Imaging and Mapping Eastern Europe puts images centre stage and argues for the agency of the visual in the construction of Europe’s east as a socio-political and cultural entity. This book probes into the discontinuous processes of mapping the eastern European space and imaging the eastern European body. Beginning from the Renaissance maps of Sarmatia Europea, it moves onto the images of women in ethnic dress on the pages of travellers’ reports from the Balkans, to cartoons of children bullied by dictators in the satirical press, to Cold War cartography, and it ends with photos of protesting crowds on contemporary dust jackets. Studying the eastern European ‘iconosphere’ leads to the engagement with issues central for image studies and visual culture: word and image relationship, overlaps between the codes of othering and self-fashioning, as well as interaction between the diverse modes of production specific to cartography, travel illustrations, caricature, and book cover design. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, visual culture, and central Asian, Russian and Eastern European studies.

Wolff explores how Western thinkers contributed to defining and characterizing Eastern Europe as half-civilized and barbaric.

Marshalling 129 maps, numerous diagrams and incisive textual commentary, the Atlas of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century draws a definitive picture of the changing shape of Eastern and some of central Europe from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, charting the emergence of a volatile world from the abrupt collapse of the communist system. An invaluable guide to a complex subject, this Atlas: * gives a general introduction to the physical, ethnic and religious composition of the region * includes summary maps of Eastern Europe in 1900, 1923, 1945 and 1994 * charts the ebb and flow of the first and second world wars in Eastern Europe * presents detailed information relating to consituent territories, elections, economic developments, land holding patterns for key individual countries in the inter-war years * provides crucial social and economic data, evidencing changes under communist domination * gives maps of the new states of the post-communist years with details of elections and economic indicators for Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, The Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Slovakia, and others. * contains an extensive glossary listing the major towns of the area under their linguistic variants

This volume presents work from an international group of writers who explore conceptualizations of what defined "East" and "West" in Eastern Europe, imperial Russia, and the Soviet Union. The contributors analyze the effects of transnational interactions on ideology, politics, and cultural production. They reveal that the roots of an East/West cultural divide were present many years prior to the rise of socialism and the Cold War. The chapters offer insights into the complex stages of adoption and rejection of Western ideals in areas such as architecture, travel writings, film, music, health care, consumer products, political propaganda, and human rights. They describe a process of mental mapping whereby individuals "captured and possessed" Western identity through cultural encounters and developed their own interpretations from these experiences. Despite these imaginaries, political and intellectual elites devised responses of resistance, defiance, and counterattack to defy Western impositions. Socialists believed that their cultural forms and collectivist strategies offered morally and materially better lives for the masses and the true path to a modern society. Their sentiments toward the West, however, fluctuated between superiority and inferiority. But in material terms, Western products, industry, and technology, became the ever-present yardstick by which progress was measured. The contributors conclude that the commodification of the necessities of modern life and the rise of consumerism in the twentieth century made it impossible for communist states to meet the demands of their citizens. The West eventually won the battle of supply and demand, and thus the battle for cultural influence.

Karten sind erstklassige historische Quellen, doch werden sie in der Geschichtswissenschaft nur selten genutzt. Gerade die Kartierung Osteuropas lÃ?¤sst Historiker Einblick nehmen in die Geschichte der Nationalisierung oder Verwissenschaftlichung, in Debatten Ã?Â1/4ber Ethnisierung oder in Raum- und Grenzfragen. Die Karten erzÃ?¤hlen von Raumphantasien, von Homogenisierungsversuchen in VielvÃ?¶lkerreichen, sie behandeln Grenzen und GrenzÃ?Â1/4berschreitungen einzelner Menschen im erdachten und gezeichneten sowie im realen osteuropÃ?¤ischen GroÃ?Â?raum.

Europe Faces Europe examines Eastern European perspectives on European identity. The contributors to this volume map narratives of Europe rooted in Eastern Europe, examining their relationship to philosophy, journalism, social movements, literary texts, visual art, and popular music. Moving the debate and research on European identity beyond the geographical power center, the essays explore how Europeanness is conceived of in the dynamic region of Eastern Europe. Offering a fresh take on European identity, Europe Faces Europe comes at an important time, when Eastern Europe and European identity are in an important and vibrant phase of transition.

Brief description of the geography, history, economy, and culture of the eight Eastern European countries and their relationship to each other as well as to the rest of Europe.