, pp. 25-27 października 2006 roku. Łódź 2007.
Mare van den Eeden
My presentation proposal aims to construct Europe from a Central European perspective. This perspective has gained topicality since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Yet, in many political, public and academic debates, the problems Europe currently faces are still discussed from West European or Anglo-American points of view. My presentation, therefore, places three Central European thinkers who avidly engage in discourses on Europe at the centre of attention. It seeks to probe the value of a continental, post-liberal and humanist tradition in thinking about Europe, exploring ideas of Europe in the works by Zygmunt Bauman (1925), Imre Kertész (1929) and Slavoj Žižek (1949). Focusing on their ideas of freedom, individuality and democracy, my presentation wants to examine what critiques Bauman, Kertész and Žižek offer to European society and politics. Ultimately, the goal is to reveal how these influential and non-conformist intellectuals attempt to restore a cultural and intellectual road towards an alternative Europe.
Mare van den Eeden (MA/MSc) is a PhD student at the History Department of the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. She received an MA in Culture and Arts from Maastricht University in 2005. She then earned an MSc in European Politics and Governance at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2006. Since 2007 she has been working on a research project called ‘Thinking about Europe from a Central European Perspective: Bauman, Kertész and Žižek on the Idea of Europe’, was initially affiliated with the Institute of European History Mainz, and now studies at the CEU in Budapest. Research fields: Political and Intellectual History, Central Europe (20th century), European Identity, the Idea of Europe.
Dominic Eggel
With the French Revolution, an almost millenarian Europe rooted in feudality and based on conservative principles was enduring a fatal coup de grâce, first by a wave of centripetal forces, in the form of revolutionary cosmopolitanism and second, in reaction, a wave of centrifugal forces, in the form of nationalist movements. As Gentz put it in his Gestörtes Gleichgewicht durch Revolutionskriege, the age of ‘Old Europe’ based on dynasties, elite culture and balance of power politics had been profoundly shaken, if not destroyed, by the French Revolution and the ensuing international instability. Whereas older models of collective representation, such as guilds and seigniorial loyalties, were rapidly fading and the nation – not to speak of the nation-state – had not yet attained its later hegemonic status as a marker of identity, Europe presented herself in a multifaceted variety of dresses, offering modes of interpretation and alternatives for the future to contemporary witnesses appalled by the pace and scope of social, economic and political change. The importance of the concept of Europe for the end of the eighteenth century is a much-neglected aspect in scholarship, although the French Revolution can be considered as the ‘watershed’ in European consciousness. The aim of the present contribution is, by investigating the writings by Christoph Martin Wieland, one of the most emblematic German authors of the time, to establish the importance of the concept of Europe as a source of meaning and object of contested discursive battles during the epistemological turmoil provoked by the structural changes of the Sattelzeit and the socio-political earthquake of the French Revolution.
Wieland’s idea of Europe shall therefore be discussed in its geographical, political, historical and civilisational dimensions and contrasted to alternative discourses of Europe prominent at the time, notably those of his fellow protagonists of Weimar Classicism. Wieland, the biting social critic, master of rococo literary style and subtle irony, fine connoisseur of human psychology and acknowledged political publicist, indeed thoroughly investigated the mechanisms of the European state-system (Einleitung in die Kenntnis der itzigen Staaten Europas), analysed their commotion during the French Revolution (Unparteyische Betrachtungen über die dermalige Staatsrevolution in Frankreich, Über Krieg und Frieden, Würdigung der neufränkischen Republik aus zweierlei Gesichtspunkten), extensively commented on the stadial theories of Scottish Enlightenment (Über ungehemmte Ausbildung der menschlichen Gattung), assiduously defended his cosmopolitan worldview (Das Geheimnis des Kosmopoliten-Ordens, Das Ideal der Freimaurerei), pungently mocked Rousseau’s criticism of progress and civilisation (Koxkox und Kikequetzel), explored the relation of Europe to other civilisations (Oberon, Schach Lolo), and, finally, in the Teutscher Merkur suggested his own peace plan to pacify the continent.
Before the French Revolution, Wieland shared Enlightenment’s main discourses on the idea of Europe. Subscribing to theories of developmental stages, Wieland was convinced that Europe had attained a higher level of civilisation because of its favourable climate, geological specificities and fortunate historical evolution. Although Wieland did not engage in some of the more dubious ethnological debates of his time and stuck to a coherent universal position in anthropological matters, he nevertheless compared Europe favourably to multifaceted others, be they despotic Asians, indolent Tahitians or inert Eskimos. Despite his occasional criticism of colonialism, Wieland still believed that Europeans could have a beneficial civilising effect on the other parts of the world and thus contribute to the construction of Humanität. On the political level, Wieland was a staunch defender of the Westphalian acquis, namely of a multipolar European state-system regulated by a balance of power. Wieland was an astute and well-informed observer of the French Revolution and was aware of its importance as a world-historical event. As a self-proclaimed neutral observer, Wieland hoped that the French people would settle for some kind of constitutional monarchy à l’anglaise and that the Revolution would thus be contained to France. As things, however, got out of hand, Wieland became increasingly disillusioned with the French revolutionaries and, in reply, reiterated his cosmopolitism, fostered German Reichspatriotismus and strongly defended the preservation of Europe’s socio-political ties and liberal fundament.
With the paradigm of old aristocratic Europe profoundly shaken after the French Revolution, Wieland thus actively participated in the debates over the reconstruction of the European state-system. In this context, he opposed all forms of universal monarchy, be they based on hegemonic power, universalising principles or cosmological legitimacy. Although Wieland shared many convictions with his friend Herder, he could not fully subscribe to a Europe of nations; a step that would have seemed too radical to him and partly conflicted with his cosmopolitan ideals. Even though he emphasised the benefits of Germany’s imperial constitution and acknowledged the contributions of the German nation to European civilisation, Wieland never subscribed to the kind of messianic patriotism of Fichte and other compatriots of his. Instead, Wieland tried to cope with the challenges raised by the French Revolution with the conceptual arsenal of Enlightenment and cosmopolitism.
Dominic Eggel is a PhD candidate in International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. In 2004 he received the Diplome d’Etudes approfondies in History and International Politics from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva. Recent publications: Eggel, Dominic / Wehinger, Brunhilde (eds.), Europavorstellungen des 18. Jahrhunderts – Imagining Europe in the 18th Century. Hanover: Wehrhahn-Verlag, 2008; ‘Quelques réflexions sur la thèse sarrasine en ce qui concerne le Valais’ in: Vallesia, 2008. Eggel, Dominic / Andre Liebich / Deborah Mancini-Griffoli, ‘Was Herder a Nationalist?’ in: Review of Politics, vol. 69/1 (2007), pp 48-78.
José A. Ferrer Benimeli
One of the main objectives of European Freemasonry has always been the search for freedom and the fight against oppression and war. Therefore, in 1903, European Freemasons joined the League of Peace and Freedom. In 1905, to reach an understanding and a peaceful resolution of international conflicts between nations, mediation and mandatory arbitration were proposed during the Congreso Masónico Peninsular de Lisboa.
Due to the causes and consequences of the First World War, European Freemasonry put a special emphasis on its pleas for the creation of the International Criminal Court and of the League of Nations, especially because the idea of Freemasonry was and still is to spread fraternalism.
This is one of the reasons why it was of such importance to the Freemasons to support the International League of Human Rights, the League of Peace and Fraternalism of the Nations and the League of Peace and Freedom and all others which fought to remove the spectre of injustice and war.
Prof. José A. Ferrer Benimeli is a Professor for Contemporary History at the University of Zaragoza, Spain and the first to hold the Chair Théodore Verhaegen (1983) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is an expert on Freemasonry. Has published 43 books, co-ordinated 20 books and participated in more than 200 international congresses. Research fields: History of Freemasonry (especially Spain and Latin America), 18th Century (Exclusion and Extinction of the Jesuits, the Inquisition and the Reformist Politics of the Enlightenment).
James Fetter
Jacques Maritain and Alexandre Kojeve, both noteworthy French political philosophers of the early to mid-20th century, agreed on the obsolescence of the modern nation-state and argued that world unification was the only permanent solution to the nation-state’s many inadequacies as an autonomous political unit. However, it would appear that Maritain and Kojeve agree on little else. They are proponents and intellectual heirs of different, even antagonistic philosophical traditions, the Aristotelian/Thomist and Hegelian/Marxist traditions respectively. Indeed, their political philosophies are based on contradictory sets of premises; Maritain, for example, rejects the Hegelian understanding of the state as having metaphysical priority over the individual, and Kojeve assumes that the modern state has no need of religion, as Maritain argues at length that it does.
In this paper, I trace the arguments through which Maritain and Kojeve claim to derive their justifications for world unification from their respective traditions. As I do so, I also explore the relationship between Maritain’s and Kojeve’s aforementioned justifications and divergent interpretations of their shared historical context, a relationship of which both thinkers were clearly aware. I then discuss the similarities and differences between their conceptions of the unified world, paying particular attention to their shared commitment to the elimination of global inequalities and their contradictory views concerning the status of currently existing cultures in the unified world. I also discuss Maritain’s and Kojeve’s contrasting visions of the global political order and their competing proposals for European integration, which both thinkers deemed a necessary precursor to world unification. Maritain favours a federal Europe as well as a degree of autonomy for currently existing nation-states in a global union, while Kojeve advocates for a universal, homogeneous state to be preceded by the sublimation of the states surrounding the Mediterranean into an empire based on a shared history and common cultural traditions. I then turn briefly to the apparent contradiction between Kojeve’s advocacy for a Mediterranean Empire and his eventual support for, and involvement in, the European Economic Community.
I conclude by arguing for the relevance of these two competing visions of an integrated Europe and a global political order to current debates about European integration and globalisation. Both thinkers make compelling arguments for granting some sovereignty to a European, and ultimately a global, state, but the stark differences between their conceptions of this state on both the European and global level also bring into focus the alternatives towards which we ought to aim as we design pan-European and global institutions. Furthermore, both thinkers lead us to examine the philosophical justifications for these institutions and, depending on our current philosophical allegiances, to determine whether we have a basis for defending our preferred plan for European or global unification.
James Fetter has been a graduate student in Political Theory at the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, USA since 2005. He graduated in 2005 with Highest Honours from Emory University, USA with a BA in Classics. His dissertation traces the development of the understanding of magnanimity and great statesmanship from Aristotle to Nietzsche. Research fields: History of Political Philosophy, Contemporary Ideas of World Order. Recent publication: James Fetter / Walter Nicgorski, ‘Magnanimity and Statesmanship: The Ciceronian Difference.’ in: Carson Holloway (ed.), Magnanimity and Statesmanship. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2008.
Eduardo Franco / Teresa Pinheiro
The perception of Europe in the works by Portuguese intellectuals, as well as the vision of the position and role of Portugal in the continent of which it is part, underwent a significant evolution from the beginning of Modernity until the Enlightenment.
Understanding the transformation of the Portuguese representations of Europe, set out in the intimate and parallel relation together with the evaluation of its historical drifts, it is crucial to grasp present political ‘behaviours’, social and cultural attitudes towards the European Union project and the Portuguese role within the integration process.
Our contribution analyses in a concise way the evolution of the idea of Europe in Portugal from the Discoveries period to Pombalin Enlightenment, pointing out the first representative documents that confirm that vision and mark its metamorphic evolution. We will also attempt to establish an ideographic typology of this image construction process of a continent, which is perceived both in a relation of separation and approaching.
Prof. Dr José Eduardo Franco is President of the European Institute of Culture of S.J. Manuel Antunes in Lisbon, Portugal. He was awarded his PhD in 2004 in History and Civilisations at École de Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales about the myth of Jesuits in Portugal and Brazil. He is a member of the Executive Board of CLEPUL. Recent publications: O mito do Marquês do Pombal. Lisbon, 2004; O mito do milénio. Lisbon, 1999.
Juniorprof. Dr Teresa Pinheiro has been a Junior Professor at the Chemnitz University of Technology since 2004. She graduated from the Universities of Cologne and Lisbon in German and Portuguese Studies and defended her PhD thesis on the representations of Brazil in 16th century Portuguese eyewitness reports at the University of Paderborn in 2002. Research fields: Iberian Cultural Studies, Emigration, Representations of Collective Identity. Recent publications: ‘Memória histórica no Portugal contemporâneo’ in: Anna Kalewska (ed.), Diálogos com a Lusofonia. Warszawa: University of Warszawa, 2008, pp. 299-314; ‘Die Gefangenschaftsberichte von Hans Staden und José de Anchieta zwischen Märtyrertum und Suspense’ in: Franz Obermeier / Wolfgang Schiffner (ed.), Die Wahrhaftige Historia – Das erste Brasilienbuch. Kiel: Westensee-Verlag, 2008, pp. 101-119.
Bodo Freund
Following the foundation of the Federal Republic in 1949, the attention of German politicians and political scientists was directed to the West in order to promote progress in reconciliation and integration and to the East to prevent the worst possible conflict. Geographers, for their part, could not conduct research East of the Iron Curtain and were not in a similar manner interested in countries West of the FRG. They largely preferred Southern Europe and other Mediterranean countries. They did research on many topics, but not on geopolitical issues. In Germany, unlike other countries, geopolitics has practically been a taboo up to now since most publications are not critical or deconstructing. So we must conclude that in politics there is still a lack of attention to the South and in regional geography there is a lack of attention to politics. Very probably this state of affairs is not helpful for European societies in the long run.
Certainly, since 1995 the so-called Barcelona process was considered to promote Euro-Mediterranean partnership, but results remained deplorably meagre. The persistent tensions and conflicts between the Arab states and Israel have been considered the main obstacle. Since 2001 the role of the US in the Mediterranean on the other side of EU borders has become more dominant than ever before. Even senior politicians of Brussels and of individual EU states have recently appeared like supernumeraries.
Considering the expected demographic evolution, the persistent wealth gap and the widespread discontent of populations on the one hand, and the resources in fossil fuels and renewable energy and market potential on the other hand, it seems to be advisable to give more positive attention to the Arab countries. They are faraway from the US and may be regarded there as potential enemies in a war of civilisations. But for Europeans they are – along with the successor states of the former Soviet Union – the closest neighbours. Consequently, their populations should not be treated with hostility. Unfortunately, the efforts of French President Sarkozy and colleagues of Southern Europe to improve relations that led to the new Union for the Mediterranean have been strongly contradicted by Israel’s warfare against the so-called Gaza Strip. This may give an impulse to reconsider the attitude of the EU as to the so-called Middle East conflict which cannot be isolated from the Muslim world, the Mediterranean and the EU.
Certainly, British and French statesmen have the burden of imperialist history that lasted until the retreat from Palestine and Algeria and the war for dominance over the Suez Canal, which was started jointly with Israel in 1956. For other historical reasons, German politicians feel obliged to keep special relations to that State. Leaders of these three big countries should join with politicians of EU Member States which do not evoke distrust on any side. They should try to work out a Mediterranean policy characterised by strength and – most importantly – by allegiance to human and international laws which belong to the best parts of European heritage.
Prof. Dr Bodo Freund is a Professor Emeritus. He was a Full Professor of Human Geography at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany and studied Geography, Political Sciences, Philosophy and Romance Languages and Literatures at the Universities of Frankfurt and Tübingen, Germany. Research fields: Migration and Integration, Urban Geography, Geography of the Mediterranean. Recent publications: ‘The Frankfurt Rhine-Main Region’ in: Willem Salet / Andy Thornley / Anton Kreukels (eds.), Metropolitan Governance and Spatial Planning. Comparative Case Studies of European City-Regions. London: Routledge, 2002, pp. 125-144; ‘Die City - Entwicklung und Trends’ in: Nationalatlas Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bd. 5. Heidelberg; Berlin: Bildung und Kultur, 2002, pp. 136-139; Hessen. Perthes Länderprofile. Gotha; Stuttgart: Klett-Perthes, 2002.
Ulrich Frisse
Hellmuth James von Moltke, one of the key figures of the German resistance movement against the Hitler regime, envisioned that ‘the end of the war will provide an opportunity for a positive reshaping of the world as mankind has not experienced since the disintegration of the medieval church.’
Based on a comparative analysis of the plans developed by the various resistance groups in Germany (e.g. the Kreisau Circle) and German-occupied Europe for a post-war European order, this essay will examine the relevance of their visions in the context of the current challenges faced by the EU. Through a comparative study of the Europe visions of the German, Italian, French, Dutch and Polish resistance and by contrasting them with the European order established after the war, the following questions will be examined in detail: What are the commonalties, what are the differences between the various Europe concepts that were developed and discussed between 1940 and 1945? Which values were suggested as the core values (Grundwerte) for the new European order? How important was the goal of political unification (federation, political union) versus sectoral economic integration in the Europe visions of the resistance? How did these plans impact the integration process after 1945?
Since Lipgens’ compilation of the Europe plans of the European resistance in the late 1960s, this topic has only received very little attention from historians of European integration. I will argue that despite their specific time-bound context (Zeitgebundenheit) as direct reactions to the Nazi regime and the occupation of Europe during the Second World War, the Europe visions of the various resistance groups are of particular relevance today, as many of them amounted to general conceptions of Europe that are timeless in their application. Although they addressed organisational issues as well, their main focus was on the core values on which the Europe of the future should be built. It is particularly through this common focus on the core values of an integrated Europe at a time of severe crisis that the Europe plans of the European resistance against Hitler hold the potential of offering important insights into how to overcome the main challenge facing the European Union today – the need to transform Europe from a primarily economic community to a more comprehensive political union by means of ‘constitutionalisation’.
Dr Ulrich Frisse, LL.M., has been an Assistant Professor in the field of Modern and Contemporary European History, History of the Holocaust and the History of International Relations at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada since 2003 and at the University of Western Ontario, Canada since 2005. In 2002 he obtained his PhD in History from Philips-Universität Marburg, Germany on the history of German migration to Canada during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Research fields: Law and the Holocaust, European Integration, German Migration to Canada, Transnational History in a European/North American Context. Recent publications: Paul Tuerr – A History of Success. Kitchener: Transatlantic Publishing, 2007; Berlin, Ontario (1800-1916): Historische Identitaeten von ‘Kanadas Deutscher Hauptstadt’: Ein Beitrag zur Deutsch-Kanadischen Migrations-, Akkulturations- und Perzeptionsgeschichte des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts. Kitchener: Transatlantic Publishing, 2003.
Jesús García Gabaldón
This paper will argue, from three integrated perspectives (theoretical, pedagogical and pragmatic) the need of teaching European Literature in Europe as a way of constructing a European cultural identity. It will deal with the definition and present and future challenges and problematics of literature, European literature and comparativism, as well as the interactions between national / inter-national language, literature and culture. Finally, a modest proposal will be presented as a contribution to a further debate.
Prof. Jesús García Gabaldón is a Professor of Slavic Philology at Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. He is a Translator, Slavist and Comparatist, as well as President of the Asociación Española de Eslavistas. Recent publications: Juan Andres and the Theory of Comparativism, 2001; Programmatic Theory of Comparative Literature, 1999.
Kristian Gerner
The paper analyses the treatment in historiography and the public sphere after 1989 of experiences of the Second World War, the Holocaust and post-war communist rule in neighbouring countries in Central and East-Central Europe. The traumatic experiences pitted history writing and public commemorations of the war and of events during the communist period one against the other in a number of ‘pair countries’, i.e. in cases where people who identified with one state perceived this state to be a victim and citizens of the neighbouring states perpetrators. In addition to this, the chosen ‘pairs’ have an experience of conflicts over border areas and the situation of national minorities in those areas in the past, especially in the interwar period, during the Second World War and until recent times.
The ‘pairs’ that are chosen are Germany-Poland, Hungary-Romania and Ukraine-Russia. The relevant territories are Pomerania/Ziemie Odzyskane, Ostpreussen/Warmia I Mazury and Schelsien/Slask in the first case, Transilvania/Erdely in the second and the Crimea in the third.
The main focus is on recent developments: how historiography, mass culture (films and newspapers) and political players have treated these issues: are there trends promoting understanding, re-conciliation and understanding that history must be ‘shared’? Are there trends creating or sustaining embitterment, enmity and alienation? The normative foundation of the project is that the paper will conclude by suggesting how a shared, common understanding of history might be promoted and how conflicting interpretations of traumatic historical events may be superseded.
The proposed paper is designed to fit in with the proposed papers by Professor Klas-Göran Karlsson and Associate Professor Ulf Zander, both of the Department of History, Lund University. Our new project develops the themes of an earlier project, The Holocaust in European Historical Culture. Concerning my own part, I contributed the articles ‘Ambivalence, Bivalence and Polyvalence. Historical Culture in the German-Polish Borderlands’, in: Klas-Göran Karlsson & Ulf Zander (eds.), Echoes of the Holocaust. Historical Cultures in Contemporary Europe, Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2003 and ‘Hungary, Romania, the Holocaust and Historical Culture’, in: Klas-Göran Karlsson & Ulf Zander (eds.), The Holocaust on Post-War Battlefields, Malmö: Sekel 2006.
Prof. Kristian Gerner is a Professor of History at Lund University, Sweden, where he graduated in 1984 with a PhD thesis on Soviet-Central European relations in the post-war era. Research fields: 20th Century Central and East European History and Historical Culture. Recent publications: ‘The Holocaust and Jewish-Polish-German Historical Culture’ in: Åke Frändberg et al. (eds.), Festskrift till Anders Fogelklou. Uppsala: Iustus, 2008; ‘Open Wounds? Trianon, the Holocaust and the Hungarian Trauma’ in: Conny Mithander et al. (eds.), Collective Traumas. Memories of War and Conflict in 20th Century Europe. Vienna a.o.: Peter Lang, 2007; ‘The Holocaust in Hungarian and Romanian Historical culture’ in: Klas-Göran Karlsson / Ulf Zander (eds.), The Holocaust on Post-War Battlefields. Malmö: Sekel, 2006.
