Lecture IV and Readings IV - “EUROPEAN CULTURE” AS WESTERN? Flashcards
Larry Wolff and its theory of the creation of East and West
Division is not only invented by communism/capitalism but also during 17/18e century by enlightenment and the ideological division never ended → does not originate in the cold war but before
How is Europe ideologically divided in Enlightenment and Renaissance?
During Renaissance = central learning i italy and germany = barbarians ; division north and south and now enlightenment division west east
⇒ Barbaric regions are divided to not common with civilized, western Europe which cannot existing without the eastern part
The intellectual ‘discovery’ of Eastern Europe?
this construction not based on evidence and concrete factors but on influence and books written without never going to these places (like orientalism) examples:
Voltaire, History of Charles XII (1731)
Rousseau, “Considerations on the Government of Poland “ (1782)
Europe’s ‘Western’ self-identity was not only shaped in opposition to internal others, but also to external others overseas!
⇒ Internal divisions an think about europe ike self position in other continents overseas
“Civilization” as a term and meaning?
- The French word civilisation was first coined in the middle of the eighteenth century:
Kultur (German) ; refinement (English) = civilization - The expression ‘La civilization européenne’ first used in 1766 in a work on French colonies in North-America
- By the 19th century, civilization and Europe had become synonymous.
⇒ Easy association with europe and civilization due to presence in north america and india–. christianity and make a real french man of them
⇒ Growing feeling of european superiority and not giving credits to other cultures
⇒ no longer believe in christianity but in europe
The westernization of “Europe”
Might be explained by the fall of constantinople = east
Eu became normative idea that was expanding overseas but laying on the ottoman empire which was located in europe, tension with identification in civilization so westernization of europe
reconcile this conflict due to a geographical sense of it
The “discovery” of “America” (1492) and colonization
Not every country participated in colonization, which ones didn’t? Instead of thinking the ones involved, other way round: how through colonization how is the creation the idea of europe becoming westernized, projected in the idea and notion of the west → driving notion “west” in the age of discovery 1492 → europe as a world power
⇒ renewal of the idea of the crusades, western identity and eastern frontier should be protected against islam
AMERICAN PROGRESS BY JOHN GAST (1872)
Painting with representation of the cultural coming of the new world
“Intermediary cultural space”
“Eastern Europe was located not at the antipode of civilization, not down in the depths of barbarism, but rather on the developmental scale that measured the distance between civilization and barbarism” (13).
⇒ Different from western europe and is still different: not entirely barbaric and an in between/ambiguous space that is european and not only entirely european
Eastern europea = intermediate cultural space
“Eastern Europe” / “The Balkans”
= Two historical regions ; South east (balkans) /
→ Geographical = europe
→ Ideology = asia minor
Construction of eastern eu = paradox for inclusions and exclusions
Todorova’s “Balkanism”
A region geographically inextricable from Europe, yet culturally constructed as “the other,” the Balkans have often served as a repository of negative characteristics upon which a positive and self-congratulatory image of the “European” has been built.
⇒ how the balkans have always been part of europe but not really → recall orientalism and look at the novel drakula → analyzing it = lens for representation of the balkans
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897)
→ Historical context:
19 century = interesting period for balkan identity → Balkans were part of the Ottoman empire so Europeans were not really concerned about them, but then countries revolted and in gam western europe → this made travels to eastern destinations possible and fascinating through industrial revolution → discovering science … untouched modern civilization → object of romanticizing and fantasy
Vlad “the Impaler”
→ Still from Coppola (1992) Vlad III (1431-1476) (Ceausescu was a fan)
Medieval prince in romania and known for torturing enemies → vlad dracula = national hero for defending its people against foreigners
Stocker chose a balkan origin → articulate western fear for eastern
Transylvania is constructed as something barbarian and how it is represented stereotypes
⇒ The more further you go the more it seems like a different land, with different habits and traditions
Emphasis on the supernatural
Eastern emphasized as impure and exotic with different foods and other things
⇒ Gothic style but entailed with landscapes and adj. to mess with beauty and others
Literal meanings
⇒ more animal like and not human → dreadful : Not human different representation for us
⇒ Transylvania described as strange and unlike england → very different and representing something stuck in time, belonging to the past and tradition, london is place of progress, science and change
⇒ Drakula = change : different conception of nobles → association with aristocracy → old europe and not modern social conception
How is Dracula positioned in relation to these dichotomies?
Dracula as an ambiguous figure
This book establishes dichotomy emphasizing places → drakula not part to real europe and not asia = in between himself
→ looks european but not : Looks european but not → ambiguity
i.e. from binary oppositions to ambiguity!
→ drakula is dangerous –. his position is more in between because nobles ..?
Recap: European culture as western?
Europe’s ‘Western’ self-identity was not only shaped in opposition to internal others, but also to external others overseas!
- The intellectual work of the Enlightenment brings about “that modern reorientation of the continent which produced Western Europe and Eastern Europe” (Wolff 1994: 5).
- Through the Enlightenment, the notion of civilization began to be seen and used as a synonym for Europe and European culture. This feeling of superiority was further strengthened by the “discoveries” of non-European cultures.
THE COUPLE IN A CAGE: TWO AMERINDIAN S VISIT THE WEST → Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez-Peña (1992-1993) “Performing bodies on stage: identity, representation
Eastern europe = contradiction of west. eu