Martin Gerner
Europe and particularly the European Union reflect an unprecedented development world-wide. Admiration at the success of the European model is globally shared. In order to accomplish present and future expectations and challenges Europe has to act consensually. This implies both the representation and participation of all European stakeholders, including governments, institutions and the people, of course. Yet, citizens are not sufficiently involved. Awareness and emotional commitment are deficient. This paper outlines the importance of personal affection with regard to European integration and proposes an in-depth debate on respective strategies. Economically and politically speaking, Europe has undoubtedly been a success story. Hitherto in public perception benefits at least equalled major concerns. Travelling freely, paying with one common currency and trading without borders are just few examples of individual advantages in Europe. From the very beginning of European integration, the vision of Europe has been shaped by high-ranking, charismatic and elder statesmen being fully aware of responsibility and goodwill. Unquestionably those efforts have been ambitious, beneficial and successful in terms of economic, political, societal and cultural integration for the whole continent.
Concerns – The history of European integration has always followed a top-down approach, the only way to address the difficult founding background in the 1950s, for sure. However, the idea of trickle-down effects into society failed: citizens’ participation and democratic representation are still underdeveloped. Meanwhile the political and economic processes within European Union are almost completely disconnected from the people. Public interest in European issues is in permanent decline. There are few opportunities to really get in touch with Europe, literally speaking. Parliamentary elections, for instance, do not meet the expectations at all. People neither know nor bother with what to vote for. That is what opinion polls and voter turnouts on the constitutional reform clearly indicate.
Consequences – Europe has been developing into something abstract, invisible and intangible. Its image is thoroughly ambiguous. In public perception the means of technical regulation and bureaucracy appear to be far more important than people’s representation, participation and commonly shared values of European citizenship. To put it simply, the concept of Europe tends to be made up without its citizens. Resignation is followed by a missing emotional commitment towards Europe and the European Union. The best marketing instruments are subject to fail if the target group is not directly affected at all, because images are not manageable and easily marketable top-down.
Challenges – Facing the future, Europe is at a crossroads. First and foremost the European Union must be based upon the needs of its citizens. Institutions serve the people, not vice versa. In the first place people have to get emotionally acquainted with the idea of Europe. In order to face future challenges consensus is necessary with respect to participation, democratisation and active citizenship. For this reason the European Union has to return to its roots, explaining and communicating that Europe is primarily about the people. That is why respective topics have to be brought closer to the citizens in order to affect them individually: Why do we need Europe and the European integration process? What is it good for? How does it affect us personally?
Proposals – The intention of the presentation is to outline strategies of how to get people emotionally involved in European affairs and issues by introducing different bottom-up approaches and existing initiatives. Particular attention will be drawn to the needs and necessities of younger generations and their commitment to Europe, referring to good practice examples for education with regard to Europe at schools.
Martin Gerner MA, PhD student in International Relations at Technische Universität Dresden. Academic background: MA Intercultural Communication and Economy; Studies of Sacred Music. Professional experience: multi-year expertise in civic education with regard to Europe; conference and seminar assistance; musician. Research fields: Politics, Music, Intercultural Encounters, Languages, Cuisine.
Milan Gjurcinov
Due to the fact that the future of the European project represents true progress for each country, it is inevitable:
a) That this progress is a varied one. Europe is not only the economy, the market and the improvement of the material existence of people, nor is it the effective political consensus; it is also the cultural model which radiates with its universalism, its spiritual and moral values and social equality. Only such a Europe would appeal magnetically to all the other parts of our planet. To achieve such universality it is necessary that Europe raises the question: Where do we want to place Russia, a country whose territory is to a great extent geographically part of Europe; a country also with its inestimable cultural values.
b) That in order to stimulate these ideas Europe needs to overcome the gap between economic and technological development and the undeniable delay in the morals and spiritual achievements that has resulted in the deep current crisis.
c) That the European Community reflects on the collapse of the Yugoslav community and its consequences: six small republics isolated one from the other; the challenges of political transition; nationalist passions, separatist tendencies and religious phantasms. The advent of political pluralism and the parliamentary democracy in the Balkans was carried out in most cases by the emergence of new parties on an ethnic basis, which is the source of the serious conflicts which have prevailed in these areas.
d) That culture should be more valued. In the programmes of any political party in the Balkans and in Macedonia culture is the last item that is described with some sentences of general order.
e) That we are aware of the exceptional orientation towards the past which ignites a ‘speeding-up of the historical process’ having often the form of a ‘violation of the history’.
f) That we are aware of the threat of new ideologies which prevent democratic development. The case of Macedonia, which proclaimed its independence and its autonomy after 1990, can illustrate this: the advantages of post-communist achievements, but also the great difficulties of an underdeveloped, multi-ethnic and multicultural country.
Prof. Milan Gjurcinov is a Professor Emeritus at the Department of Slavonic Studies and the Department of Comparative Literature at the Blaže Koneski Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje, Macedonia. He is a Literary Critic, Comparatist and Slavist. He is an Interpreter of 20th century Macedonian literature and one of the best-known Macedonian Literary Critics who have contributed most to the recognition of contemporary Macedonian poetry and prose both at home and abroad.
Anastasija Gjurcinova
The Balkans are a region where different images of the world have continuously been offered, as well as different points of view regarding the idea of Europe itself. The richness comes from the diversity of nations, people, languages and cultures, and is the basic characteristic of this particular region. However, some ideas have already grown as a ‘regional’ concept, created and developed within the above-mentioned diversity.
Although the Balkans belong to Europe, both geographically and historically, from the moment the concept of ‘Other Europe’ was invented for them, the distinction was already made. Usually seen by Europeans as Others, the Balkan people started to create their own idea of Europe as Other. Balkan nations have mostly supported the idea of Europe, as a dream, desire, or reality, longing to join (or to return to) the big European family. Some of them have recently become Member States of the European Union; others are still waiting their turn. But, another concept is also present, very close to the idea of Occidentalism, created as an answer to Edward Said’s Orientalism or Maria Todorova’s Balkanism. This is mostly related to the new social circumstances during the post-communist period of transition. Different stereotypes and prejudices of Europe have been created, and can easily be found in literature works, too.
In our paper we deal with some of these imaginary concepts, which are present in different works of fiction, published in the last few years in several Balkan countries: Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania and Turkey.
Prof. Anastasija Gjurcinova has been an Associate Professor at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia since 2002. She graduated from the Universities of Skopje and Belgrade and was awarded a PhD for her thesis on the Reception of Italian Literature in Macedonia in 19th and 20th century at the University of Skopje in 2000. Research fields: Comparative Literature, Italian Literature, Intercultural Relations, Translation Studies. Recent publications: ‘Literatura macedonska w okresie tranzycji’ (najnowsze tendencje w tworczosci prozatorskiej) in: Halina Janaszek-Ivaničková (ed.), Literatury slowianskie po roku 1989, tom 1. Transformacija. Warszawa, 2005, pp. 247-255; ‘L’immagine degli italiani nella letteratura macedone’ in: Anastasija Gjurčinova / Vanna Zaccaro (ed.), Tempo d’incontri. Atti dei seminari Tempus JEP 18101-2003. University of Skopje, 2007, pp. 87-93.
Renato Gonçalves
In the last century, the bureaucratic State has gradually evolved into a more and more transparent State. Today, almost all countries of Europe and the world recognise or are asked to recognise the right of everyone to access any information in the possession of or held on behalf of public bodies and entities. The right of access usually comprises the rights of consultation, reproduction as well as access to information and to the documents’ content. Nevertheless, the politicians and States continue to be accused of opacity and secrecy. Among the present leading political tasks, in Europe as well as in other parts of the world, we find the enhancement and enforcement of the principle of transparency. The Treaty of Amsterdam enacted this in the European Union, and a Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents was adopted (on 27 November 2008). The main purpose of these initiatives is clearly to extend geographically the establishment of the principle of transparency. Of course we cannot forget all the national diversities about the meaning of the principle of transparency. In this context, it is certainly important to analyse the accuracy of the proposition, which is relatively common, that the principle of transparency is and should be an essential characteristic of Europe and of the European Union.
Prof. J. Renato Gonçalves is an Auxiliary Professor of the Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon, Portugal, where he is responsible for modules in the fields of economic law, financial markets law and international economics, both in undergraduate and in postgraduate courses. He has a PhD in European and Economic Law from the Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon, and is a member of the Commission on Access to Administrative Documents, a public and independent body operating under the aegis of the Parliament.
Dimitri Grygowski
What should US policy be with respect to European unification? That question has been a source of concern for each US administration since World War II. No other administration faced more difficulty in defining its policy towards European integration than the Nixon White House. Due to internal battles, the Nixon administration engaged itself in an unprecedented exercise that resulted in the drafting of a National Security Directive (NSD 68) devoted to relations with the European Community. This proposal aims to explore the various factors that culminated in the reformulation of US policy towards Europe. Also, it proposes to provide the reader with an interpretation of the clashes in doctrine between the Nixon administration and various US federal agencies. Finally, it explains why there have been few changes in this doctrine since its inception in 1970.
The study relies heavily on documents issued by the National Security Council and also on recently declassified archives from various federal US agencies. It is also based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Finally, it is enriched by a series of personal interviews given by persons intimately familiar with the drama which led to the formation of NSD 68, and which fill in the gaps in the written documentation.
Overall, the study shows the change in attitude of the Nixon presidency to European unity compared with that of the Kennedy and Johnson eras. Scepticism in trade relations between the EEC and the US fed the lack of faith in the Nixon administration towards European unity. In fact, the US administration seems almost overwhelmed by the economic dynamism of Europe.
It is therefore not surprising that the United States reformulated their European policy through the National Security Directive 68 (NSD 68), which emphasises the defence of American interests. This study reveals the end of American innocence in relation to European unity and a return to ‘American interests’ and probably the real emergence of the European Community as a centre of power in the Euro-American couple, a goal reached in the late 70s with the disappearance of Monnet, who had widely been regarded as a prophet in the Kennedy years. Furthermore, the study confirms that this change in attitude of successive American administrations in the 70s and 80s vis-à-vis European integration was fuelled more by economic considerations than by the developments of the Cold War, which goes against the dominant American historiography. Through the study of the drafting process of NSD 68, one can observe the American decision-making process and also become acquainted with those ‘Europhiles’ and ‘Europhobics’ within the US government. The intergovernmental struggles throughout this time testify to the ‘creeping personalisation’ of the decision-making process inside the Nixon administration.
Dr Dimitri Grygowski joined Rouen Business School, France as an Assistant Professor in 2007 where he teaches European integration history and Economic integration history. He was awarded his PhD at the University of Paris-Cergy Pontoise. He is also a graduate from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques. Research fields: Transatlantic Economic Relations, International Monetary and Financial Relations and European Economic Integration. Recent publications: Les Etats-Unis et l’unification monétaire de l’Europe. Brussels a.o.: Peter Lang, 2009.
Verena Gutsche
Since antiquity men have tried to escape the process of civilisation by concentrating on moral integrity and simplicity instead. In the late 19th century the concept of cultural pessimism was established as an antidote for the prevalent belief in progress. Cultural pessimism is generally perceived as a philosophical and critical valuation which designates the development of culture as a process of decadence and deterioration. According to Stern (1963), the idea of cultural pessimism received the greatest attention in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Oswald Spengler, for example, denoted civilisation as the final, petrifying, non-creative phase of a major culture. In his book The Decline of the West (1918-1923) Spengler criticised civilisation as the implacable doom of culture and referred to it as the extreme and most artificial state men could bear.
At the same time literary authors began to discover Europe as a topic. Especially during World War I and afterwards they expressed not only their fears of a cultural decline but also their desire for an enduring peace through a European unification. In the interwar years ideas of Europe circulated around the ambitious goal to create the ‘United States of Europe’ on the one hand, while on the other authors threw a critical glance at the intellectual condition of the European continent (Lützeler, 1992). In this paper several texts taken from different genres shall illustrate that, despite pessimistic views of human civilisation, authors also show interesting positive visions of Europe.
In his essay Europa (1920) Rudolf Pannwitz particularly addressed German youth which, having been defeated in World War I, in his view, represented the only force to help shape a European Empire (Europäisches Reich). Corresponding to the prevalent idea of youth as a revitalising spirit, Pannwitz argued that only young people were able to revive traditional European values. According to Pannwitz, a strong Europe that recalled its rich intellectual tradition without succumbing to modern ideologies such as capitalism or bolshevism could prevent what the author perceived as a spiritless modernism and materialism.
In his play Europa. Untergang oder Neubau. Volkssprechspielchor (1926) Alfred Auerbach pleaded for action in order to save Europe from decline. Auerbach presented different choirs which try to motivate the audience: ‘the choir of the dumb’ supports the upper class, ‘the choir of capitalists’ believe themselves to be more intelligent and therefore able to release everybody from misery, ‘the choir of revolutionists’ attempts to seduce the youth, which however prefers to follow the military. A chaos of different ideologies erupts and governs the scene, a personified death figure enters the stage and guffaws: ‘Europe dies!’ In the end a speaker comments on the events and concludes that Europe can only exist if the ignorance of the people is eradicated.
Oskar Ebner von Ebenthall called attention to the decadence of the Indo-European culture in his book SOS Europa (1930). In his view, contemporary political life rested on the false ideals of a pedantic nationalism, which ranked the nation as the highest authority and degraded the individual. Therefore, Europe was in a latent state of war because it perceived war as a natural necessity. Ebner von Ebenthall criticised that the youth was trained to militarism and regarded this as a path to a general cultural degeneration.
In his essay Achtung, Europa! (1938) Thomas Mann bewailed the decline of European culture and warned against the ‘revolution of the masses’. According to Mann, Europe was endangered by the ascendancy of a populace that was unaware of any intellectual values the cultural elites represented. Mann described the constitution of Europe as atrocious and warned against the prevalent cult of war and the risk of dethronement of spirit and reason.
Verena Gutsche, MA has been a Research Assistant since 2008 and is a PhD candidate at the Department for European Studies of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany. Her PhD is on the on ‘Concepts of Europe in the first half of the 20th century (Germany, Great Britain)’. Recent publication: ‘Bausteine einer kommunikativen Europakompetenz’ in: Elke Ronneberger-Sibold / Richard Nate (eds.), Europäische Sprachenvielfalt und Globalisierungsprozess. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2009, pp. 105-133.
Matúš Halás
The proposed paper will focus upon problems of trying to apply traditional concepts of identity to the present social conditions of heterogeneous, multicultural Europe. As history shows, this understanding of identity offers only a temporary solution to a permanent problem of tension between the individual and the collective self.
The postmodern approach to identity offers not only criticism of the old views of identity, but also helps to develop alternative answers. Minimal identity as described by Klaus Eder can be developed into a coherent view based upon Renan’s daily plebiscite. Ongoing open discourse serves not to facilitate the search for a stable enumerative definition of identity, but to enable identity to shift. Post-national identity does not exclude or divide people into insiders and outsiders. Such a continuous questioning and reflexivity hinders identity, as Derrida suggested, to be identical with itself and thus enables the individual to emancipate within a heterogeneous society.
Not only to welcome the otherness in order to integrate it within the majority, but to accept the otherness as such can and should serve as the key European principle in relations with the rest of the world. Reflexive power, emancipation and respect for otherness make the future of the European identity and idea possible and appealing at the same time.
Matúš Halás is a postgraduate student of International Relations at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. He graduated in Political Science from the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia and holds a Bakaláø (Bc.) in European Studies and International Relations. His PhD research is focused on game-theoretic simulations of the international relations system. Research fields: Formal Theories of International Relations, Agent-based Modelling, Post-structuralism in European Studies. Recent publication: ‘Europska zahranicna politika – porovnanie dvoch teoretickych modelov.’ in: Mezinarodni vztahy, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 48-66.
Peter Hanenberg
Even before there is a political concept for Europe, we already find protagonists in European literature who can be defined as Europeans, discovering and developing a certain consciousness of belonging to a unique culture, common to European peoples in spite of all differences, and making a difference to what had been discovered abroad. This early European consciousness can be described as the discovery of its own European identity through the discovery of foreign cultures, mostly unknown before. Our analyses will focus on three classical texts of the European tradition, on the Portuguese Luís de Camões’ Os Lusíadas as the first design of a European view of non-European cultures, on Thomas More’s Utopia as an attempt to invent itself in the openness of a New World, and, finally, on Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen’s Simplicissimus as a strange mirror of European experience, the will to criticise and the need to overcome its hostile diversity.
Prof. Dr Peter Hanenberg has been an Associate Professor of the Faculty of Humanities of the Catholic University of Portugal in Viseu since 2006. Since 2007 he has been Co-ordinator of the research group on Translating Europe across the Ages at the Communication and Culture Research Centre at the Catholic University of Portugal. Recent publications: Europa. Gestalten. Studien und Essays. Frankfurt a.M. a.o: Peter Lang, 2004; ‘Europa als literarische Erfahrung in der deutschsprachigen Literatur seit dem 17. Jahrhundert’ in: Christoph Parry / Liisa Voßschmidt (ed.), Europäische Literatur auf Deutsch? Beiträge auf der 13. Internationalen Arbeitstagung Germanistische Forschungen zum Literarischen Text. Vaasa, 18.-19.5.2006. Munich: iudicium, 2008, pp. 15-29.
Cecilia Hansson
The development of European modernism in literature and art is, according to my hypothesis, the result of actual, physical encounters in space and time. Such encounters formed a number of creative think tanks, which can be pinpointed to specific places and people at a certain time.
The hubs, places of proximity or springboards, originally a concept from the field of human and economic geography, I will concentrate on are Berlin, Zürich and Paris. These three cities have shown an almost magnetic appeal to artists and writers over time, in contrast to otherwise comparable places like London or New York.
What is specific to the hubs mentioned above is that the people involved withdrew from their individual nationality or background culture in order to pursue an experimental and borderless ‘society of arts’. By using Pierre Bourdieu’s thoughts on symbolic fields, and Torsten Hägerstrand’s concept of time geography, it will be possible to trace and encircle a specific European modernism, where common ideals related to ideas and methods take precedence over nationality, national culture and language. Finally, I will argue the importance of place as a centre of information processing and exchange (Manuel Castells) and of the cultural field (Bourdieu) as being decisive for the success and spreading of the modernist movement.
Dr Cecilia Hansson has been a Lecturer at Malmö University, Sweden since 2003. She is finishing her PhD studies at the Department of Comparative Literature at Lund University, Sweden with a thesis on the Swedish reception of Hermann Hesse. Research fields: Central European Cultural Studies, Modernism, Cultural Representations of Modern Urbanity. Recent publication: ‘Jag säger DaDa och menar Nej, Nej’, [‘I say Da Da, and mean No No’] in: Pequod, No. 33, 2003.
Michael Harbsmeier
European accounts and descriptions of other continents have been thoroughly scrutinised through many generations of critical scholarship. In my presentation, I would like to draw attention to the various traditions of travel writing in the opposite direction, i.e. non-Europeans writing about Europeans, which flourished particularly throughout the nineteenth century in China and Japan, South Asia and different parts of the Islamic world. Trying to look more closely at some of the topics and issues common to these otherwise unrelated traditions of travel writing, I hope to arrive at a better understanding of what Europe has meant to the rest of world.
Prof. Michael Harbsmeier is a Professor for History at the Roskilde University, Denmark. He graduated in Anthropology from the University of Copenhagen. Research fields: History of Culture Contact, Travelogues. Recent publication: Stimmen aus dem äußersten Norden. Wie die Grönländer Europa für sich entdeckten. Stuttgart: Jan Thorbecke. ‘Inverted Explorations: Inuit Experiences of Denmark (1605-1932)’ in: Philippe Despoix / Justus Fetscher (eds.), Cross Cultural Encounters and Constructions of Knowledge in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Kassel: Kassel University Press [Georg-Forster-Studien, Beiheft 2], 2004, pp. 77-106.
Florian Hartleb
Concerns about a ‘democratic deficit’ and the distance between European elites and publics have come to be a common feature of European politics. As a consequence, euroscepticism has become part of the terrain of conflict between political parties across Europe. For some authors, euroscepticism represents one of the great recipes for the success of the new anti-establishment parties in the European Union, opposing Europeanisation and globalisation and occupying some fields of policy along the globalism/nationalism divide. In my research I want to analyse how and to which extent euroscepticism plays a role in European party systems. Are there any connections existing between eurosceptic parties and the political and economic dimension? According to some empirical surveys, the supranational process of integration has only a marginal effect on national party systems.
However, eurosceptic attitudes and critical views on globalisation are finding more and more approval in the member countries of the European Union. In my analysis I want to concentrate on two new potential social movements: the left-wing and anti-globalisation network Attac (which was originally a single issue movement against the Tobin tax) and right-wing extremism in both Western and Eastern Europe, having temporarily confederated in the European Parliament in 2007.
Dr Florian Hartleb is a Scientific Assistant at the Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany. He graduated from the University of Passau. Research fields: Political System of the EU, Populism, Extremism, Hungarian Political Culture, Political Parties, Modern Election Campaigns. Recent publications: Florian Hartleb / Frank Decker, ‘L’euroscepticisme en Allemagne. Les partis politiques et l’Union Européenne’ in: Laure Neumayer / Antoine Roger / Frédéric Zalewski (eds.), L’Europe contestée: ‚populisme’ et ‚euroscepticisme’ dans l’Union européenne élargie. Paris: Michel Houdiard, 2008, pp. 34-54; Florian Hartleb / Melani Barlai, ‘Ungarischer Populismus und Rechtsextremismus. Ein Plädoyer für die Einzelfallforschung’ in: Südosteuropa Mitteilungen, 48 (2008) 4, pp. 34-51; ‘Party-Based Euro-Skepticism in Germany’ in: Romanian Journal of Political Science, 7 (2007) 2, pp. 13-30.
Andreas Hartmann
It is a well-known fact that the modern concept of Europe as such cannot be traced back to classical antiquity: The Aegean Sea and the Hellespont were never an important cultural and/or political frontier. A major part of what we today call ‘Europe’ always remained outside the Greco-Roman sphere of interest. Finally, the recourse on a ‘European’ identity remained a purely literary phenomenon and in late antiquity ‘Europe’ could even be used as a designation for a pretty small geographical area in Thrace. However, when taking a closer look at the few examples for a more inclusive construction of a ‘European’ identity, it becomes evident that these always appear in a polemical context, which is characterised by an antithetical opposition between Europe and Asia. This can be observed above all in Herodotus’ description of the Persian Wars. It is also relevant however, that Philip of Macedon – just before beginning a war against the Persian Empire – named his daughters Europe and Asia and that the historian Theopompus praised the same Philip as the ‘greatest man of Europe’. In these contexts Europeanness was defined primarily through hostility towards an Oriental Other, who was perceived as despotic/slavish, luxurious and effeminate. This construct was reified through a theory of climatic determination of character and culture, which provided a scientific explanation and justification for the postulated superiority of Europe (especially Greece) over Asia. The Romans did not adopt the concept of ‘Europe’, but they continued to exploit propagandistically the opposition to Asia and the Orient. Emperor Augustus, for example, staged a re-enactment of the battle of Salamis in Rome after he won a diplomatic success against the Parthians as the major power of the East in his days. Even if the Romans did not use the name ‘Europe’, their concept of the ‘Occident’ preserved the core of a rudimentary ‘European’ identity as found in Greek authors. The name ‘Europe’ was revived only by Pope Pius II after the fall of Constantinople. Again, we find European identity defined in polemical antagonism towards an Oriental enemy. This was, of course, an intentional recourse on an ancient discourse by the Pope who – as an established humanist scholar – was well-acquainted with the ancient sources. It remains true that the classical tradition does not help us much in defining, where Europe is. However, through the antithesis Europe-Asia, the modern idea of what Europe should be does indeed owe some important elements to antiquity.
Dr des. Andreas Hartmann MA is a Research Assistant and has been a Temporary Lecturer at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany since 2002. He studied Ancient History and Classical Philology at the Universities of Eichstätt and Cologne. His PhD thesis on material relics of the past in ancient societies was accepted by the Department for Historical Studies and Social Sciences at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in 2008 (publication pending). Research fields: Cultural History, History of Religions, Social Memory, Historiography, Cultural Transfers between Greeks, Romans, Jews and Christians. Recent publications: Was ist griechische Geschichte? Zum Verhältnis von Raum und Geschichte. (in print); ‘Dabei sein ist nicht alles: die Olympischen Spiele in Antike und Neuzeit’ in: Waltraud Schreiber / Carola Gruner (eds.), Von den Olympischen Spielen bis zur Potsdamer Konferenz. Standardthemen des Geschichtsunterrichts forschungsnah. Neuried: ars una, 2006, pp. 63-123; ‘Germanicus und Lady Di: zur öffentlichen Verarbeitung zweier Todesfälle’ in: Waltraud Schreiber (ed.), Der Vergleich - eine Methode zur Förderung historischer Kompetenzen. Ausgewählte Beispiele. Neuried: ars una, 2005, pp. 61-126.
Pedro Barbas Homem
The discussion that is presently taking place about the legal framework of the European Union cannot be confused with a query about the future of Europe. The fundamental aim of this communication is that the soul of Law cannot be crushed by a legal technique based on convenience and that dialogue between peoples, mutual acquaintance and a cosmopolitan notion of belonging to a common world are necessary – prior to putting forward a new legal architecture of the European Union.
The legal approach cannot be blind to values and cannot forget the lessons of history, the spirit of past generations that must guide us in an era of reconstruction of a common identity. To vanquish the fears of irrational factors which always returned in times of violence and economic crisis is a task that must be achieved based on feelings of belonging, identity and citizenship that cannot forget the loving ties between peoples and persons.
Prof. Pedro Barbas Homem is a Professor of Law at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He is also President of the Direction of the Portuguese Association of Educational Law. Research fields: History of Law, History of Political Thought, Theory and Philosophy of Law, International Relations and Educational Law.
Alexandre Honrado
‘Tenho o dever de me fechar em casa no meu espírito e trabalhar
quanto possa e em tudo quanto possa, para o progresso da
civilização e o alargamento da consciência da humanidade’
Fernando Pessoa
The giant tower of introspection – and the windstorm of culture – that the poet Fernando Pessoa wrote in the first half of the 20th century, is one of my starting points to fly over the territory of my European house, where I am a very small tenant and where I ask myself if I have, or have not, the duty to cloister myself at home in this hour of great crisis to renew this space from the foundations to the roof, to recover in it a sense of progress for civilisation and to enlarge the conscience of a disoriented humanity. I cling to culture. She is my Penelope’s web – and my fidelity, assailed by so many suitors, is consolidated by the struggle that takes place within me. The challenges of today and future opportunities require leadership with vision, skills, respect for different cultures and dedication to progress. Through training, education and cultural changes, mentors, research – and the compromise includes, mandatorily, minorities and their rights and the emerging multiculturality which means that Europe is growing – we will find the solution.
From Fernando Pessoa, I head to other inspirations: Camões, Vieira, Manuel Antunes, Eduardo Lourenço – even Adorno, Habermas, Kraus, Marcuse... and George Steiner and those who, being in the diaspora, made Europe everywhere. What kind of Europe? Was it the real continent or the imaginary one with multiple identities? Was it the Greek or Roman Europe, the peripheral, the Slavic, the Iberian? Was it the positivist Europe or the one of the Critical Theory? Was it the one of the economists or the one of the thinkers? Was it the one of Shakespeare, Baudelaire, Rousseau, Marx, Freud, Marcuse, or of the anonymous masses or the Europe des Patries, the ‘Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals’, General Charles de Gaulle? Was it the Europe in which we saw Auschwitz, Bosnia and mourning? Islamic, Jewish, Christian, agnostic, atheistic, multi-sensitive Europe or disoriented Europe? How can we affirm Europe as ‘an idea of Europe as an elite ideal for Portugal’ such as, in the past, I thought I could find in my favourite thinkers? The goddess Europa, daughter of Agenor, King of Fenicia, is old but single – and wants a new way of being because life expectancy is greater nowadays and she has worked too much. So she demands the simple privilege of dignity. Even further because Europe is more than an old ‘lady’, an educated lady, and culture means ‘above all courtesy and respect rather than only erudition and eloquence’.
As Rob Riemen stated, everything is focused on ‘the question of knowing if Europe will continue, or not, to be a good idea, and which is really the political importance and relevance of the European ideal of civilisation’. This is the object of reflection: ‘I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but it is today that life claims us.’
Alexandre Honrado is a Writer and Journalist with a graduate degree in History from the Nova University of Lisbon and the University of Rome. He has developed projects in the field of historical research – presently he is a Researcher and permanent member of CLEPUL – and has taught in several teaching establishments. He wrote the biographies of Carlota Joaquina and Maria I of Portugal, and is now finishing the biography of Isabella of Aragon. A permanent employee of Media Capital, Prisa Group, he is responsible for the daily radio programme "Ao Fim do Dia", at Rádio Clube Português. He has published over eighty books and some have been translated.
Ioan Horga / Cristina Dogot
The end of the totalitarian regimes in the east of Europe firstly offered, in addition to liberties and rights for peoples, the best occasion to think about the large range of possibilities available to eastern inhabitants. The intellectual elite, well-acquainted with European culture and spirituality, made no exception in its very positive attitude towards European values or ideas. The intellectuals’ debates on European principles and ideals, on the compatibility of Romanian realities and mentalities and European standards and ideals became aware of some variations, however, in the course of time.
Consequently, the purpose of our conference will be to provide evidence of the principal directions and evolutions of public debate in respect of what is considered to have European importance or connotations. Beside these aspects, we are interested in pointing out those ideas which could bring about a different or even a new approach to some old or new European ideas, values, ideals, principles or standards. The question which remains open is: has the ‘new Europe’ got the capacity to enrich, to improve, to develop European ideas, values or principles? Has the ‘new Europe’ got the ability to develop or to improve the standards of the European Union? We, at the academic level, are hoping to find positive answers.
Prof. Ioan Horga is a Professor for History and International Relations at the University of Oradea, Romania. He is the holder of the Chair ‘Jean Monnet’ in Euroregional Studies. Research fields: European Integration Issues, Especially of the Borders, of Cross-border Co-operation, of the Media and Religion Contribution to Shaping a European Awareness Recent publications: Teoria Relatiilor Internationale. Oradea: Editura Universitatii din Oradea, 2006; Fabienne Maron / Ioan Horga / Renaud de La Brosse (eds.), Mass-Media and the Good Governance after the Enlargement of EU. Brussels, 2005; Ioan Horga / Maria Manuela Tavares Ribeiro / Renaud de la Brosse (eds.), International and European Security versus the Explosion of Global Media. Brussels, 2004.
PhD Cristina-Maria Dogot has been a Lecturer at the University of Oradea, Romania since 2008. She graduated in Political Sciences from the University Lucian Blaga, Sibiu, Romania. She defended her PhD thesis on the federal idea as an intellectual fundament of the European construction process, with a case study on the personalist federalism of Denis de Rougemont, in 2007. Research fields: European Integration, Integration of Central-Eastern and Balkan Countries, International Relations. Recent publication: ‘Românii din Ungaria şi modul de raportare la problema identitate / alteritate reflectat în publicaţiile de limbă română’ [Romanian minority from Hungary and the problem identity / Alterity reflected in Romanian tongue publications] in: Vasile Ciobanu / Sorin Radu (co-ord.), Partide politice şi minorităţi naţionale din România în secolul XX [Political parties and national minorities of XX century Romania]. vol. III, Editura Universităţii ‘Lucian Blaga’ din Sibiu, 2008, pp. 321-360.
Claudia Isep / Claudia Küttel
Speaking about ‘Europe’, an important topic often is common history. What connects and keeps together collectives of any kind is their shared memory. The past and especially the reconstruction of the past are fundamental, to individuals as well as to communities. ‘Collective memory’, a well-known term discussed by Maurice Halbwachs, has derived great popularity over the last decades, especially in cultural and social sciences. It has been emphasised that memory plays an important role in creating a sense of identity. To follow this idea, a ‘collective Europe’ ought to be based on a collective European memory. For such a memory to emerge, the participation of the members of a society is necessary. It is them who reconstruct the past and give it meaning in the present.
One way of analysing what this collective memory of a social group is about is to study ‘practices of memory’. Memorials are, without a doubt, one form of such ‘practices’. Our research is founded on a qualitative study about memorials in the so-called ‘Alpen-Adria-Region’ (‘Alps-Adriatic Region’). We focus on the analysis of war memorials located in the cities of Klagenfurt (in Carinthia), Ljubljana (in Slovenia) and Trieste (in Italy). The research in the aforementioned area turns out to be interesting particularly with regard to the ‘European Idea’: our research is not only about three nation states that border on each other, but on three different cultural and linguistic areas that are connected through the idea of being an ‘Alpen-Adria-Region’. Furthermore, the three cities belonged not too long ago to the same kingdom, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. After the fall of the Monarchy, the boundaries in this area were fought for hard and long. Some parts of the boundaries as they exist today were not specified until 1975. The unequal development of the states after 1945 is also significant: Italy is a founding member of the European Community, whereas Slovenia (as a successor state of socialistic Yugoslavia) gained full membership to the European Union in 2002.
Our main topic is to ask if there is a potential collective memory in this core region that could be the basis of a ‘European way of thinking’. Our data encompasses around 2,500 photographs of almost 100 monuments, which were taken during a period of nearly six months. We make a qualitative analysis of this data. In our research we intend to look for the existence of a cross-border cultural memory. This leads to the question: is there anything like a ‘European memory’ that goes beyond political rhetoric? And, if yes, what does that mean for the (potential) constitution of a ‘European Identity’?
Mag. Claudia Isep has been a Study Assistant and Tutor for qualitative research at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria since 2006. She graduated from this university in 2008 with a Master’s thesis on collective memory in the Alps-Adriatic Region (an interdisciplinary project in collaboration with Claudia Küttel). Research fields: Qualitative Methods, Collective Memory, Intercultural Relations. Recent publications: Wolfgang Aschauer / Reinhard Bachleitner / Claudia Isep ‘Funktionalität und Rezeption von Kunst aus der Sicht des Individuums’ in: Michael Fischer / Reinhard Kacianka (eds.), Tabus und Grenzen der Ethik. Frankfurt a.M.: Lang, 2007, pp. 119-168; Benjamin Heinz / Claudia Isep / Reinhard Kacianka / Astrid Sigge / Johann Strutz, ‘Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt: Angewandte Kulturwissenschaft. Polyphonie als Theorie. Differenz als Praxiserfahrung’ in: Wolgang Geier / Ernstgert Kalbe (eds.), Kultursoziologie. Aspekte – Analysen – Argumente. Wissenschaftliche Halbjahreshefte der Gesellschaft für Kultursoziologie e.V. Leipzig. 1/2006, pp. 63-89.
Claudia Küttel was a Study Assistant and Tutor for qualitative research at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria from 2004 to 2008. She finished her Master’s thesis on collective memory in the Alps-Adriatic Region in 2008 (an interdisciplinary project in collaboration with Claudia Isep). The empirical study focused on war monuments in the region. Research fields: Qualitative Methods, Collective Memory, Intercultural Relations. Upcoming publication: Die kulturelle Konstruktion von Geschlechterkategorien.
Halina Janaszek-Ivaničková
In the eyes of the Poles, the foundation act of Europe after the democratic transformation taking place in Eastern Europe is subject to a renewal thanks to, among others, the visions proposed by Z. Kubiak (Brewiarz Europejczyka / The Breviary of a European /, 1998), by Piotr Kuncewicz, Master Freemason of Grand Orient in Poland (Legenda Europy / The Legend of Europe /, 2005) and the ecumenical homilies by Pope John Paul II (see: ‘The European Act’ proclaimed in Santiago de Compostela, 1982 and others). All the divergent authors mentioned considered the accession of Poland to Europe unambiguously as a return ‘home’, i.e. the spiritual homeland of the Poles and the final departure from the subjection to Russian tyranny and despotism.
The attitude expressed by the Czechs (the most westerly outpost of Slavdom) and the Slovaks is not so unambiguous. Both countries had been strongly enrooted in Pan-Slavism (the conservative ideas of uniting all Slavs under the aegis of Russia) for a long time. This is also the reason why Podiven inaugurates the revival of the foundation act of Europe by undermining this historical memory in his 700-page long essay Czechs in New History (1991). J. Patočka had already defended this position earlier.
Russia, in the wake of its first enchantment with Western democracy, is witnessing increasingly strong Pan-Slavic conservative ideas connected with a return to pochvennichestvo (A. Solzhenitsyn), the revival of the Orthodox empire, the so-called Third Rome and a eulogy of ‘eternal Russia’, the immortal cosmic power (Y. Mamleyev).
In the dystopia proposed by A. Zinoviev (The Global Humant Hill, 2000) the society of the future is depicted as a super-monstrosity created in the interest of the countries belonging to the Western Union, while in Polish dystopias this role is played by Russia and the cruel Chinese. Only the European Union is shown as a state which observes humanitarian norms and cares for its members, even the most peripheral ones.
A counterbalance for this vision of imperial Russia is to be found in Russian postmodernism, which leads to a deabsolutisation, relativisation and desacralisation of assorted monopolistic national and world conceptions and opposes all authoritarian ideas (V. Pielevin, V. Sorokin, V. Yerofieyev).
Today, the so-called Balkans, predominantly in the former Yugoslavia, are a veritable Pandora’s box filled with dynamics of grief, despair, anger, resentments and grudges against themselves and the world (i.e. the West) due to the disintegration of the multinational and multicultural country into a number of small independent states that, according to D. Ugresić, are of totalitarian nature. Nostalgia for the multicultural Yugoslavia flows in an extensive tide in literature, and the nations of former Yugoslavia see its revival and stability in the European Union, whose statute mentions respect for minorities. The Yugoslav Slavia Orthodoxa and Slavia Islamica cast a shadow on these endeavours.
Against this roughly outlined Slavonic background and despite the opinions voiced by eurosceptics, Polish literary vision or rather a myth of Europe appears to be a monolith in the recognition of (Western) Europe as Poland’s home. This is a foundation for further undertakings, which should seek a new formula of Union patriotism, however, without the rejection of their own national or Slav identity. The Union, on the other hand, must devise such a community model, which would make it possible to institutionally involve a larger number of its inhabitants in the solution of assorted Union questions, so that all could feel that they are its citizens and be filled with pride and joy.
Prof. Dr Halina Janaszek-Ivaničková has been President of the Commission for Comparative Literatures Studies at the International Committee of Slavists since 2003. She is a Professor of Humanities and an expert on Slavonic and Comparative Literature Studies. In addition, since 2007 she has been an overseas member of mega-research project ‘Dialog and Confrontation: the East-West Paradigm in the Slavic and Eurasian World (2005-2009)’ sponsored by the Grants-in-Aid for the Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Recent publication: ‘Postmodernizm w Polsce’ (w szerszym kontekście) in: Krystyna Pieniążek-Marković / Goran Rem / Bogusław Zieliński (eds.), Nasza Środkowoeuropejska Ars Combinatoria. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2007, pp. 25-50.
Wilfried Janoska
The health markets of Member States of the European Union (EU) are undergoing transformation in the aftermath of the deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation of public institutions. A paradigm shift from a fulfilment to a guarantee state can be seen as gaining precedence over the image of the ‘Slim State’. It is questionable in the face of this development if and in what scope the state is losing its impact on the public structure in the healthcare system and by implication, unable to live up to its obligations of involvement in services of public interest. Indeed, the state usually pulls back from services of public interest in a specific market segment only if the continuation of such services is guaranteed by any other means. On the other hand, it is expected – in the event of failure in market mechanisms and an impending drop in supply standards – to be in a position to resume as well as safeguard such public services once again. In a transformation to the guarantee state, the question is inevitably asked if such a transformation process translates at the same time, into an obligation on the part of the EU to create a (buffering compensatory) framework for community projects to enable Member States to live up to their service mandate towards their own citizens in the area of health services under changed conditions.
Research question – At the centre of research efforts was the question if the (partial) transfer of the public service mandate of the state to the EU and its institutions following a general pattern of withdrawal from public service structures on the part of Member States is possible and reasonable, and also without a constitutional framework on the basis of the uniform visions of the implementation of a ‘European principle of the social welfare state’ in the emergence of a common health market.
Scope of investigations – Linked to the question of the safeguarding of social benefits, the consideration of government duties in the healthcare system is implicitly based on the thesis that there could have been no such provision on the said safeguards in the constitutions of Member States. The principle of the social welfare state in Germany is thus understood as a creative mandate for lawmakers, authorising and obliging them to shape and influence society in the interest of social justice. This mandate is however subject to two reservations: the reservation of the ‘feasible’, which is particularly characterised as the reservation of the ‘financially feasible’, whereas the reservation of the ‘will to act’ is truly determinant when it comes to the creative room to manoeuvre available to lawmakers in the exercise of the mandate. The principle is thus characterised by components of openness and dynamics. Conversely, it is hardly reconcilable with the closed structure of a social ‘conservation of the status quo’ in the healthcare system. Impulses for the emergence of a European health market can be created by the openness and dynamics of such a principle. On the other hand, the conflict of safeguarding social benefits offers the opportunity for Member States to promptly adapt to European developments in the health market in order to be able to exhaust the potentials of the health sector in the national healthcare system on a long-term basis. At the same time, it offers an opportunity to take on the issue of constitutional principles in social, health and other policies of the EU.
Objectives of the thesis and course of investigation – Understood as an open and dynamic principle, the public service mandate of the state in the healthcare system will require complementation as an uncertain legal terminology. The conflict of reservations in respect of the ‘feasible’ and the ‘desired’ in the principle of the social welfare state and the resultant barriers of exercising fundamental rights in the field of health and social systems is expected to manifest on the basis of the fundamental principles of legal economy (analysis of legal consequences and real consequences). This does not only facilitate the analysis of the behaviour of players on the European market scene for public service benefits based on the rational model, in such a way that a clue is provided for the ‘desired’ and the weighting of the targets (application of the positive economic theory of law in the shaping of the reservation of the ‘desired’). At the same time, the opportunity of talking about efficiency in a second step is presented in the implementation of the public service mandate that was vividly made manifest (in the first step) in the aftermath thereof, because efficient action will always have to be demanded at all times in the interest of public service safety, upon the acceptance of the public service mandate (application of the normative theory of law on the firm establishment of the reservation of the ‘feasible’, in the implementation of the creative mandate of shaping and influencing the social order). To the extent that the vision of an efficient healthcare system has then been described in detail as a common objective, the analysis of legal and real consequences then provides an option, in a third step, of acquiring and preparing such information as it relates to the expected impacts on the implementation of a concept of harmonisation and its proposals for joint actions in the direction of realising the principle of a European social welfare state.
Diplom-Wirtschaftsjurist (FH) Wilfried Janoska has been a PhD candidate at the Private Universität für Gesundheitswissenschaften, Medizinische Informatik und Technik (UMIT) in Hall, Tirol, Austria since 2007. He studied Law and Economics at the University of Münster and Behavioural Science at the FernUniversität in Hagen. He graduated in Business Management from the VWA Leipzig and in Economic Law from the Fachhochschule Nordhessen. He is working for a firm of lawyers in the field of insolvency and bankruptcy law, execution law and law of inheritance in the court circuits of Chemnitz, Dessau, Dresden, Halle (Saale), Leipzig, Münster and Osnabrück. Research fields: Health Care Systems and the Economic Analysis of Law, New Institutional Economics, Institutional Change and the Impact on Health Markets (privatising of public institutions and the impact on the service mandate of the state in the area of health services (esp. public hospitals)), Agency Theory and the Theory of Market Failure, the Subsidiarity Principle and the Principle of a Social Welfare State, Constitutional Economics and Public Choice.
Luisa Juárez Hervás
This paper focuses on a selection of examples of remembrance and representation of the Holocaust in contemporary Spain. Using the concepts of collective and official memory, and calling upon the nuanced relationship between memory, history and ethics as explored by Avisar and Berel Lang, the present work will examine the emergence of the Holocaust as a theme in Spanish politics, culture and society. Even though this trend could be merely considered part of the wider phenomenon called the globalisation of the Holocaust, it is my intention to focus on the particularities of the phenomenon in Spain in the context of the revisionism of the law in historical memory and the civil war. As I hope to show, an analysis of the growing socio-political interest of the Shoa in contemporary Spain can help to better identify the emergence of a public discourse on a new Spanish-European identity.
Prof. Luisa Juárez is Vice Dean for International Relations and the Philologies at Facultad de Filosofía y Letras at Universidad de Alcalá, where she teaches American Literature as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages. She completed her PhD in Literature in English at Universidad Complutense, Madrid. She also holds an MA in 20th Century Literature from Sussex University, and a MA in Holocaust Studies from the University of London. Dr Juárez has published widely in the field of American studies and literature, and at present is working on the commemoration and representation of genocides. Her latest projects in her current research are ‘“Because They Make the World Remember.” A Reading of Narrative Strategies in The Pianist’ (selected for the AEDEAN XXXII – Oct 2008 – conference proceedings) and ‘The circular memory of writing. A reading of American intertexts in Ruth Kluger’s Landscapes of Memory’ for the International Conference Ethics and Trauma in Contemporary Narrative in English (Universidad de Zaragoza at Jaca, March 2009).
Zbigniew Kadłubek
Arnold Zweig (1887-1968), a writer of left-wing views, was involved in a pacifist movement. Of Silesian descent, coming from a Jewish family settled in Glogau (today Glogow), his literary output is filled with nostalgia for lost Silesia, and a dream of a world of peace where various nations live in harmony with one another. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is a symbol and, at the same time, an icon of a multicultural world for Zweig. Zweig consciously creates a myth of the Austro-Hungarian pastoral and makes explicit references to Paul Celan (born in Bukovina, then part of Romania). Zweig believes that the Europe of before World War I (in which he took part) was a shrine of tolerance. He tries to bring back the Europe of the early 20th century and its spectrum of values.
Zbigniew Kadłubek, born in 1970 and resident in Rybnik, is a Classical and Comparative Literature Scholar, Essayist, Translator and Assistant Professor at the Chair of Comparative Literature at the Silesian University. He lectures on general literature and the theory of literature and is the author of sketches of ancient and contemporary culture of Silesia, rhetoric, medieval literature, the reception of antiquity and theology in literature. He has published two books on the theme of theology and the poetry of Petrus Damiani (1007-1072). Together with Tadeusz Sławek´, he is editor of the comparative series ‘Civitas Mentis’. His publications include a collection of essays entitled ‘Think Silesia’ (‘Myśleć Śląsk,’ co-author Aleksandra Kunce, Katowice 2007) and ‘Letters from Rome’ (‘Listy z Rzymu’, Katowice 2008). In 2009 his ‘Saint Medea’ (‘Święta Medea’) – a book on the theory of comparative literature – will be published. He is a member of literary and learned societies, e.g. the Historical and Literary Society (PAN) in Katowice, Verein für Geschichte Schlesiens e.V., Teodor Parnicki Literary Society and Johannes-Bobrowski-Gesellschaft e.V. in Berlin.
Klas-Göran Karlsson
The paper departs from the suggestion that the Holocaust during the last two decades has developed into a basis of a founding history, or a basic value, of an integrated Europe. The process can be described as an important dimension of a third, cultural wave of European integration, following up and supporting earlier processes of economic and political integration. Its main idea is that the first European integration initiatives after the Second World War grew out of the horrible experiences of the Holocaust, and that increased integration provides the best guarantee against a repetition of genocidal violence. Those who deny or banalise the Holocaust are not allowed into the European Community.
However, it goes without saying that this public or official European Holocaust interest is of recent origin, that few if any European states and societies in the first post-war decades demonstrated any will to give attention to Holocaust history, and that the result of the present European Holocaust construction work, in particular demonstrated in commemorative practices of the anniversary year of 2005, can be labelled a founding myth of a new Europe. The paper analyses this process in terms of theoretical concepts such as historical consciousness, history culture and uses of history, and from various empirical documentations, benefiting from the research project ‘The Holocaust and European history culture’, which the present author has been in charge of since 2001. Among publications produced within the project can be mentioned Klas-Göran Karlsson & Ulf Zander (eds.), Echoes of the Holocaust. Historical Cultures in Contemporary Europe, Lund: Lund Academic Press 2003, Klas-Göran Karlsson & Ulf Zander (eds.), Holocaust Heritage. Inquiries into European Historical Cultures, Malmö: Sekel Bokförlag 2004, and Klas-Göran Karlsson & Ulf Zander (eds.), Holocaust on Postwar Battlefields. Genocide as Historical Culture, Malmö: Sekel Bokförlag 2006. The proposed paper is designed to fit in with the papers suggested by Professor Kristian Gerner and Associate Professor Ulf Zander.
Prof. Klas-Göran Karlsson is a Professor of History at Lund University, Sweden. From 2001 to 2007, he was the leader of the large research project ‘The Holocaust in European History Cultures’. Research fields: Russian, Soviet and East European History, History of Historiography, Migration and Ethnic Conflicts, Problems Related to Ethnic Cleansing, Terror and Genocide. Recent publications: The Holocaust on Postwar Battlefields. Genocide as Historical Culture. Malmö: Sekel, 2006; Holocaust Heritage. Inquiries into European Historical Cultures. Malmö: Sekel, 2004; Historical Cultures in Contemporary Europe. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2003.
Friederike Kind-Kovács
The research emphasis of the present paper will lie in an analysis of the common discursive negotiation over the idea of a Europe during the Cold War, both in the form of its divided reality and its imagined unity. By means of tamizdat publication, meaning the Western publication of underground literature from Europe behind the Iron Curtain, the idea of the Other Europe aroused interest among intellectual circles in various Eastern and Western European countries. Most importantly Western intellectual magazines such as The New York Review of Books in New York and La Nouvelle Alternative in Paris focused their attention in the 1970s and 1980s on bringing various nonconformist voices from the Other Europe together on their pages and letting them present their new mental map of Europe, namely of an ‘Other’ Europe, which greatly contradicted the reality of Cold War Europe. Presenting the literary strategy of these journals, by which they hoped to give writers from the Other Europe a place in the European literary discourse, will illuminate a sphere of literary co-operation between East and West during the Cold War that has not been sufficiently analysed. I will show that tamizdat was able to contribute not only to a practical and emotional rapprochement, but also to a discursive engagement of intellectuals on both sides of the Iron Curtain. This will contribute to a clearer picture of those (literary) argumentations, through which writers in the East and West aimed to overcome in one way or another the literary isolation of both parts of Europe, which had been the result of an ‘Iron Curtain for literature’. It is in particular the ambiguity of the term Other Europe which allows us to focus on the re-creation of an other, no longer divided, European canon of literature. Thus, the Other European literature (namely the literature from behind the Iron Curtain) contributed to the re-emerging belief in an existing all-European literature, a powerful conception which has even left traces on today’s conceptions of Europe in the sphere of literature.
Dr phil. Friederike Kind-Kovács has been working at the Chair for Southeast-European and East-European History of the University of Regensburg, Germany since 2009. She was awarded her PhD in 2008 at the University of Potsdam for her thesis on ‘Out of the drawer and into the West: Tamizdat from the Other Europe and its vision and practice of a transnational literary community (1956-1989)’. Research fields: Contemporary History and History of the Media in Eastern Europe (especially Hungary), Narrative Interviews, Discourses on Europe (Central Europe/The Other Europe). Recent publication: ‘An “Other Europe” through Literature: Re-creating a European literary “Continent” after Helsinki’ in: Jose Faraldo / Paulina Gulinska-Jurgiel / Christian Domnitz (eds.), Europa im Ostblock. Vorstellungen und Diskurse (1945-1991) / Europe in the Eastern Block. Imaginations and Discourses. Cologne; Vienna: Böhlau Verlag 2008, pp. 267-299.
Maria Kistereva / Mikhail Kabitskiy
For an average European it is sometimes difficult to understand the so-called ‘enigmatic Russian sole’. But the phenomenon might be better comprehended if one considers it from the literary point of view. It is a universally acknowledged truth that Russia is a literature-focused country. That is why an understanding of Russian literature will help much in the understanding of Russian culture in general.
Dostoevsky said that the Russian man is too wide in perceiving the world. And this receptivity manifests itself in Russian culture in such a way that, in the face of foreign influence, Russian culture not only absorbs it but also adopts and makes it a purely national phenomenon. For example, The Kremlin in Moscow was designed and built under the leadership of Italian architect Aristotle Fioravanti, but it is known as an entirely Russian piece of architecture. Russian literature shows similar examples. One the one hand, on the basis of freely used European migrant subjects, Russian writers produced outstanding works belonging to the masterpieces of literature, such as ‘The Stone Guest’ by Pushkin (about Don Juan). Russian readers perceive them as Russian works of art written on the basis of European material.
On the other hand, there is quite a long list of works translated from some European languages into the Russian language whose authors Russian readers do not even know because they are absolutely sure than the said works were written by Russian authors, about Russian nature, events or whatever (most of such works are poetry). And it is worth pointing out that these translations became Russian classics.
Maria Kistereva is a postgraduate student at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. She is working on the general subject ‘The First Grammars for the European Languages’, started in 2006. Recent publications: About the grammatical example in a language description. Moscow, 2008; Jardins da Rússia: Cultura de jardins na Rússia. Lisbon, 2008; About the continuity in the first grammar traditions. Moscow, 2007.
Dr Mikhail Kabitskiy is an Historian, Ethnologist, Translator and Professor at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. He received his PhD in History (subject: ethnology) in 2000, defending a thesis on ‘Basic lines of the development of Portuguese ethnology and anthropology from the end of XIX century to our time’. Recent publications: Political, social and cultural aspects of the relations of Portugal with Latin America. Moscow, 2004; The History of the Portuguese Ethnology. Moscow, 2003; National identity of the Portuguese. Approaches and Discussions. St. Petersburg, 2003.
Dieter Köhler
The primary meaning of the term ‘Europe’ in ordinary language is geographic and to a lesser extent cultural. However, regarding the EU, the concept of Europe has at least a third major facet: its politico-economic aspect. As to the question what areas are ‘European’, these facets overlap but do not coincide. So far the differences between them have not been very important for the formation of the EU (with the single exception of the discussion about the accession of Turkey).
Now that the EU covers most of the European continent, one wonders whether the EU has reached more or less its final borders – at least in a medium-term perspective of, let us say, 50 years – or whether the process of the European unification should strive for the integration of countries beyond the borders of the European continent.
It is the politico-economic aspect of European unification that makes it seem advisable to consider such a larger federation. The two most important objectives behind the unification of the EU have been to establish an efficient institution for peacekeeping and economic prosperity. These goals are still crucial with regard to most of the current EU’s immediate neighbours, i.e. Russia and the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and call for a kind of federation or at least for strong common political institutions that efficiently promote these objectives.
If this is true, the question arises what could be done to put this idea in the public consciousness of the citizens. It seems that the geographic and cultural connotation of the term ‘Europe’ is not only too limited for this vision, but may actually encumber its realisation. Although the geographic aspect is perhaps negligible, reservations against such alliances induced by cultural differences and ignorance might be quite strong.
With the initiative of French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the formation of a ‘Union for the Mediterranean’ this issue is no longer a theoretical one. If such a ‘Union for the Mediterranean’ should gain a momentum similar to that obtained by the EU, then it is mandatory that direct ties between the citizens of the EU and the citizens of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, among other things, be strengthened.
The ‘Euro-Mediterranean Media Partnerships’, a project already started in 2003, between universities from Germany, France, Tunisia and Morocco, wants to meet this challenge. The partner institutions foster the academic exchange of researchers and students across cultural boundaries by means of personal contacts for enduring professional, project-orientated collaboration. This project centres on a combination of short regular meetings and the ongoing use of Internet platforms. This strategy could serve as a paradigm how digital media could be used for cross-cultural academic research and teaching as well as for informing the general public.
Dr Dieter Köhler is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Research Coordinator of the Centre for Multimedia Studies at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany). He holds a doctoral degree of Philosophy from Heidelberg University, has worked at Bamberg University as a Postdoctoral Researcher and at the Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) as a visiting Professorial Fellow. Research fields: Analytical Philosophy, Information Ethics, and Computing. He maintains an Internet portal on philosophy as well as several open source projects in the field of humanities computing. Recent publication: ‘Die Relevanz der Philosophie, die Öffentlichkeit und das Internet’ (‘The Relevance of Philosophy, the General Public and the Internet’) in: Journal Phänomenologie 28, Heft 2 (2007), pp. 37-41.
Christian Koller
The First World War witnessed migration from the colonial world to Europe on an unprecedented scale. Among the temporary migrants from the colonies and semi-colonial regions to Europe were both war workers and soldiers. The latter included about 650,000 men coming from India and several parts of Africa as well as from Indochina in order to fight for Britain and France. The proposed paper will focus on views of Europe as outlined in letters and autobiographical writing by Indian and West African soldiers. I shall argue that these sources show a far from uniform strategy on the part of colonial soldiers coping with the experience of a completely foreign world. Some of them obviously were able to integrate what they experienced in Europe into their cognitive background. They enjoyed honour gained on the battlefields and were proud of their colonial masters’ power. For a second group, there was a large gap between what they were used to and what they experienced in Europe. Comparing these two worlds, they arrived at a rejection of their own customs and habits and an unconditional admiration for the European social, economic and gender order. A third group of colonial soldiers tried to defend their cultural identity, to fulfil their religious duties and traditional expectations as men and warriors. However, it was particularly soldiers from this third group who went on to suffer despair and resignation.
PD Dr Christian Koller has been a Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Bangor University, Wales since 2007 and ‘Privatdozent’ at the University of Zurich, Switzerland since 2003. He was awarded his PhD at the University of Zurich in 1998 with a thesis on discussions about the deployment of colonial troops in Europe (1914–1930) and his venia legendi in 2003 with a thesis on the concept of ‘Fremdherrschaft’ in 19th and early 20th century German political language. Research fields: History of Racism and Nationalism, Military History, Historical Semantics, Labour History, Sport History. Recent publications: ‘The Recruitment of Colonial Troops in Africa and Asia and their Deployment in Europe during the First World War’ in: Immigrants & Minorities. 26 (2008), pp. 111-133; ‘Defeat and Foreign Rule as a Narrative of National Rebirth – The German Memory of the Napoleonic Period in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries’ in: Jenny Macleod (ed.), Defeat and Memory: Cultural Histories of Military Defeat in the Modern Era. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp. 30-45; ‘“... der Wiener Judenstaat, von dem wir uns unter allen Umständen trennen wollen”: Die Vorarlberger Anschlussbewegung an die Schweiz’ in: Helmut Konrad /Wolfgang Maderthaner (eds.), Das Werden der Ersten Republik: ... der Rest ist Österreich. vol. 1, Vienna, 2008, pp. 83-102.
Sonja Koroliov
The relations between Russia and Western Europe, both cultural and political, have always been complex, often difficult, and sometimes unfortunate. However, in order to understand developments in the 19th and 20th century as well as in the present, it is useful to look at the (long) 18th century as the time when cultural relations between Russia and the West had recently begun developing on a significant scale. Thus, given that Russian-European discourses about the other tend to rely on oppositions such as rational/irrational, progressive/backward, individualist/collective, it is of particular interest to explore how the Enlightenment and Sentimentalism, both in their Eastern and Western versions, have shaped our understanding of these terms.
In his Letters of a Russian Traveller, Nikolai Karamzin, Russia’s major proponent of Sentimentalism, offers a literary description of his travels in Western Europe (Germany, Switzerland, France and England) in 1789-1790. What starts off as an educational journey to the home of progress, knowledge and enlightenment, soon turns into a trip of a wholly different nature. Although Karamzin follows his planned route for the most part, looking at major sights and meeting various scholars, writers etc., a large number of the episodes reported in the Letters take a strangely bizarre, spooky or at least curious turn, involving idiosyncratic, non-contextual, often comic behaviour, and a majority seem to pivot on themes of death, transience, disillusionment and disorientation, so that the Europe reflected in the traveller’s experience is a maze of unexpected meetings and impressions that, moreover, seems to baffle any attempt at establishing a coherent basis of meaning.
What then makes the Letters such a crucial text of European Sentimentalism, and at the same time such a crucial text on Europe? I will try to show that, far from just listing obvious topoi, the Letters do in fact fit the Enlightenment project extremely well in another way, in that they represent a depiction and discussion of Western Europe as the seat of individualism. By stressing the off-centre, non-representative, strange, private and idiosyncratic, Karamzin establishes individualism as part of enlightened ‘Europeanness’, but also reflects on what individualism means, how it relates to publicity, and, last but not least, how it comes to bear on the role of literature (and belles-lettres) as a private as well as public phenomenon.
Dr Sonja Koroliov is a Research Associate at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research on the European Enlightenment (IZEA) at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and Temporary Lecturer in Russian at the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. She studied Classics at the University of Oxford, where she also completed a Master’s degree in Modern Languages (Russian and German). Dissertation on the Russian and Jewish philosopher Lev Shestov in Heidelberg. Research fields: Russian and European Sentimentalism, Irrationalism, Theories of Insanity, Macedonian Literature.
Hiram Kümper
If you do not understand Europe as an institution that exists for political and economical reasons, you may find yourself talking about culture – the common European one –, a very historical category itself. Yet in this area a Babylonian confusion of terms and names is not uncommon to find: we may be talking about ‘the Occident’, or about the spirit of ‘European Enlightenment’ (even though there is no such thing as a non-European one), about the ‘Ancien Régime’ or about ‘Old Europe’. The latter serves what Bödeker and Hinrichs referred to as a hypothesis of understanding, which during the last years has built a considerable career in scientific as well as non-scientific language use, yet is still rather undefined as to what it actually refers to. What does Old Europe mean and to what end is it used? The concepts of Otto Brunner and Dietrich Gerhard have gained some prominence in the scientific community although they were not widely taken into account outside of historiography. Whereas Brunner describes Old Europe as a cultural community bound by a shared history of mentality which covers a time span ‘from Homer to Goethe’, that is from 800 B.C. until the 18th century A.D., Gerhard describes Old Europe as a socio-historical unity which finds expression in institutions and structures, e.g. Christian church jurisprudence, courtly culture or class consciousness. He considers the sufficient aggregation of such institutions and structures in Europe to have come about in the 12th century and to have disappeared during the final years of the 18th century mostly because of industrialisation. Gerhard’s Old Europe. A Study of Continuity 1000-1800 (1981) met with surprisingly little attention. The fact that it was published in Germany under the title of Das Abendland. Ursprung und Gegenbild unserer Zeit 800-1800 (1985) (‘The Occident. Origin and Reflection of Our Time 800-1800’) seems to be symptomatic of an indifference towards handling the conception of a common European history – an indifference still not overcome during the last 25 years.
My contribution is going to be about these two great ideas and some smaller ones which are overlooked too often. It is aimed at representatives of other eras, disciplines and subjects and not only at the small circle of medievalists and researchers of the early modern period. Answers are to be found for questions about the conditions, possibilities, problems and potentials of a conceptionalisation of a shared European historiography of premodern times and how the Old can contribute to the cultural identity of a New Europe.
Dr des. Hiram Kümper MA has been a Research Assistant at the University of Vechta, Germany since 2008. He graduated in History, Philosophy and German Language and Literature from the University of Bochum in 2005, and received his doctorate in Medieval and Modern History from the University of Mannheim in 2007 for a thesis on the reception of Saxon law in Central and Eastern Europe, c. 1250-1750. Research fields: Legal History, Religious History, History of Sexuality. Recent publications: ‘Der gerechte Krieg vor der Haustür. Zur Legitimation von Fehdehandlungen in einer Bußschrift des 15. Jahrhunderts’ in: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft. 56 (2008); ‘Das Glaubensverhör der Jüdin Rahel im Juni 1554 durch Nikolaus von Amsdorf als “Modus et forma judaei convertendi”’ in: Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte. 99 (2008); ‘Nichts als blauer Dunst? Zigarettensammelbilder als Medien historischer Sinnbildung – quellenkundliche Skizzen zu einem bislang ungehobenen Schatz’ in: Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht. 59 (2008).
Carlos Leone
This paper comprises two discussions, one theoretical the other historical. The first addresses the notion of political regime (e.g. a republic or a monarchy) vis-à-vis the notion of system of government (e.g. democracy or dictatorship), the first being a social contract establishing a civil society in its core values, the second a set of institutions designed to organise public life within such societies.
The theoretical discussion sets the stage for an appraisal of European Union’s current political debate about the reform of its institutions and attempts to establish the proper place (in a political regime or in a system of government levels) of the debate for the near future. This precision, ‘near future’, is mainly due to the untimely nature of these matters, which are necessarily bound to prospects subject to great unforeseen changes.
Dr Carlos Leone is a Researcher at the Centro de História da Cultura at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where he carries out research on Portuguese exiles during the 20th century. In 2004 he received his PhD in History of Ideas for a dissertation on the modernisation of Portuguese society vis-à-vis European societies from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He has published extensively in Portuguese alongside several other works in English.
Luís Lobo-Fernandes
The title of this paper is an invitation to reflect upon the ever-increasing relevance of regional integration processes in the post-World War II international arena.
My main purpose is to provide a cut on the important phenomenon of international integration. From the seventeenth century to the mid-twentieth century, the centralisation of authority in states – the so-called Westphalian system – was reinforced by a most powerful ideology – nationalism. Yet since the 1950s, the monopoly of states over political authority – the capacity to make legally binding decisions – has weakened. I am conscious that it is not easy to evaluate the historical importance of authoritative recasting while it is happening, but it seems likely that the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of this century will be regarded as a watershed in European political development. European integration has shifted authority in several key areas of policy-making from national states up to European-level institutions. Indeed, developments in the EU over the last two decades have revived debate about the consequences of European integration for the autonomy and authority of the state in Europe. Does this new political entity – the European Union – create principles for governing international relations that compete with the core Westphalian principles of sovereignty and anarchy?
Prof. Luís Lobo-Fernandes is Section Head of Political Science and International Relations, School of Economics and Management at the University of Minho, Portugal. PhD in Political Science, University of Cincinnati, USA. Research fields: Theories of International Relations, Theories of European Integration, European Union Institutions and Policies (Telecommunications Policies), Comparative Politics. Recent publications: ‘A Propósito do Tratado de Lisboa’ in Zoom, No. 16, XIII, pp. 51-59; Lobo-Fernandes, Luís / Rafael García Pérez: España y Portugal: Veinte años de integración europea. Santiago de Compostela: Tórculo Edicións, 2007.
Günther Lottes
The lecture will show that Europe as a whole acquired a political identity of its own in a series of peace conferences, starting with the Westphalian Peace of 1648. All the major challenges to the structural make-up of Europe such as the division of religion, the principle of revolution and the principle of nationalism were dealt with in this series of peace conferences, which rearranged the framework of European politics after violent commotions. In this sense, the institution of the conference became a pillar for a distinctly European political culture. The lecture develops this argument starting in 1648 and closing after the Second World War when the Cold War and the nuclear challenge called into question the very principle of Europe as a cultural and political unity.
Prof. Dr Günther Lottes has been Director of the Research Centre for the European Enlightenment in Potsdam since 1999 and holds the Chair of Cultural History at the University of Potsdam. Since 1996 he has been Speaker for the ‘Sonderforschungsbereich Erinnerungskulturen’, Justus Liebig University, Giessen.
Eduardo Lourenço
The critical result we can diagnose in analysing the history of Europe does not lead us to an appeal in favour of the cessation of the European project. We defend that a self-confessed European utopia is only worth living as the victory of Europe over Europe, over its own fiction which, consciously or unconsciously, has led its destiny against reality, in short, the triumph of its sublime non-identity over the ghosts of its hallucinated identity. It urges the invention of a consistent utopia for ‘Europe/Democracy/Liberty’ in order to build an ‘identitary image of Europe’, having as a starting point a cultural imaginary that can be shared by all Europeans.
Eduardo Lourenço is one of the most important contemporary thinkers of Portugal. He is an essayist and philosopher of culture. He graduated from the University of Coimbra in Philosophy and History, taught at several European universities, namely in the Nice Sophia Antipolis University, France and has a vast collection of published work, most of which are already considered works of reference in the field of Cultural Hermeneutics, including: Europa Desencantada. Lisbon: Visão, 1994; Labirinto da Saudade. Lisbon: Dom Quixote, 1991; Heterodoxia I e II. Lisbon: Assírio & Alvim, 1987.
Jacek Lyszczyna
In the period of Enlightenment philosophers and statesmen thought in terms of the community of the states, ignoring national differences in Europe. In XIX century Romanticism animated the consciousness of nationality throughout Europe. On the other hand, the sense of community spirit of the nations began to form under the influence of the Napoleonic Wars and ideas of the liberty of the people. The idea of the fight against tyrants caused the revolution named the springtide of nations in various countries of Europe in 1848. The very same idea was expressed in the Polish motto ‘for our freedom and yours’, and also in the poetry of Adam Mickiewicz and Cyprian Norwid, who always thought in terms of a common Europe.
Prof. Dr hab. Jacek Lyszczyna is an Historian of the literature specialised in the problems of the epoch of Romanticism. He works at the Institute of Polish Literature at the University of Silesia. He presides on the Committee on Literature Studies at The Katowice Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences and he is also a member of Asociación Española de Semiótica (Spain) and the Society for Iberian-Slavonic Studies – CompaRes. Research fields: Romantic Poetry, Theory of Literature, Works of the 19th Century Polish Poets of Silesia. Recent publications: He is the author of 7 books concerning the above-mentioned subjects as well as about 100 scientific articles published both in Poland and abroad (USA, Spain, Lithuania). He has prepared 5 editions of the works of Polish poets. He has also translated Spanish poetry: the poems of Federico Garcia Lorca and works by some contemporary poets.
Imre Gábor Majorossy
One of the most important representations of meetings of different cultures can be found in a Medieval Occitan novel called Barlaam et Josaphat. The story’s history reaches back to ancient India and tells of the main concern of any encounter: openness. The young Barlaam shows a deep openness towards the new teachings of the old teacher Josaphat. The Occitan version does not incorporate anything new, yet it confirms that mutual openness between different and almost separated cultures had always been necessary and appealing at the same time. Although border demarcations as we know them today were not used in Medieval times, Europe found itself separated from other continents. The separation was based on the important differences between the regions. Yet in all regions certain customs and traditions existed, reflecting the wisdom of bigger and smaller communities.
This novel, based on an Indian Buddha storyline, exists in many regional versions and was very successful during the Middle Ages. Its standing and appreciation had always been unique because the confrontation between two cultures does not take place on a theological level but on a moral one, which is a much more common level. In this peculiarity we can find its main objective: to emphasise what is shared between two cultures rather than contrast the differences.
It appears to be necessary to communicate the message of this work to the audience since it not only bears testimony to literary relations but also, on a higher level, to cultural confrontations. Although this legend can be understood as a tale of Christian resistance, in contrast to this it stresses the major similarities. Both Josaphat the heathen prince and Barlaam his Christian teacher decide on a system of values which incorporates heathen wisdom and Christian teachings. With reference to a story well-known during the Middle Ages, we aim to focus on the uniting characteristics to display the variety and the deep common roots. The rediscovery and a new commentary may contribute to a better understanding among us Europeans and with non-European people.
Prof. Imre Gábor Majorossy has been an Associate Professor at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University of Hungary since 1995. He graduated from the State Universities of Budapest in French Philology and of Pécs (also known as Fünfkirchen) in Aesthetics. He also graduated in Hungarian Philology from the Pázmány Péter Catholic University of Hungary. He was awarded a PhD for his thesis on the mystical tendencies in trobadour poetry at the University of Budapest, 2003. Research fields: Christian Ideology in Troubadour Poetry, Occitan Short Stories and Novels. Recent publications: Unas novas vos vuelh contar. La spiritualitäe chrétienne dans quelques nouvelles occitanes. Frankfurt a.M., a.o.: Peter Lang, 2007; ‘Amors es bona volontatz’ in: Chapitre de la mystique dans la poésie des troubadours. Budapest: Akadémiai, 2006.
Andrei Marga
My observation is that education for a united Europe begins with an understanding of the European culture with sufficiently precise criteria of the European belonging. In simpler words, one cannot teach the new generations to promote a united Europe without clearly knowing what it means to belong to Europe. Allow me to express my point of view in the concentrated form of two theses, which I will develop in detail.
The first thesis has to do with the belonging to Europe. European unity, especially after Maastricht and Nice, does not concern solely geographical or historical factors, but insists primarily on a cultural and institutional affiliation with Europe. In other words, geography and history are indispensable conditions for a European identity, but as the European unification – as it has already been said – is mainly an institutional and cultural process, belonging to Europe has to be evaluated today by taking into consideration institutions and culture.
The second thesis deals with European specificity. If we consider institutions to be incorporation of culture (as we are bound to do), then we can bring the whole discussion on the belonging to Europe to the matter of culture. However, we must point out that by culture we do not understand just philosophical ideas, artistic symbols, scientific theories and ideological programmes. Culture, obviously, comprises all these things, but together with their incorporation in various forms of social existence. One matter to be noted is that it is the individual culture of the citizens, and also mainly the culture shared by the structured multitudes of individuals that is involved in the process of the European Union. Facts support the statement that we can find individuals endowed with a remarkable level of culture in various European nations, but also that national communities now incorporate, in different degrees, various European values in their internal structures. This being the case, it is necessary to obtain indicators of Europeanisation especially in order to evaluate the status of the institutional Europeanisation. Such indicators (as can be proven by detailed analysis) imply the understanding of what the common traits of a cultural Europe really are.
Nevertheless, the establishing of the European cultural specificity is often submitted to the pitfalls of essay-writing which is impregnated by contextual opinions, of that of ideological improvisations of local policies. It is time that systematic viewpoints are assumed, in order to bring about the conceptual clarifications which are necessary for decision-making actions. My second thesis is the following: the European culture, understood as the ensemble of the ideas, symbols and theories which are incorporated in various forms of social existence, is specified on the levels of science, technical competence, economic behaviour, administrative skill, political action, spiritual culture of a certain kind. From the very beginning, we find unsatisfying the results of an approach to culture which starts with the postulation of a unity which spreads by assuming shape in everything, because these approaches do not allow for sufficiently differentiated descriptions of the factual situations. Today, the approaches which understand European culture as the interaction of technical competence, economic behaviour, administrative skill, political action and spiritual culture of a certain kind are rightfully preferred. In other words, neither the monism of economy, nor the monism of culture, like any other kind of monism, permit the specifying of the European culture, and, consequently, realistic evaluations and adequate actions.
The cultural belonging to Europe – understood in this sense – means the conditioning of productive competence by a continuously ascending technical competence, based on the implementation of modern sciences; furthermore, an economic behaviour characterized by economic rationality, that is, formed in such a way that the result constitutes a surplus as compared to what has been invested. It also means efficient administration which is based on a culture of law characterized by personalism, legalism and formalism; a culture of law which promotes the person as subject and aim of the law as well as the generality and sovereignty of the law. The cultural belonging to Europe also relies on values based on individual freedom and the understanding of this freedom as autonomy; also, the construction of the human being as a private area which rests on property, granted by laws which state fundamental and inalienable rights. Another European characteristic is that political will and state policy should derive from the public debate upon the issues of general interest, giving the upper hand to better arguments. European culture also entails a culture of research, of systematic knowledge working toward the idea of changing the technical, economic, administrative and cultural environments; and continuous communication of intellectual reflection with the issues of human life.
Prof. Andrei Marga is Professor for Contemporary Philosophy and Logic at the Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Since 2008 he is Rector of the same university. Research fields: Contemporary philosophy, Philosophy of the European unification, American pragmatism, Logic. Recent publications: Philosophie der europäischen Einigung.Cluj: University Press, 2009. La Sortie du Relativisme. Cluj: Editura Limes, 2008. Philosophia et Theologia Hodie. Cluj: Editura Fundaţiei pentru Studii Europene, 2008.
Ana Cristina Martins
During the 18th century, some national agendas looked at antiquarian activities as a way to support some of their aspirations, at a time when nationalism was being created in Europe. Consequently, epigraphic and numismatic studies increased, becoming strongly popular pastimes among aristocrats and new bourgeoisie. Together with the intensity of this occurrence, the 19th century brought a novelty: the birth of Modern prehistoric archaeology beginning with the establishment of human antiquity in 1859. And this paradigm renewed the quest for national identities, being simultaneously crucial to the development of archaeology itself.
Portugal was no exception. On the contrary, intellectuals tried to reaffirm (believed) Portuguese cultural uniqueness, validating national boarders substantiated by archaeological artefacts. In fact, some of these researchers contradicted the common perception of the European past shaped by an ex orient lux. Quite the reverse, they conceived the idea of an ex occident lux derived from the Iberian Peninsula, which spread to other regions including north Africa. Megaliths played an essential role for this purpose. Especially in what concerned their architecture, and their ‘packages’. Based on their alleged singularity – chronological, and structural –, some archaeologists believed in their primacy over those discovered elsewhere in Europe. This was particularly clear during the 20th century Portuguese Estado Novo (‘New State’) political agenda, as we will analyse in the paper. Furthermore, we will figure out how our main archaeologists were committed to the making of nationalism in the country, envisioning Western Europe united by the megalithic phenomenon.
Dr Ana Cristina Martins has been an Auxiliary Researcher at the Tropical Research Institute (IICT) in Lisbon, Portugal since 2008. She graduated from the University of Lisbon in Historical and Archaeological Studies and was awarded a PhD for her thesis on the history of archaeology in Portugal between the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th. Research fields: History of Science, History of Archaeology, Science, Archaeology and Ideological Agendas. Recent publications: ‘(Re)presenting Identities: The “Museu Etnológico Português (Lisbon)”’ in: Julian Thomas / Vítor Oliviera Jorge (eds.), Archaeology and The Politics of Vision in a Post-Modern Context. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008, pp. 263-277; ‘Protohistory at the Portuguese Association of Archaeologists: a question of national identity?’ in: Nathan Schlanger / Jarl Nordbladh (eds.), Archives, Ancestors, Practices. Archaeology in the light of its History. New York: Berghahn Books, 2008, pp. 287-303.
Muanamosi Matumona
Speaking of the relation Europe-Africa is a complex task and, simultaneously, a thankless one which forces one to go back in time and space and approach a phenomenon that marked the history of humanity: colonialism. And when we talk about colonialism, Portugal appears in the front line, considering the philosophy that fed and orientated its colonial practice, and also its extremely long presence, being one of the last countries to put an end to its policy, giving in to the many pressures that came from the West.
It is a fact that Portugal, during the history of its presence and adventures in Africa, kept many contacts with many peoples and kingdoms, namely Tangiers, Dahomey, Senegal, the Congo, etc… Presently, however, in an indelible way, only five African countries maintain those strong historical and cultural ties. They are consecrated and known as Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP). These five nations identify themselves with Portugal nowadays: Angola (that ‘became […] the beloved daughter of the Portuguese’), Mozambique, São Tomé e Príncipe, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. Fruit of that historical heritage, these countries have, though Portugal, a gateway to the European continent.
This way, Portugal, in the context of the so-called ‘lusophony’, is the ‘bridge’ or Europe’s ‘identity card’ to the PALOP. Thus, these countries are neither closed nor isolated from Europe and are very well-acquainted with this continent with which they relate and intend to maintain sincere and profitable relations for everyone, leaving behind the negative marks of colonialism, even though the positive aspects of this phenomenon (colonialism) should be used in an era in which all peoples should walk together for the formation of a better world … And Europe has much to give to the African universe and also much to learn from it.
Prof. Muanamosi Matumona is a Professor of Sociology at the Universidade Agostinho Neto, Angola, Catholic Priest and Journalist. He has a PhD in Fundamental Theology and a postgraduation in Social Communication taken at Lisbon’s Portuguese Catholic University. Presently, he is preparing a PhD dissertation on African Sociology. He is the author of four works: Jornalismo Angolano. História, desafios e expectativas (2002); A Reconstrução de África na era da modernidade (2004); Cristianismo e mutações sociais em África (2005); Teologia Africana da Reconstrução como novo paradigma epistemológico (2008).
Judith Michel
‘The United States will continue to support the unification of Europe. We have no intention of destroying what we worked so hard to help build. For us, European unity is what it has always been: not an end in itself but a means to the strengthening of the West. We shall continue to support European unity as a component of a larger Atlantic partnership.’ This statement was part of Henry Kissinger’s speech on the Year of Europe, which he delivered in April 1973. In this speech he stressed, on the one hand, the ongoing importance of European integration; on the other hand, he characterised Europe as a regional power and expected its subordination within the alliance, asking at the same time for greater burden sharing and more concessions in economic questions. Furthermore, Kissinger proposed the creation of an institutionalised dialogue between Europe and the United States and the drafting of a transatlantic declaration. The consultations following the speech revealed that Kissinger tried to gain greater control over European politics by linking the American security guarantee to economic issues and by getting more deeply involved in European consultation processes. Though the Nixon-Kissinger administration officially encouraged the efforts of its European partners to co-ordinate their policies, it ignored the Europeans’ attempts to speak with one voice and rather continued to deal with them bilaterally. It thereby disturbed the efforts of the European Community to harmonise their foreign policies especially with regard to the crisis in the Middle East and the oil crisis of 1973/74 and disclosed that the EC – facing these conflicts with global impact – did in fact not manage to transcend its role as a regional player. Both the Nixon-Kissinger administration’s lack of willingness and the Europeans' lack of ability to deal with each other on equal terms finally led to the failure of the Year of Europe which ended in an ineffectual compromise and hollow phrases. The presentation will analyse the following questions: What domestic and external reasons motivated Kissinger’s proposal? What does the initiative itself and the consultations between the transatlantic partners subsequently tell about the views of the Nixon-Kissinger administration on Europe and its role in the world? What does it reveal about the worldview of the American protagonists and to what extent do their assumptions reflect the views of other US administrations in the post-war era? While substantive research has already been done on the American attitude towards European integration and Europe’s role in international politics during the first two decades after 1945, comparatively few studies deal with the American views on Europe during the Nixon-Kissinger era. Some early analyses dealing with the Year of Europe could not draw on archival materials. More recent general works on transatlantic relations and biographies on Kissinger and Nixon touch upon the topic only briefly. The articles by Fiona Venn on the oil crisis of 1973/74 (1999) and by Pascaline Winand on ‘The Year of Europe Speech and its Genesis from an American Perspective’ (edited in a volume of the European Union Liaison Committee of Historians in 2007) shed some light on America’s role during the Year of Europe. Winand furthermore presented a paper on this topic at a conference on ‘Willy Brandt and the European Integration’ in Metz (2006). Robert Wampler also held a presentation on Kissinger’s motives for his initiative at a conference on ‘The Atlantic Community Unraveling? States, Protest Movements, and the Transformation of US European Relations, 1969-1983’ in Nashville (2004). In my presentation, I would like to add to this academic discussion, which has only just begun. I will draw on recent archival research which I have conducted for my doctoral thesis on ‘Willy Brandt and the United States of America’ which will soon be published.
Dr des. Judith Michel has been a Research Assistant at the University of Bonn, Germany since 2007. She graduated from the University of Bonn in American Studies, History and Political Science, where she was also awarded a PhD for her thesis on Willy Brandt and the United States of America in 2008. Research fields: Transatlantic Relations, Cold War History.
Tadeusz Miczka
At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, contentions, or even conflicts, concerning the character of national identities are becoming more visible. This problem is kept in the foreground of discussions about the future of Europe; but on every continent this phenomenon is in a different stage of transformation. First of all, the processes of globalisation cause an increase in the number of supporters of weak, non-essential, changeable, so called ‘open’ identities. On the other hand, there is an increasing number of different types of fundamentalists, who believe that a strong identity, which is stable and enrooted in national traditions, is the only way to prevent the identification with local cultures from disappearing and splitting within global culture and communication. Taking into account the arguments of both sides, my assumption is that tensions between weak and strong identities are not only dangerous for national and cultural identification. Research results show that these tensions can create numerous opportunities for the articulation of national and cultural specificity. In my opinion they can even establish one of the fundaments of Europeanism understood as a strategy of preserving national cultures at a time when a new world deal is being shaped. I consider the issue of Europeanism by means of diversification between variety and otherness. Following the track indicated by Homi Bhabha, I try to prove that this diversification forms a conceptual framework, useful for describing representation of ‘specificity’ and ‘otherness’ in discussions concerning Europeanism.
Prof. zw. Dr hab. Tadeusz Miczka has been a Full Professor at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland since 1990. He is a Qualified Assistant Professor at Jagiellonian University, having submitted his thesis on Italian futuristic art, released in 1988. Research fields: History and Theory of Audiovisual Communication, European Cultural Studies, Modern Media, Comparative Research on Contemporary Culture. Recent publications: ‘Cinema in the Labyrinths of Freedom. Polish Feature Film after 1989’ in: Kinema, Toronto, 2008, pp. 79-100; ‘New Media as New Forms of Political Communication and New Forms of “Disciplining Technology of Power”’ in: Transformacje, Warszawa 2008, pp. 297-306; ‘Informationskultur als neuer “Regler” des sozialen Lebens’ in: Gerhard Banse / Andrzej Kiepas (eds.), Visionen der Informationsgesellschaft 2016. Berlin: Trafo Verlag, 2008, pp. 67-78.
António Moniz
In despite of being a tópos, the classic European roots are not always duly recognised, as we have observed in the discussion about the European Constitution, later replaced by the European Treatise.
We shall start with the Greek myth of Europe (eurôpos, the big eyes), symbol of seduction and violence, and we shall analyse the most expressive contribution of Greek and Roman cultural heritage to European civilisation. From the political perspective, in Greek polis we can meet the democratic and republican solution; in the Roman Empire we can see the hegemony mixed with the cultural interrelationship; military glory was the most important aspiration of the Roman citizen. From the juridical perspective, the notion of citizenship was extremely limited with the Greeks, but progressively opened with the Romans; Res publica was based on nomos and lex, on court and magistracy. From the economic perspective, the pillar of agriculture was reached by industrial manufacture and trade; the creation of currency and financial system permitted an easier circulation of goods. From a social perspective, it was obvious that the slavery system, juridically alive until the 9th century and renewed in other forms, until the present day; the great gap among families and gentry; the family system; children and youth education. From a cultural perspective, the prestige of the Greek and Latin languages was determinant; the glory of the arts; scientific and technological development; the supremacy of religion and ethical values; an activity based on otium and negotium.
Dr António Moniz graduated in Classical Studies and History from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. In 1996 he got his doctorate in Portuguese Studies (16th and 17th century literature). Recent publications: ‘O topos clássico e renascentista do Jardim: paradigma da utopia’ in: Jardins do Mundo. Discursos e Práticas. Lisbon: Gradiva, 2008, pp. 623-630; ‘Do Grego ao Latim – a relatividade da tradução’ in: Revista da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas – Relatividade e Experiência. (separata) no. 19, Lisbon: Colibri, 2007, pp. 69-77.
María Isabel Morán Cabanas
One of the main aims of the Council of Europe is to promote a better understanding of cultural heritage of the different nations and to contribute to an intercultural dialogue. For the Council of Europe, it is important to make Europeans aware of the common cultural heritage in order to create a feeling of European identity transcending national borders. In this context the European Cultural Route was created by the Council of Europe in 1987 – the first Cultural Route distinguished by this programme was precisely the Route of Santiago de Compostela. The singularity of the Route of Santiago is due, among other aspects, to its antiquity, its large extension, its historical meaning during the Middle Ages and its extraordinary contribution to developments in literature, arts, science and technology.
In this lecture I will analyse the extent to which the Route of Santiago is a space of European collective memory in the present day and the role of the label European Cultural Route in institutionalising this memory. I will refer to the mythification process of St. Elisabeth of Portugal and St. Brigid of Sweden as empirical examples. Both achieved a European projection, and St. Brigid was even named a patron saint of Europe.
Prof. Dr María Isabel Morán Cabanas is a Professor of Portuguese Literature at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. She was awarded her PhD in Medieval Portuguese Literature for her work on García de Resende’s ‘Cancioneiro Geral’. Research fields: Contemporary Poetry, especially Eroticism from a Social-literary Perspective, and Neo-troubadour Literature in the Iberian Peninsula. Recent publication: María Isabel Morán Cabanas / José Eduardo Franco, O Padre António Vieira e as Mulheres – O mito barroco do universo feminine. Porto: Campo das Letras, 2008.
Valmir Muraro
An analysis of the available documents that deals with the meaning of ‘Europe’ as seen from the Brazilian point of view allows the identification of three different meaningful moments, or stages. Overall, the writings published between 1850 and 1935, especially those by Francisco Varnhagen and Gilberto Freyre, show a tendency to praise and be seduced by the actions of a ‘civilising Europe’. In this perspective, the Portuguese are presented as being successful artificers of the cultural transformations that have taken place in Brazil ever since it was ‘discovered’. It is precisely this admiration of the ethical and cultural efforts of the European colonisation movement that stimulated the hopes of a promising future. However, during that same time, voices disagreeing with the colonisation project of Brazil also begin to emerge; voices such as that of Capistrano Abreu, who insisted that the Europeans were ‘foreigners’ who failed to take into consideration the culture of the population that inhabited the territory prior to their arrival.
In addition, between the years of 1936 and 2000, there emerge yet other interpretations of the presence of the Europeans in the American continent. Experts such as Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, Nélson Werneck Sodré, Caio Prado, Florestan Fernandes e Fernando Henrique Cardoso, among others, spoke of the limited success achieved by the colonising actions as they were applied in Brazil. Signalling a phase of disenchantment with the results of the European cultural project that was intended to be transferred to the Tropics, this phase could also be called anti-eurocentric.
In the last years, with the social-economic achievements made evident by the historical path that eventually led to the formation of the European Community, the structures of the relationship between colonising nations and colonised nations altered significantly. And in Brazil, efforts to bring together different European nations, overcoming economical, geographical and cultural limitations, can be translated into an image of a Europe whose efforts are stimulated by the advantages of communitarian ideals.
Prof. Valmir Muraro is an Historian and Professor at the Department of History at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. He is an expert on António Vieira. Research fields: Antonio Vieira, Iberian History, Fifth Empire, Colonial Brazil. Recent publications: Inquisição Portuguesa: tempo, Razão e Circustâncias. Lisboa: Profácio, 2007; ‘A Missão: História e versões’ in: Susana Bastos Mateus / Paulo Mendes Pinto, A sétima arte vai ao Céu. Lisbon: Firmamento, 2005.
Peeter Müürsepp
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, globalisation often functions as little more than a synonym for one or more of the following phenomena: the pursuit of classical liberal policies in the world economy, the growing dominance of Western (or even American) forms of political, economic and cultural life (westernisation or Americanisation), the proliferation of new information technologies, as well as the notion that humanity stands on the threshold of realising one single unified community in which major sources of social conflict have vanished. It is symptomatic that globalisation is often paralleled with Americanisation and/or westernisation. The term ‘Europeanisation’ has been used very seldom if ever. It is surprising as all the above-mentioned typical characteristics of globalisation have their origin in the European cultural tradition. It is Europe, not the United States that is the real cultural cradle of the most visible trends in the contemporary global society. It is Europe, where the three Ps of globalisation, namely the phenomenon, the philosophy and the process, originate. Consequently, the future prospects of the idea of Europe fully depend on the progress of globalisation. However, Europe has to redefine itself, its identity and its geographical boundaries in order to take the lead in globalisation. First of all, Europe has to open up. The chances for Europe in the process of globalisation lie rather in the East than in the West. The key issue in the progress of globalisation is the question, how efficiently Europe can solve the problem of its geographical and cultural identity, whether or not there can be a European identity overarching the national ones. The idea of the European identity needs to obtain more organic content than just a sum of national identities of the European countries.
Prof. Dr Peeter Müürsepp has been a Professor at the Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia since 2005. He graduated from University of Tartu with an MSc in Mathematics and an MPhil in Philosophy. He was awarded his PhD in Humanities (Philosophy) at Vilnius University for his thesis on the philosophy of René Thom in 2002. Research fields: General Philosophy of Science, Philosophical Problems of Globalisation, Models of Identity. Recent publications: ‘The Three Dimensions of Globalization’ in: Contemporary Problems of Freedom, Human Rights, and Identity. East-West Studies. Journal of Social Sciences of University Nord. Number 2 (39). Tallinn: Akadeemia Nord, 2008, pp. 63-66; Rein Vihalemm / Peeter Müürsepp, ‘Philosophy of Science in Estonia’ in: Journal for General Philosophy of Science. 38 (2007), Springer, pp. 167-191.
Boyka Georgieva Nédeva
With this work we intend to shed some light on the possibilities of the future role of less known languages at European level, namely Portuguese and Bulgarian, to develop and maintain European and international co-operation. It is also important to clarify the need and the role of such idioms for the future development of mankind.
Besides paying attention to the importance of a global language for communication and scientific interchange, we will approach the problems that may arise because a language is an important instrument of knowledge and communication, a self-improvement and source of aesthetic pleasure and also an instrument of ideological and political domination. Similarly to the brief review of diverse adopted opinions and hypotheses about the future role of national languages in daily life and in co-operation policies, we will also reflect on the subject that concerns the future role and relevance of national languages in European and international co-operation policies. Considering several analyses and prognoses made by analysts in this context, in this section we will try to answer the following question: is the future of mankind connected to the generalised unification and existence of only one communication language between people and peoples? The final part of this work is a critical appraisal of the subject, a personal reflection about the theme, as well as a presentation of conclusive aspects.
Boyka Georgieva Nedeva is a Lecturer of Portuguese at the St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.
António Nóvoa
Throughout the 1990s, but especially since the approval of the Lisbon Strategy (2000), the European Union has been playing an important role in the definition of guidelines for educational policies. Even if each Member State has the competency to regulate education, it is impossible to ignore the growing role of the European Union is this field. The programme Education & Training 2010 is a good example of this development. The analysis and discussion of this programme is the main purpose of the lecture entitled ‘An Education for Europe?’.
Prof. António Nóvoa is Rector of the University of Lisbon, Portugal, where he also is a Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences. He earned a PhD in History at Paris-Sorbonne University and a PhD in Educational Sciences at University of Geneva. He was Main Advisor for Education to the Portuguese President of the Republic (1996-1998) and the President of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (2000-2003).
Throughout his academic career he has been a Professor at several international universities (Geneva, Wisconsin-Madison, Oxford, Columbia-New York, etc.). António Nóvoa’s work has been published in 15 countries. He is the author of several books (about 12) and chapters or articles (about 100), and editor of 12 books, mainly in the fields of History of Education and Comparative Education. Research fields: History of Education and Comparative Education. Recent publications: António Nóvoa / M. Law: Fabricating Europe: The Formation of an Education Space. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2007.
Franz Obermeier
For a long time European discoveries in the early modern period (15th to 18th centuries) were seen as a unilateral spreading of Europe’s cultural values such as religion and technological superiority at a world-wide level. Most of the Europeans in the colonies, however, adapted to local traditions and habits and thus ensured their colonial domination. The mixed cultures of these ‘go-betweens’ had great influence in Europe. Colonial products (plants, art objects) were introduced and influenced European art developments (exoticism in paintings or tapestries or the ‘chinoiserie’ mode in the 18th century just to mention well-known phenomena). It is far less known how the contact with the ‘other’ helped to define European identity.
Confrontation with other civilisations quickly led to a discussion about the European concept of civilisation, the travel books provided ample material about non-European communities with different social practices. The iconographic and pre-ethnological material was widely used and gave birth to the tradition of the ‘noble savage’, dominating the 18th century philosophical definition about the justification of power. Various observations as to the existence of common goods in aboriginal tribes led to a questioning of European commercial practice in European utopian literature and a severe critique of the traditional European economic balance of power. Authors such as the Abbé Raynal saw the colonial economy as an undervalued, not adequately developed opportunity for European commercial development on a humanitarian basis without slavery (Raynal, Histoire philosophique et politique, des établissemens & du commerce des européens dans les deux Indes, 1770, one of the most often republished books in the 18th centuries).
This contribution shall put the main focus on a few major lines in this development: the contact with non-European communities led to an epistemologically important discussion of different ‘mythologies’ and finally the cultural comparison in Lafitau’s Moeurs des sauvages américains (1724) and Rousseau’s political discussion of original societies as a measure of questioning the legitimacy of absolute power in search of a new ‘contrat social’. Raynal was the first to form a conception of world-wide commerce as a medium for justly balanced economic development between the colonies and Europe.
Costume books and depictions of non-Europeans helped to promote a new genre in European art and imagination: the ‘costume books’ integrating typical habits of Europeans and other nations. They have gone on to influence stereotyped images of nations in art and literature up to our times.
Travel books about non-European countries broke with the medieval tradition of enumerating, copying or compiling from secondary sources, as in many medieval pilgrim books, and led to a discussion about the concept of ‘authenticity’ in European geographical and historical literature. Colonisation had an overwhelming impact on historiography and political theory. The Spanish court had official historiographers and Protestant authors who questioned the Spanish right to colonisation in the European-wide critique of the so-called leyenda negra. Later on in the 18th century the ‘Jesuit state’ of the reducciones (Indian villages ruled by the Jesuits) in South America caused discussions in Europe about idealised theocratic rule and finally became a pretext to suppress the Jesuit order in the 18th century. These discussions used the early European press contacts and spread to various countries; they helped to create a common European ‘public opinion’ across political borders.
Focussing on the exemplary developments mentioned, the contribution shows that contact with non-European civilisations led to an early European self-definition and a considerable enrichment of European thinking. It helped build a Europe-wide communication and press system in the early modern times and a communauté des savants interested in similar questions even if disagreeing on many specific valuations.
Dr Franz Obermeier is a Librarian at the Universitätsbibliothek Kiel. He graduated from the University of Regensburg in Romanic and Slavonic languages with a PhD thesis on the French in Northern Brazil in the 17th century. Research fields: Early Colonial History of Latin America, mainly La Plata Region and Brazil, Iconography of the Colonies, Indigenous Languages. Recent publications: Ulrich Schmidel / Ulrico Schmidl, Reise in die La Plata-Gegend / Viaje al Rio de la Plata. (Critical Edition). Kiel: Westensee-Verlag, 2008; Hans Staden Warhaftige Historia/ Duas viagens ao Brasil. (Critical Edition). Kiel: Westensee-Verlag, 2007.
Klaus Oschema
The existence of a concept of Europe before 1700 has been questioned in several publications during the last three decades, but medievalists continue to frequently refer to ‘Europe in the Middle Ages’. Although most of the references simply use the notion in order to delimitate the geographical area in which the authors want to analyse a particular problem, there are, however, a certain number of publications by medievalists that explicitly address the question of ‘medieval Europe’. The central question thus remains, in which way could it be justified and heuristically fertile to speak of Europe in the Middle Ages? Generally speaking, periods of intensive publication on this subject coincide with central political events during the 20th century; medievalists’ contributions can thus be viewed as an expression of the intricate interrelations between historical research and the political needs of their time. The present paper proposes to interpret these conjunctures as an expression of extra-scientific needs rather than a discussion originating in the discussions that dominate the disciplines which participate. As a consequence, most contributions on ‘Europe in the Middle Ages’ tend to hypostasise a modern concept of a material European culture and thus have to be regarded as projections on the period they pretend to analyse.
This paper proposes a critical appraisal of these effects before approaching the cultural and semantic charge of the concept of Europe in the Latin West between the 5th and 15th centuries. Although the position that ‘Europe did not exist during the Middle Ages – it rather replaced the Middle Ages’ (R. Hiestand) has gained widespread acceptance, the notion itself is far from being rare in medieval texts. If one focuses not on a genuinely ‘political’ use of the term, a closer analysis reveals that the notion of ‘Europe’ could be used by contemporaries in a broad variety of contexts, from the description of military actions during the Crusades to the positioning of one’s own community (state, people) in the larger framework of a religiously founded perception of historical development. As a consequence, the notion of ‘Europe’ could acquire an important cultural semantic charge – however without leading to a uniformly defined and stable concept. One has thus to ask if the political value of the notion might have depended, not unlike its use in our own times, on its flexibility? The medieval notion of ‘Europe’ could then be described as a ‘stopgap’ that could be called upon to satisfy different kinds of discursive needs, providing a basis for political compromise: authors using the notion unanimously agreed on the importance and ‘venerability’ of the ideas that it evoked while the concrete details of practical problems and solutions remained open to debate. In order to cite only one example: from the 12th century onwards, Europe was frequently designated as being a ‘Christian’ continent, although the church’s claims included a central role in universal (i.e. ‘global’) salvation. Some authors, however, shied away from the picture of a religiously homogeneous continent by recognising the existence of relevant minorities. As a consequence, we have to ask if these phenomena could even theoretically furnish a basis for the generalised construction of a ‘Christian continent of Europe’ today – or if it rather invites us to be aware of the culturally (and historically) constructed and thus contingent nature of the concept of ‘Europe’?
Dr Klaus Oschema has been a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Heidelberg University, Germany since 2007 and is an Associated Researcher at the University of Berne, Switzerland. He studied Medieval History, Philosophy, English Linguistics and Literature at Bamberg and Paris-Nanterre. In 2004 he obtained his PhD in Medieval History as a joint degree (thèse de co-tutelle) from the Dresden University of Technology and the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris with a thesis on ‘Friendship and Proximity in Late Medieval Burgundy’. Research fields: Medieval Aristocratic Culture, Ritual and Social Symbols, History of Emotions, Medieval France and Burgundy, Medieval Concepts of Europe, Historiography. Recent publications: ‘Les Europes des médiévistes. Remarques sur la construction d’une identité entre science historique et actualité politique’ in: SHMESP (ed.), Être historien du Moyen Âge au XXIe siècle. Paris: Publ. de la Sorbonne, 2008, pp. 37-50; ‘Eine Identität in der Krise – Konstruktionen des mittelalterlichen Europa’ in: Christoph Dartmann / Carla Meyer (eds.), Identität und Krise? Konzepte zur Deutung vormoderner Selbst-, Fremd- und Welterfahrungen. Münster: Rhema, 2007, pp. 23-43. ‘Blood-brothers: A Ritual of Friendship and the Construction of the Imagined Barbarian in the Middle Ages’ in: Journal of Medieval History 32 (2006), pp. 275-301.
Alexandra Patrikiou
This paper aims to juxtapose two perceptions regarding the Old Continent, as presented in the Greek setting during the Axis occupation: the one of the Quisling governments, the other of governments-in-exile.
The concept of the Axis’ ‘New Europe’ was employed by the Quisling governments as a justification for collaborating with the Germans. They envisaged Europe as an enclosed geographical entity subject not only to the pressure of warfare but also to ideological constructs (unifying myths, use of the past – use of specific historical facts interpreted in a ‘suitable’ way, presenting the enemy as responsible for the war) and hence turned it into a cultural space. The cultural space was identified with the West and their enemy with the East. The construction of ‘New Europe’, which also included the vision of an economy based on autarky and the artificial stabilisation of currency, after having conquered the European lebensraum, would protect this political and cultural space.
As for the governments-in-exile, they perceived New Europe, in the sense of post-war Europe, as part of a wider scheme and fragmented into smaller geographical entities (Balkans, East, West, etc.). Creating small confederations (like the Greek-Yugoslav agreement of 1942) would protect the continent from future wars. The depiction of the war itself reveals that the Allies were also identified with the civilised West and were fighting the barbaric East.
Apart from the apparent and striking differences, interestingly enough there are similarities as well. In both cases we have positive connotations for the term ‘west’ and negative for the term ‘east’. In both cases some kind of unification of post-war Europe was employed as a solution, as a construction that would prevent another war. This existence of similarities suggests that pro-integration thinking constitutes a consequence of the experience of war and part of the expectations of its aftermath.
Alexandra Patrikiou is a PhD candidate at the Panteion University of Athens, Greece working on the representations of Europe in Greece during the 1940s. She obtained her MA in European Studies from the King’s College, London in 2004. Research fields: History of European Unification and Greece in 1940s. Recent publication: ‘“Europe of the New Europe”. Representations of the Old Continent in a collaborationist newspaper of Salonica, 1941-1944’ in: Istor (15), 2007, pp. 107-139.
Carme Fernández Pérez-Sanjulián
In my lecture I would like to offer a first approach to the ideas of Europe in Galician literature of the 20th century. Galicia has a small territory and at the same time a very sharp cultural identity. I will analyse the discourse of Europe that has been produced since the beginning of the 20th century and is called the ‘europeismo’ among the intellectual elites in Galicia. Within this discourse Europe turned out to be the referent for the cultural innovation Galicians wished to be part of. By this means Europe also became a political reference for the Galician collective identity.
Prof. Dr Carme Fernández Pérez-Sanjulián is a Titular Professor in the area of Portuguese and Galician Philology at the University of A Coruña, Spain. Research fields: Galician and Portuguese Literature of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Gender Studies, Theory of Literature and Post-colonial Studies. Recent publications: A construción nacional no discurso literario de Ramón Otero Pedrayo. Vigo: A Nosa Terra, 2003; Critical edition of the play Figados de Tigre by Francisco Gomes de Amorim, 2003.
Mary del Priore
My lecture will discuss the impact of the European presence in Brazil since 1808, the date of the arrival of the Portuguese royal family and the beginning of commercial relationships with England, France and Italy. The presence of men, ideas and materials coming from the European continent modified forms of being, of living and thinking in the Tropics. It was the beginning of the construction of an ideal representation of Europe, which would mould the Brazilian elites in their quest to appear different from their ‘mestizo’ culture for more than one century. Certain aspects of this ‘faked Europe’, as Fernand Braudel would say, shall be approached.
Prof. Mary del Priore teaches at the postgraduation department of the University Salgado de Oliveira, Brazil. She was a Professor of History at the University of São Paulo and at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. She completed her postdoctorate at the EHESS/Paris and is the author of 25 books on Brazilian history as well as the winner of 11 literary prizes. In addition, she collaborates with scientific and non-scientific journals and magazines in Brazil and abroad.
Thierry Proença
The concern of the urban Madeiran bourgeoisie, as well as of its intellectual elite, of distinguishing themselves from the others, has always had the objective of keeping abreast of the role models of progress of the developed and educated countries of Europe, even at a distance and in spite of the atavistic backwardness of Madeira.
In this sense, the discourse about Europe has been explored in such a way as to defend the European matrix of the insular culture, the reinforcement of the recent political autonomy and the infrastructural modernisation that the island needs (Ed).
Our proposal is to analyse the importance of an idea of Europe which has come to be seen as a model of social, cultural and economic development for Madeiran society.
This way, the following leads will be explored: (1) Madeira, a doorway to the world (sugarcane production, ‘the first European city built outside the European continental space’, the development of trade – the role of the English, centre of sojourn in the 19th century, cosmopolitism and tourist destination in the 20th and 21st centuries; (2) Europe, the large cultural centre (Madeiran elite: intellectuals with degrees taken in Coimbra, Lisbon or Paris; regional bilingual press: Portuguese / English); (3) Madeira and Europe: European backgrounds, a window of opportunities (through political chronicles).
Prof. Dr Thierry Proença dos Santos has been an Auxiliary Professor at the University of Madeira, Portugal since 2007. He graduated from the Universities of Paris-Sorbonne in Portuguese Studies and Lisbon (F.L.U.L.) in Linguistics/Romanistics and defended his PhD thesis on the problematic of rewriting/translation (Applied Linguistics) at the University of Madeira (co-tutelle with Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle). Research fields: Applied Linguistics (textual critic, translation) / French Didactics; Society and Culture of Madeira Islands. Recent publications: Fernando Figueiredo / Leonor Martins Coelho / Thierry Proença dos Santos (eds.), Crónica Madeirense (1900-2006). Campo das Letras, Porto, 2007; ‘Gerações, antologias e outras afinidades literárias: a construção de uma identidade cultural na Madeira’ in: Dedalus – Associação Portuguesa de Literatura Comparada, Lisboa: Cosmos, 2008, pp. 559-582.
Ana Prokopyshyn / Paulo Delgado
With this communication, we intend to present some outcomes of the MATES project, funded by the European Union’s Grundtvig Programme, and developed by CompaRes – International Society for Iberian-Slavonic Studies, in co-operation with four other European institutions (Räama Noorte Ühing Noorus – Estonia, Projektbüro ‘Dialog der Generationen’ – Germany, E.E.P.T.B – Greece and Associação VIDA – Portugal). This project aims to produce a pan dissemination of results coming from intergenerational projects approved under the Grundtvig programme. MATES consists of the creation of a guide drawn up by a set of initiatives in favour of a living intergenerational society, meaning a strong and good-quality co-existence and exchange between generations, contributing to a more efficient and effective use of UE Resources.
Attending to one of the given priorities of the European Commission in terms of social and educational policies, our project aim is to promote intergenerational mobility, contributing to a more united and fraternal Europe, which starts with the promotion of constructive relationships and mutual enrichment among people of all ages, and the struggle against all kinds of discrimination and loneliness. The result must be a better-off and cohesive society, and therefore a better-off and cohesive Europe. The wager on intergenerationalism is one of the pathways to build a better Europe, which is a special place in a world worth living in.
Intergenerational mobility in society is undoubtedly an extent of (e)quality in life’s opportunities; intergenerational relations during childhood result in success in later life, or on the flip side, the extent to which elder individuals start being visible and valorised, which does not happen in societies nowadays. Under a project supported by the European Union and organised by an international co-operational partnership, we aim to promote a guide for intergenerational mobility and solidarity across Europe, and with this promote human rights, tolerance and respect for cultures and generations.
Ana Prokopyshyn is a Member of the Directory Board of the International Society of Iberian-Slavonic Studies (CompaRes) and a Researcher at the Centre for Literatures in Portuguese of the Universities of Lisbon (CLEPUL), Portugal. She graduated in Portuguese, English and Russian Philology from the University of Lisbon, Portugal and also works as a Consultant for Portuguese Language and as a Teacher of Portuguese as a foreign language.
Paulo Delgado is a Member of the Directory Board of the International Society of Iberian-Slavonic Studies (CompaRes). He graduated in Economics from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He is also an Economist at the Portuguese Ministry for Higher Education – University.
Ignacio Pulido Serrano
From the 18th to the 20th centuries great Spanish thinkers dealt with idea of Europe and with the Spanish role in the construction of European history and European identity. The decline of the Spanish Empire in the 17th century and the loss of its hegemony in the European and Atlantic world caused a deep and everlasting shock in the cultural and intellectual environment. Prominent authors – Jerónimo Feijoo, Gaspar de Jovellanos, Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, Miguel de Unamuno or José Ortega y Gasset – reflected on this question and took it into account in their works. They tried to explore what Spain was in European history and what its place must be in the European future. In this sense, there were two interpretations about Spanish history: the ‘black legend’ and the ‘rose legend’ and both have been an important influence on Spanish self-perception. I will explain some aspects of this subject.
Prof. Dr Juan Ignacio Pulido Serrano has been the First Vice Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Alcalá in Madrid, Spain since 2008. He graduated from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Geography and History (1989) and defended his PhD thesis on antisemitism in Spain in the 17th century at the University of Alcalá (1999). Research fields: Iberian Social, Political and Cultural History in the Modern Age. Recent publications: Os judeos e a Inquisiçao no tempo dos Filipes. Lisbon, 2007; (ed.) El sefardismo en las relaciones entre la Península Ibérica y los Países Bajos. Madrid, 2004. Los conversos en España y Portugal. Madrid, 2003.
Micaela Ramon
In the last quarter of the XX century, Portugal, a small peripheral country of the Old Continent, was at the centre of profound changes that substantially changed its face as a nation. The loss of overseas colonial possessions and the consequent influx of massive and successive waves of communities from Africa, Macau and Timor largely contributed to such changes. Such an influx of communities has not ceased to head to the old metropolis of the empire, in a movement, moreover, that accompanies the reality of other European countries, which are becoming increasingly more multiracial and multicultural.
As a result, ‘the theory of “white and Christian Europe” (...) well rooted by traditions and customs in history’ (A. Vitorino, Diário de Notícias, 21/4/2006) is, as it never was before, reductive and inappropriate to the new emerging realities. In currently published Portuguese literature, there are abounding voices through which the contours of a post-colonial Europe are defined; inhabited by new Europeans who, whether from within or from outside its borders, project images that make up the cross kaleidoscope of a multiform and diverse continent.
The communication that we propose will therefore concentrate on presenting contemporary authors, Portuguese and / or Portuguese-speaking, whose works contribute to the definition and understanding of the ‘new face of Europe’.
Prof. Micaela Ramon is an Auxiliary Professor at the Department of Portuguese Studies at the University of Minho, Portugal, where she teaches Portuguese Literature and Portuguese as a foreign language. Recent publication: Os Sonetos Amorosos de Camões. Braga: Centro de Estudos Humanísticosm, 1998.
Almut Renger
‘Europe’ is inscribed into our continent’s collective memory in two ways. The first time it appeared in Homer’s writing denoting a Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus in the shape of a bull. As documented by Herodotus for the first time, also the geographical and political dimension of the name is reflected. This double meaning of the term has been present throughout all ages of European literature, the arts and music until Modernity and the present. The first part this article outlines this development. The second part is devoted to a Modernist theatre production which ranges between continental allegory and myth. Georg Kaiser’s play Europe was published in 1915 and had its premiere in 1920. During that era, the first quarter of the 20th century, Europe was much debated as a project, a vision and a ‘unity of fate’. The discussion of Europe, mainly by writers ever since Romanticism, re-emerged during and after the Great War. The unvictorious German Reich appeared to have left the European bond and to be in need of reintegration. This article analyses the embedding of the play into the contemporary Zeitgeist and the transformations of the ancient myth by the author. Most importantly that the abducted Europe does not allow Zeus to impregnate her but takes a husband, the leader of an unknown warrior tribe. Together with these warriors, the mythical sons of Kadmos, she undertakes a journey to find a new country to bear her name, Europe.
Prof. Dr Almut Renger has been a Professor of Ancient Religion, Culture and Their Reception History at the Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion of the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany since 2008. She studied Classical Philology and Archaeology, German Studies and Comparative Literature in Berlin (FU Berlin), Salonika/Greece (Aristotle University), and Stanford/California (Stanford University). PhD thesis about fairy tales and myths from Homer to Kafka and Walter Benjamin. Research fields: Legends, Idols and Icons, Theory of Genres, Poetology, Narratology, Theory of Fairy Tales and Myths, Sociology of Religion, History of Science, Reception of Antiquity (in literature, fine arts and film). Recent publications: Between Fairy Tale and Myth: The Adventures of Ulysses and Other Tales from Homer to Walter Benjamin. A Study in the Theory of Genres, 2006. The Myth of Europe. Texts from Ovid to Heiner Müller, 2003.
Miguel Real
The ideas of Europe in George Steiner and Pope Bento XVI reveal two different visions of the history of this continent-civilisation. Bento XVI has the classic and humanist idea of Europe as a symbiosis of the Jewish and Greco-Roman cultures, fulfilled in a superior way in the Christian culture, the spiritual and intellectual basis of Europe.
Steiner, on the other hand, although he accepts the classic vision of Bento XVI, has another vision of Europe. Europe would be the continent of the mental inquietude expressed simultaneously and harmonically in the realms of music, mathematics and philosophy, based on incessant, continuous and endless questioning (‘Our ontological legate is the quest’) and a future not rarely eschatologically thought of.
Miguel Real is a Portuguese Teacher and Essayist on Portuguese culture. Recent publications: Matias Aires. As Máscaras da Vaidade. Lisbon: Sete Caminhos, 2008. Eduardo Lourenço e a Cultura Portuguesa. Lisbon: Quidnovi, 2008; Padre António Vieira e a Cultura Portuguesa. Lisbon: Quidnovi, 2008; Agostinho da Silva e a Cultura Portuguesa. Porto: Quidnovi, 2007.
János Riesz
As Jean-Paul Sartre wrote in his preface ‘Orphée Noir’ (1948) to the Anthologie de la Nouvelle Poésie Nègre, edited by Léopold S. Senghor, white man had had the privilege of looking at Africans for three thousand years without being looked back at. European travellers, scientists, artists and writers developed their own image of the African that was closely related to conquest, exploitation and ‘development’ of the continent. We only can indirectly deduce from the Africans’ reactions and behaviour how they perceived the European traders and intruders. Our sources are mainly European travelogues and colonial literature. A reversal of the perspectives occurred only at the moment when Africans became writers themselves and described their experience with Europe and the Europeans in autobiographies and travelogues. Here we can distinguish between two historical phases: first the life stories of freed or escaped slaves in the 18th to the 19th century, and then the autobiographies encouraged and promoted by European anthropologists or missionaries and colonial institutions; some of these texts can be considered as the beginning of African literature in European languages in general.
What the Europeans had to learn about themselves was not always flattering. The first comprehensive study on the image of Europeans and white people by Africans and other non-Europeans, published by the German ethnologist Julius Lipps in 1937 in his American exile, included the telling title The Savage Hits Back.
The lecture tries to put the focus on the African image of Europe and Europeans in connection with prejudiced European expectations and literary production coming from the Africans’ experience of the white man. As an introduction to the issue, we refer to our (J.R.) anthology: Blick in den schwarzen Spiegel – Das Bild des Weißen in der afrikanischen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts, Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag, 2003.
Prof. emeritus János Riesz is a Professor at the Munich School of Philosophy, Germany. Habilitation at Mainz University in 1975 with a thesis on ‘Beat Ludwig von Muralts Lettres’, Munich (W. Fink), 1979. From 1979 to 2004 he was Chair of the Department for Romance Studies and Comparative Studies in Literature at Bayreuth University specialising in African Literature. Recent publications: De la littérature coloniale à la littérature africaine – Prétextes, contextes, intertextes. Paris: Karthala, 2007; Léopold Sédar Senghor und der afrikanische Aufbruch im 20. Jahrhundert. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer, 2006; Blick in den schwarzen Spiegel – Das Bild des Weißen in der afrikanischen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer, 2003.
Annabela Rita
Using literary works by Almeida Garrett, Eça de Queirós, Cesário Verde and Fernando Pessoa and political essays by Sebastião de Magalhães Lima as empirical examples, the present contribution will dwell on the image of Europe and the representation of Portugal in relation to Europe in the Portuguese culture from the Romantic period to the early 20th century.
Prof. Dr Annabela Rita is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary Portuguese Literature at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon, Portugal. She is Director of the Centre for Literatures in Portuguese of the Universities of Lisbon (CLEPUL). Recent publications: ‘Padre José Joaquim de Sena Freitas (1840-1913) e a questão judaica’ in: Luís Machado de Abreu / José Eduardo Franco / Annabela Rita / Jorge Croce Rivera (eds.), Homem de Palavra — Padre Sena Freitas. Lisbon: Roma Editora, 2008; No fundo dos espelhos. Incursões na Cena Literária (vol. I). Porto: Edições Caixotim, 2003; Emergencias esteticas. Lisbon: Roma Editora, 2006.
Christian Roy
A pioneer of both the French Resistance and the European federalist movement, Alexandre Marc (1904-2000) always held up as a model to the European activists trained in the institutes he had founded his pre-war collaboration with Harro Schulze-Boysen, German leader of the controversial Red Orchestra Resistance network, who was executed by the Nazis in 1942. Since 2009 marks the centennial of Schulze-Boysen’s birth, it seems fitting to go beyond polarising views of his role, to highlight the European dimension of his ostensibly East-leaning political action, and compare it with the more overtly European scope of his French ‘nonconformist’ contacts, as well as of the Kreisau Circle, to which Marc also had links, sharing its interest in Rosenstock’s theory of European revolutions. Both Marc and the Kreisauers based their vision of Europe as a third force between East and West on a personalist philosophy as a middle position beyond collectivism and individualism. Yet for Schulze-Boysen in 1937 ‘there is no such thing as a “third standpoint of Europe” or the like, but quite simply two camps that would be easy to define sociologically’. Despite his discursive and strategic rapprochement with Marxism, Schulze-Boysen was reiterating a national-revolutionary position he had formulated early on from vitalist assumptions. By 1930 he had concluded it would be in Germany’s national interest to break with the Western-dominated capitalist system oppressing it and take the lead of all exploited peoples’ struggle against this common enemy. This was for him a patriotic position based on visionary geopolitics, since the Reich was thus called to become the centre of gravity of the socialist Europe of a coming collective epoch, freed of bourgeois France’s imperialist hegemony. Schulze-Boysen initially went to France to know the enemy and use the European idea in Germany’s national interest. However, he was genuinely impressed by an emerging ‘nonconformist’, pro-European yet anticapitalist intellectual milieu, to the point of becoming the German agent of its main organ, Philippe Lamour’s review Plans, which aimed to turn into a distinct revolutionary force, cutting across national and ideological boundaries, the kind of solidarity of the younger generations against the old for which Schulze-Boysen was providing a forum within Germany with his own review Gegner. Gegner was meant to be a ‘rallying point for all young Germans who … seek an opportunity for common action in view of the creation of that federated Europe’ (Lamour) outlined in Plans by Marc’s Ordre Nouveau movement since 1931. Schulze-Boysen thus steered Lamour and Marc towards his German contacts as they tried to infuse French personalist ideas into the late Weimar revolutionary situation, and helped them organise the Frankfurt Congress of Revolutionary European Youth in 1932. Ultimately, expedient action prevailed over all theories for the eclectic, selflessly opportunistic Schulze-Boysen, for whom Europe was likely a doomed battlefield in the world-wide struggle of forces of collective progress against those of private privilege, whereas action was subordinate to rigorous personalist doctrine for Marc as another professional revolutionary, only in the service of the European federalist idea, understood as a humanist alternative to the inhumanity of binary oppositions such as those between political blocks, social classes or civilizations.
Dr Christian Roy is an Independent Scholar and a member of the scientific committee of L’Europe en formation, the journal of the Centre International de Formation Européenne, which published his dissertation on the pre-war career of its founder Alexandre Marc (1904-2000). He is a Trustee of the Darling Foundry Contemporary Art Centre, Montreal. Research fields: Contemporary Intellectual History (European and Canadian), Film Studies, Comparative Literature, Theology. Recent publications: Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia. ABC-Clio, 2005; an article on Paul Tillich’s émigré autobiographical writings in M. Méland & M. Dutrisac, eds. Weimar ou l’hyperinflation du sens. Presses de l’Université Laval, 2009, pp. 135-149.
José Ignacio Ruiz Rodríguez / Pierluigi Nocella
This study focuses on how confessionalisation or the process of ‘confession-building’, an ample and complex concept used in German historiography, became a powerful political ideology which was eventually assimilated into culture in Europe throughout the period from 1520 to 1680. During this time, Protestant and Catholic confessions competed to establish their creed more firmly among their respective populations. This ideological-cultural fusion can be interpreted as a form of social disciplining, or as a manifestation of proto-nationalism, since it was adopted by various political associations in order to become independent of other forms of power which were not legitimated through a confessional basis. At the same time, the confession-building process conferred a distinctive and shared confessional identity upon citizens, who were scattered throughout various territories and social groups.
The hypothesis is that the ideological fusion of culture and politics that takes place in confessionalisation is intimately related to the nationalistic discourses promoted by new nation states, born with the so-called ius-liberalistic revolutions. The area to be examined covers the last Hispanic Monarchy. Political spaces of differentiated confessions (the creeds derived from the newly reformed churches) will be analysed and compared.
Sources to be used: (1) Archives of Military Orders (specifically Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara, and perhaps Montesa and Toisón as well), since they had, in spite of their marked aristocratic character, an extraordinary social and cultural relevance, with a strong influence over the Hapsburg Monarchy; (2) Archives of the Third Order of Saint Francis; (3) Documents of University of Alcalá will be studied to analyse the role played by this institution, founded to form the political and religious elites, in this period of confessional reforms and religious conflicts. We shall mostly focus on how, in order to prepare a new clerical class for the demands of the Catholic empire, the University of Alcalá became a very important instrument of social discipline and confession enforcement.
Olga Rusinova
The idea of Europe is imagined in visual arts in different ways, both direct and indirect. But since the times of antiquity, classical art has known at least one clear and evident personification of that idea, which is the image of the so-called Abduction of Europe (or Rape of Europe). My paper is devoted to the vast iconography of this story, which inspired artists over the centuries.
The aim of the examination is to represent the Abduction of Europe in its transformations – as a sort of special symbol containing our memories of Europe. The meaning of the images is evidently shifting from antiquity to the mid-XVIII c., and in the early XX c. it becomes more than the story told by Ovid and Horace. For that short time it turned into the whole adjusted complex, where traditional cultural meaning was reflected and merged with political ideas. After World War II, the Abduction of Europe is based mainly on the political context that made the image suitable for use in contemporary political iconography.
Thus, the paper focuses on three key aspects in representations of this ancient myth. It starts with the classical images and their programmes (including those by Titian, Veronese, Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, Coypel, Boucher, etc). Then the neoclassical understanding of Europe in the early XX c. will be discussed using the example of Wittelsbacherbrunnen (by Adolf Hildebrand, Munich). In the XXI c., the myth re-emerges as a commonplace European idea (The Abduction of Europe, statue in front of the European Parliament building, Strasbourg, France, and some other official pieces of art). Separate memories of Europe are turning into something absolute and total.
Prof. Olga Rusinova has been working at the European University in St. Petersburg, Russia since 2006. She graduated from St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts and the European University in St. Petersburg in Art History, and was awarded a PhD for her thesis on the origins of polystylistics in the French sculpture of the Age of Enlightenment at the Moscow Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. Research fields: Comparative History of Art (Iberian, Central European and Russian), History of Visual Representations, Art Theories of the Age of Enlightenment, Urban Monumental Sculpture and Architecture, History of Artistic Institutions. Recent publications: Olga Rusinova / KirillTitaev ‘Portugal in RuNet: space of descriptions, space of look’ in: Teresa Pinheiro (ed.), Peripheral Identities: Iberia and Eastern Europe between dictatorial past and European present. (in print); ‘Lisbon – St. Petersburg: Portuguese topos and its elements in Russian culture’ in: Beata Elżbieta Cieszyńska (ed.), Iberian and Slavonic Cultures: Contact and Comparison. Lisbon: CompaRes, 2007.
Fernanda Santos
The common characteristics of the Portuguese-speaking African countries derive from their colonial heritage, or from the fact of having been created and shaped by a colonial system. ‘Colonialism’ means the form of economic and cultural exploitation that arose with the expansion of Europe. The term ‘post-colonialism’ is used to cover the study and analysis of European territorial conquests and the various institutions of European colonialism. It also covers, above all, the different reactions to such incursions.
It is mainly from the publication by Edward Said, Orientalism (1978), onwards that critical and theoretical studies on post-colonialism are developed. Theoretical studies on post-colonialism attempt to take into account the sociocultural contexts in which post-colonial literature appears, avoiding treating them as extensions of European literature and evaluating their originality instead. The post-colonial perspective is less a change in subject of study than another way to interpret the European tradition, reading it from a point of view both inside and outside Europe. Post-colonial literature is characterised by utopian and dystopian visions: while it points to the future in a constructive way, this literature also shows a present time corroded by war and an uncertain future. Post-colonial literature demands a better society, because it has a commitment to the future and to political change, to create new opportunities in the perception of problems.
The 60s were the decade that laid the foundations of African utopian fiction, and the 80s the decade that joined dystopian and heterotopian writing, in which multiple literary choices prevail, while or after reading the deconstructive strategy of the African authors after independence.
Fernanda Cristina Santos graduated in Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Lisbon, Portugal and received her Master’s degree in Literature of the African Countries of Portuguese Expression at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She is a Research Fellow from the Foundation for Science and Technology with a Project in documentary sources on the Portuguese Expansion of the Vatican Secret Archives at the Catholic University of Portugal; a Researcher at the Centre for Literatures in Portuguese of the Universities of Lisbon (CLEPUL); and a member of the International Society of Iberian-Slavonic Studies (CompaRes).
Jean-Frédéric Schaub
Helmut Siepmann
The concepts of Europe in the works of European Romantics such as Novalis, François-René Chateaubriand, Almeida Garrett and Victor Hugo share the vision of Europe as a refuge of civilisation and humanity, to which Christianity and Enlightenment have given the decisive stimulus.
The reflections of this lecture will analyse the concepts of Europe in works by these authors from the perspective of philosophy of history and with regard to those concepts as an irreversible but simultaneously contested process.
Prof. Helmut Siepmann is a Professor of Romance Philology at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany. Research fields: Portuguese, Spanish and French Literature. Recent publications: Kleine Geschichte der portugiesischen Literatur. Munich: C.H. Beck, 2004; Portugal, Indien und Deutschland. Tübingen: Narr, 2000.
Grigore Silasi / Teodora Dogaru
The challenges which European integration has dealt with over the last several years have revealed a ‘tired’ Europe and European citizens who do not expect miracles anymore. Once the Cold War was put an end to, European integration moved from the economic and monetary area to the politic one. The federal prospect became obvious, but Europeans were not so willing to give up their own State. The relaunch will occur from some other direction – one could hardly say which. The relaunch might not come from the country which was at the centre of European integration in the past, if this country did not succeed in the economic and social area.
Restructuring must result in building, which should go beyond the stage of ‘politically unidentified object’, ‘an armless giant’ and ‘a marching troop’. Reshaping the centre of interest implies assigning a new course and a new meaning to European integration by taking into consideration the 2004 and 2007 enlargements and focusing upon a new social model in order to facilitate full employment and active social protection at all social levels throughout the united Europe. The new European social model should aim to reinforce incentives to work and individual working opportunities in the labour market, as it will use two main elements: lifelong learning & training and late retirement. In response to demographic difficulties, at the same time, the new social model will integrate the larger globalised structure, where increased mobility is expected to move competition to new regions.
Prof. Grigore Silasi teaches at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the West University of Timisoara, Romania. He is Director of the ‘Jean Monnet’ European Centre of Excellence. Research fields: Economics, International Relations, European Integration. Recent publications: The Economy of the European Union: a Success Story? Timisoara: Orizonturi Universitare, 2007; The Community Diplomacy. Cluj-Napoca: Fundatia Studii Europene, 2000.
Ana Filipa Silva / Cristiana Lucas
Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Vth century BC), who Cicero, in De Legibus, calls ‘father of History’, was the author of the well-known The Histories, in which he gives an account of the Medo-Persian Wars and of the events that preceded them. In the Prologue of Book I, Herodotus reveals that is his aim to expose the reasons that caused the conflicts between Greeks and non-Greeks (or Barbarians), or, in the words of some Hellenists, the reasons for the conflicts between Europe and Asia (between the West and the East): the abduction of Io, Europe, Medea and Helen.
It is during the Medo-Persian Wars that a European consciousness emerged, which represented the sense of freedom, in opposition of Asiatic despotism. Starting from the work of Herodotus, for whom Greece was a metonymy of Europe, it is our purpose to expose his historical and mythological perspective of the confrontation between the West and the East, a topic that, today, is very present in our lives.
Ana Filipa Isidoro da Silva is a Researcher at the Centre for Literatures in Portuguese of the Universities of Lisbon (CLEPUL), Portugal and Secretary of the General Assembly of the European Institute for Cultural Sciences Padre Manuel Antunes. She graduated in Classical Languages and Literature from the Faculty of Letters at the University of Lisbon. She completed her Master’s degree in Classical Studies, specialising in Comparative Literature: The Myth of Hercules Re-created: from Euripides’ Tragic Madness to the Stoic Calm of Seneca (the Asceticism of the proficiens). Recent publications: Collaboration on the Dictionary of Latin Literature, vol. I Historiography (forthcoming); Reviewer of the Dicionário de Latim-Português. Porto Editora, 2008.
Cristiana Isabel Lucas Silva is a Researcher at the Centre for Literatures in Portuguese of the Universities of Lisbon (CLEPUL), Portugal, Assistant to the Board of the International Society for Iberian-Slavonic Studies (CompaRes) and Secretary of the Scientific Committee of the European Institute for Cultural Sciences Padre Manuel Antunes. She graduated in Classical Languages and Literatures from the University of Lisbon and received her Master’s degree in Classical Studies (Greek Literature) from the same university. At the present time, she is an FCT research grant holder under the project Dicionário Histórico das Ordens e Congregações em Portugal e nos Países Lusófonos. She has developed some original research work in the area of Archaic Greek Literature.
Noémia Simões
When facing global challenges: the severe problems of global warming, the global shift of economic powers in the world, societies’ fragmentation, terrorism threats, etc., should we look at the scene as if it were ‘an enormous and scary chess game’? What are the rules of this ‘chess game’? Are they simply rational rules as stated in the game theory or is it/should it be something else? Concerning Europe’s political strategy in the world scene, questions of identity arise: Is there a European identity or is Europe just a part of a global melting pot? What is the role of European identity, of traditions, faith and values in playing the games of development, in economic and social policies, in establishing alliances and strategies of commitment? Which place is there for utopias in the world scene? How should Europe play in order to build sustainable knowledge societies?
In this presentation we will try to make a brief discussion on these theoretical questions through interdisciplinary views: a confrontation between economics and sociological thinking and an analysis when possible also supported by statistical models of past and present trends in order to envisage better possible futures.
Prof. Noémia Simões has been an Assistant Professor at the Engineering Superior Institute of Lisbon (ISEL), Portugal since 2004. She graduated in Economics from ISEG – Superior Institute of Economics and Management, and completed her Master’s degree on Social and Economic Policy with a thesis on ‘A Dimensão Social da União Europeia – análise dos fundamentos, bloqueios e cenários de evolução’ (The Social Dimension of The European Union – analysis on the foundations, blockages and evolution scenarios) in 1998. Research fields: Interdisciplinarity, Science, Mathematics and Engineering, Innovation, Game Theory in International Economics and Politics, International Co-operation. Recent publication: ‘Matemática e Estatística – alicerces para sociedades sustentáveis’ in: CLME Proceedings CD – Luso Mozambican Conference on Engineering, Maputo, 2008.
Viriato Soromenho-Marques
Since the foundation of the United States of America the relationship between Washington and the Old Continent has been shaped by dynamic, different and sometimes contradictory forces that drove Europe, with its imperial and warlike powers, off the central stage on which world history is decided.
However, the direct or implicit impact of the United Sates on modern Europe, engaged in the tortuous path of building its own Union, probably needs, now more than ever before, a deep and accurate theoretical reflection, departing from the European side, on the experience offered by what happened on Western Atlantic shores. An understanding of the long and adventurous political process in which American federal republicanism evolved, of continuous constitutional tensions, amendments and debates, should be a fruitful source of wisdom for the political avenues of destiny which Europeans are seeking today for their own future.
Prof. Viriato Soromenho-Marques is Head of the Department of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lisbon. Since 1978 he has been engaged in the civic environmental movement in Portugal and Europe. He defended his PhD thesis on rationality and progress in Kant’s philosophy at the University of Lisbon in 1991. Since March 2007, he has been one of the twelve members of the High Level Group on Energy and Climate Change by invitation of the President of the European Commission. Research fields: Philosophy of Nature, Political Philosophy, Environment and International Relations. Recent publication: O Regresso da América: Que Futuro Depois do Império? Lisbon: Esfera do Caos, 2008.
Nadja Stamselberg
Europeanness today (Habermas, Derrida, Buman, Balibar) is associated with cosmopolitanism and hospitality, as a pluralistic identity in which diverse peoples – including those from beyond the geographic borders of Europe – can find their home. Yet its origin as an appealing identity was intrinsically related to the identification with Christendom vis-à-vis the non-Christian realms of Africa and Asia. My paper traces the path by which the exclusionary concept of a Christian Europe defined against the other evolved into a pluralistic Europe that aspires to embrace and unify in diversity – with all the tensions that such a transformation necessarily involves. Revisiting the history of the emergence and development of the idea of Europe serves as an exceptionally good locus from which to show the relationship between the historic hegemonic power of Christendom and the alternative modes of sovereignty that led to the current European post-national constellation. This horizon, which is clearly bounded by the original tension between the ‘universal’, the general, the homogenous and the ‘particular’, the local, the ethnic, the difference, is also that of irreducible pairing of belonging and exclusion. In fact, teasing out the historical precursors opens up a platform from which to try to become accustomed to this analysis.
The paper examines the evolution of the alleged transgression committed that subsequently resulted in exclusion but in time became a cultural difference that was to be appropriated in the concepts of cosmopolitanism and hospitality. Identifying what characteristics were and are perceived as making someone ‘non-European’, it investigates the way in which concepts of ‘European’ and ‘non-European’ relates to religious, national, racial and political aspects. Furthermore, it traces the parallel emergence of European identity and of European exclusion, exploring how successive generations of thinkers conceptualised this dichotomy and explaining how our current sense of Europeanness has come to be what it is. For it is only with an understanding of the exclusive past of Europeanness that its alleged inclusive present can be understood.
Dr Nadja Stamselberg has been Assistant Editor of the journal The Myth of Europa, Democracy, Equality, Culture beyond the Nation State since 2008. She is also one of the editors of Nyx, a nocturnal, a Goldsmiths Cultural Studies Centre Journal. She was awarded a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London, in Cultural Studies in 2008. Her dissertation topic was The ‘Exclusive’ Identity – Identity of Exclusion within the Community of Europe. Research fields: Practices of Exclusion, Transnational Identities, Transgression, Globalisation, Migration, Hospitality and Empathy in the Political. Recent publication: ‘The European Identity: A real construct or a construction of the real?’ in: Otto Bruun / Hanna Kuusela (eds.), Euroopan kymmenen kohtalonkysymysta. Helsinki: Gaudeamus/Helsinki University Press (to be published).
Karen Struve
Today one of the central questions in a Europe which prides itself because of its enlightened, reasoned and humanistic traditions is the contact with and the handling of strangers. The fact that the shaping of this self-image of European Enlightenment could only come about in contrast to and by depreciation of the exoticised Other is one of the dark sides of European Enlightenment and Modern times which deserves illumination by critical analysis of the texts of the Enlightenment.
In the presentation one of the founding texts of European Enlightenment, the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d’Alembert, will be analysed using Edward W. Said’s method of contrapuntal reading. The aim is to find out about the reciprocal interplay of the European self-image during the Enlightenment with images of the exotic and oriental Others. Another aim is to analyse topoi of the Other and European constructions of Self as well as literary methods of this phenomenon. In the first step those topoi and figures from the corpus of knowledge of the Encyclopédie will be identified which represent the Other by name – for example ‘barbarian’, ‘slave’, ‘savage’ or ‘hottentot’, or which appear to be genuinely European conceptions such as ‘Europe’, ‘knowledge’, ‘subjects’, ‘philosophers’ and last but not least ‘encyclopaedia’ itself. During this step certain mechanisms of differentiation and marginalisation appear as well as the various penetrations and traces of the ‘Other in the Self’. In a second step the symbols of the text are described, referring to the symbols of the Other in the text. For example, discursive methods to raise an inventory including the Other and narrating the Other in the knowledge of that time as, for example, the complex intertextual structure of references and the systematisation of knowledge. The presentation will finish with a tentative approach to the topology and poetry of the Other as found in the Encyclopédie as an exemplary text of European Enlightenment.
Dr phil Karen Struve teaches French Literary Studies at the University of Bremen, Germany. She was awarded her PhD in 2008 for her work on ‘Écriture transculturelle beur. Die littérature beur als Laboratorium transkultureller Identitätsfiktionen’. Research fields: Post-colonial Theories on Literature and Culture (Transculturality), Gender Theories, Construction of the Self and Identity in the Literature. Recent publications: Gisela Febel / Karen Struve / Natascha Ueckmann (eds.), Écritures transculturelles. Kulturelle Differenz und Geschlechterdifferenz im französischsprachigen Gegenwartsroman. Tübingen: Narr Verlag, 2007; Mark Hillebrand / Paula Krüger / Andrea Lilge /
Karen Struve (eds.), Willkürliche Grenzen. Das Werk Pierre Bourdieus in interdisziplinärer Anwendung. Bielefeld: transcript 2006.
Bernhard Taureck
The current economic crisis is not only a result of economic mismanagement or political failure. It also results from an erroneous usage of the term ‘growth’ in terms of economy and from the more and more tautological signifier ‘democracy’. This contribution attempts to analyse the crisis while replacing the failed uses of ‘growth’ and ‘democracy’ by different concepts. I will equally stress the chances and risks for the making of Europe by giving a different meaning to ‘economical growth’ and ‘democracy’.
Prof. Dr Bernhard H. F. Taureck is a retired Professor of Philosophy at the Technical University Carolo-Wilhelmina in Brunswick, Germany. His habilitation in 1986 was on Nietzsches Alternativen zum Nihilismus. Recent publications: Don Quijote als gelebte Metapher. Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2008; Politische Unschuld. In Sachen Martin Heidegger. Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2007; Die Menschenwürde im Zeitalter ihrer Abschaffung. Hamburg: Merus, 2006.
Janusz Tazbir
Prof. Janusz Tazbir has been a Professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of History since 1966. He is a Polish Historian, specialising in the culture and religion of Poland in 16th and 17th centuries. He is one of the most eminent specialists in Old Polish History.
Margaret Tejerizo
It has often been observed that Spain and Russia, both situated on the ‘outer edge’ of Europe, were subjected to the violent imposition of non-European cultures and ideas for many centuries. As a result of this similar geographic and national situation, Russian and Spanish visions of Europe may share many vital points in common. This paper will demonstrate that, at critical historical moments of change in Spain and Russia, women writers were able to reflect upon these upheavals in their literary works and through their female protagonists present new constructs of gender and identity; at the same time these writers go beyond their own national boundaries and interact with ideas for and of Europe. Liudmila Petrushevskaia’s key text Time – Night, written shortly before the fall of the USSR, shows a country which has deteriorated and crumbled away, leaving in its wake dysfunctional families who exist on the outer limits of a cruel and heartless society. Does Petrushevskaia’s harrowing vision merely reflect the lives of Russian women or does it describe a wider European scene in which such values as compassion, integrity, self-sacrifice have been lost forever? The work of the Catalan writer Mercè Rodoreda, Diamond Square, charts the life of a young woman in Barcelona against a background of the years prior to the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath. Reaching a new sense of self-awareness after decades of entrapment and hardship, Rodoreda’s protagonist reflects in the closing pages of the novel on the future that awaits the ‘new woman’ in the wider Europe, beyond the confines of Diamond Square. Additional references will be made to selected works by Carmen Martín Gaite and Antonina Koptiaeva, both of whom wrote during the Franco and Stalin dictatorships respectively – yet they were able to portray women protagonists who went beyond the stereotypical depiction of female characters imposed by the restrictions of censorship. All the writers mentioned above allow the reader access to private female worlds and, at the same time, as will be shown, engage with ideas for and of Europe in meaningful and challenging ways. The paper will conclude with references to Rodoreda’s Broken Mirror, a text in which the ideas examined in the course of this paper are expressed in a profound and almost prophetical way.
Dr Margaret Tejerizo has been lecturing on Russian language and literature at the University of Glasgow, GB since 1976. Research fields: Comparative Study of Soviet Russian Women Writers and Women Writers during the Franco Régime in Spain, the Reception and Influence of Nineteenth Century Russian Writers in the Hispanic World, Gender Studies in Eastern and Central Europe. Recent publication: The Influence of Russian Literature on Spanish Authors in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Perception, Translation, Inspiration. Edwin Mellen Press, 2007.
Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek
In his paper Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek discusses how intermediality may influence negotiations on culture and education, and how, in turn, cultural and educational practices can employ new media with the result of an increase in social impact and significance. While along with other notions and practices, work towards interculturalism with new media against exclusion and away from cultural essentialisms represents a small part for the development of a Europe of inclusion, it nevertheless offers significant potential. Intermediality refers to the blurring of generic and formal boundaries among different forms of new media practices and it means the employment of theoretical presuppositions for the betterment of society against essentialisms and towards inclusion and interculturalism. Thus, the notion and potential of intermediality is associated with the incorporation of digital media in a wide variety of loci and spaces of representation and production in the transfer of information, the creation of knowledge and the implementation of inclusive social practices and policy in education. The trajectories of intermedial spaces between new media and the proliferation of texts, intertexts, hypertexts and similar acts of remediation, transmediality, multimediality, hypermediality, etc. reveal and offer possibilities about how culture can be negotiated in the context of social and technological change towards a new Europe.
Prof. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek has been a Professor for Media and Communication Studies at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany since 2002. In addition, he has been a Professor for Communication Studies at the Northeastern University in Boston, USA since 2007. He defended his PhD thesis on Comparative Literature ‘Prefaces to Nineteenth Century Canadian Novels’ in 1989 at the University of Alberta, Canada. Research fields: Comparative Cultural Studies Comparative Media and Communication Studies, Comparative Literature Post-colonial Studies, Ethnic Minority Studies, Film, Literature and Audience Studies, European, US-American and Canadian Cultures and Literatures, History, Bibliography, New Media and Knowledge Management, Editing, Print and New Media Publishing, Conflict Management and Mediation, Diversity Training, Higher Education and the Humanities, Discourse Studies, Holocaust Studies. Recent publications: Comparative Cultural Studies and Michael Ondaatje’s Writing. West Lafayette: Purdue, 2005; Carmen Andras / Magdalena Marsovszky/ Steven T. de Zepetnek, The New Central and East European Culture. Aachen: Shaker, 2006.
Alexej Ulbricht
The recently passed ‘European pact on immigration and asylum’ seeks to harmonise the procedures of European Member States regarding the movements of legal and illegal migrants, and people in search of asylum. While, at a first glance, a ‘Europe of asylum’ features the points outlined in the pact; a closer reading reveals that the project of a ‘fortress Europe’ still seems to underlie the pact. Thus the most concrete passages of the pact all relate to the return of irregular aliens to their countries of origin. I would like to suggest that the pact takes for granted the idea of a Europe that ‘does not have the resources to decently receive all the migrants who hope to find a better life here’, which is clearly distinct and divided from a non-European outside that is the source of these migrants. I want to question this assumption by drawing on the work of Paul Gilroy; and suggest that it ignores the ways in which both these spheres have been connected as part of the same process of modernisation that has constructed the entity we now refer to as ‘Europe’ – and that the ‘non-European’ has long been at the underbelly of this process. In other words, the ‘non-European’ was historically an indispensable part of the construction of present-day Europe; they form part of the same cultural space but one of them has been the source of exploitation for the benefit of the other. As such, there is an entitlement of the inhabitants of these ‘non-European’ areas to access that geographic location that we now term ‘Europe’. The cordoning off of these areas ignores the cultural flows that have formed both the ‘European’ and ‘non-European’ and mark them as part of the same, making the very idea of a distinct Europe highly problematic. We thus need to abandon the project of a ‘fortress Europe’ and move to a more open and inclusive immigration policy than that outlined in the current pact; a policy that does not see immigration as an intrusion by a dangerous outside.
Alexej Ulbricht is a postgraduate student at Goldsmiths, University of London, GB. He graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in Korean Studies and Politics. Research fields: Post-colonial Theory, Political Theory, Migration, Korean Identity.
Yara Frateschi Vieira
Paulo Nozolino’s photographs and Rui Nunes’ texts, put together in the same volume (Far Cry, Steidl, 2005), delineate an itinerary within and outside Europe, followed over the course of a few decades. The photographs in black and white accentuate a tragic vision of personal and collective history, with emblematic emphasis on the main gate of Auschwitz, and the memory of Nazism and the War. Rui Nunes’ texts, although they do not specifically follow the photographs, operate a sort of ‘revelation’ from underneath, bringing up to the surface the personal stories intertwined with the collective history. Together, both images and words build a vision of Europe which, as in Cortázar’s short story and Antonioni’s movie based on it, digs up memories submersed but still powerfully active.
Prof. Yara Frateschi Vieira has been a Full Professor at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil since 1991. She graduated in Classics from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, in 1960, and received her PhD in Portuguese Literature at the Universidade de São Paulo in 1972 (thesis: ‘Significados e transformações: um estudo do romance O Jogo da Cabra Cega, de José Régio’). Research fields: Medieval Galician-Portuguese Literature, Contemporary Portuguese Literature. Recent publications: Oskar Nobiling, As cantigas de D. Joan Garcia de Guilhade e estudos dispersos. Edition prepared by Yara Frateschi Vieira. Rio de Janeiro: Editora da Universidade Federal Fluminense, 2007 (Coleção Estante Medieval, No. 2).
Frieder O. Wolf
The present crisis of European integration implies an important chance for a new beginning: As it is the crisis of a determinate model and strategy of Europeanisation which was put in place in the 1980s, it offers the chance of a new start. As the model and strategy presently in crisis have been, to a large degree, defined with reference to the global role of Europe and its competitive position on the world market, such a new start could take its bearings by redefining a new role of Europe in global co-operation on the basis of fair trade and finance in face of the ongoing processes of crisis.
Such a new co-operative role would require a thorough redefinition of the model and strategy of European co-operation: a new model of a ‘mixed economy’ with a leading role for Member States and civil society organisations, an enlarged idea of economic reproduction, taking on board concerns of social cohesion, gender equity and ecological stabilisation, an opening of European institutions to democratic control and popular participation, an explicit commitment to the support of peaceful conflict resolution in the European neighbourhood.
The needed transformation will have to be brought about by a new ‘investment’ of Member States’, civil societies’ and social movements’ politics in European affairs, creating a new European dynamics towards political solutions and overcoming elitist and technocratic closure. European institutions, with the European Parliament at their centre, could take an active role in this by providing spaces and channels to be used by emerging new networks ‘from below’. Only after ‘European politics’ have become a real and alive part of all political arenas on all levels of political institutions and processes in Europe will it make sense to bring to life again what has been conceived as the European constitutional process.
Dr phil. habil. Frieder O. Wolf is a Professor for Philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Since 2003 he has been co-ordinating the network ‘Sustainability Strategy’ at the Freie Universität Berlin. Since 1998 he has been a leading member of the Humanistischer Verband Deutschland (HVD) and its Academy. In 1999 he was a co-founder of ‘inEcom – Institute for European Communication’, Berlin. Recent publications: Frieder O. Wolf / Gerd Peter, Welt ist Arbeit. Im Kampf um eine neue Ordnung. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, 2008; Politisierung und Ent-Politisierung als performative Praxis. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, 2006; Das Kapital neu lesen. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot, 2006.
Ulf Zander
I would like to focus on the European reception of two ‘righteous gentiles’ – Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg. My aim is to compare their status on national levels. Their statuses have been very varied over the years in their home countries, Germany and Sweden. However, Schindler and Wallenberg have also been subjects of ongoing debates and/or celebrations in other countries, for example Schindler in the Czech Republic, Wallenberg in Germany. They have also been used as both European and American symbols in an ongoing struggle against xenophobia and racism. One example was Klaus Dexter’s documentary The Case of Raoul Wallenberg, ‘an excellent example of how we can keep our European history alive’ (‘Wallenbergfilm belönad på festival’, http://ec.europa.eu/sverige/news/topics/culture/news_date_698_sv.htm).
Of great importance is the medialisation of Schindler and Wallenberg. In what ways have they became national, European, American and even universal symbols? How have (popular) cultural representations of them and their efforts during World War II shaped the images of them in different European contexts during the last decades? Of special interest are the reception of Steven Spielberg’s successful film Schindler’s List in Sweden, Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as reactions to the opera Wallenberg, performed both in Germany and Estonia.
Prof. Ulf Zander is an Associate Professor and a Postdoctoral Fellow in History at Lund University, Sweden and a Senior Lecturer at the School of Education and Communication in Jönköping, Sweden. His doctoral thesis of 2001 was on uses of and debates concerning Swedish history from the late 19th century to early 21st century. Research fields: Presentation and Representation of the Holocaust in Scandinavian Countries and in Great Britain 1945-2005, Images of Heroes in Literature, Monuments, Movies and Television during the 20th Century with Charles XII and Raoul Wallenberg as examples. Recent publications: ‘Heroic Images: Raoul Wallenberg as a History-Cultural Symbol’ in: Claus-Christian W. Szejnman / Martin L. Davies (eds.), How the Holocaust Looks Now: International Perspectives. Hampshire: Palgrave, 2007, pp. 126-135; Clio på bio: Om amerikansk film, historia och identitet. Lund: Historiska Media, 2006; The Holocaust – Post-War Battlefields. Genocide as Historical Culture. Malmö: Sekel, 2006.
