Considers the complications of race, religion, sexuality, and gender in Europeanizing from below

This book contributes to the debate on what Europe is by demonstrating the complexities and contradictions inherent in the concept. They are seen most clearly when Europe is viewed from a long historical perspective. During the closing decades of the twentieth century Europe emerged as one of the main points of reference in both the cultural and the political constructs of the global community. An obsession with the concept of European identity is readily identifiable. European identity is usually seen in relation to national identity, either in an uneasy opposition to it, that is, as an alternative to the nation, or in a situation in which it overlaps with and complements the nation. The structure of national identity is «projected» onto European identity, and this projection has an ideological underpinning, for no projection is ever non-interested or non-ideological. This process of identity construction provokes searching questions which the book aims to address. At the same time the book explores the opportunities offered by the concept of Europe to see how it may be used in the construction of the future. The approach is one of both deconstruction and reconstruction. The issue of Europe is closely related in the book to more general issues relating to the cultural construction of community. The book should therefore be seen as the companion of Myth and Memory in the Construction of Community, which also is published by PIE-Peter Lang in the series Multiple Europes.

The Other Europe is a general history of Eastern Europe, from the earliest times to the end of World War II. Walters provides an informed and interpretively refreshing focus on this key region. Walters' objective is to acquaint the student and nonspecialist reader with the complex past of this politically and culturally important area. The general lack of knowledge about Eastern Europe is in part due to the vast diversity of its lands (language barriers themselves have daunted many scholars) and to the fact that, before the imposition of the Soviet template in 1944-45, what is now called Eastern Europe was not usually perceived as a distinct geopolitical entity. "The other Europe" as defined by Walters encompasses Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Albania. Today these countries form the strategic zone between Western Europe and the Soviet Union. Walters emphasizes the phenomenon of nationalism because of its varied manifestations in the region, and he examines the way each nation sees itself, its neighbors, and the world beyond. The Other Europe describes the major events—predominantly revolution and war—that have shaped these countries' national consciousnesses and their distinctive cultural heritages.

Drawing on analyses of the socio-cultural context of East and Central Europe, with a special focus on the Czech cultural dynamics of the Cold War and its aftermath, this book offers a study of the making and breaking of the centrally-controlled system of book production and reception. It explores the social, material and symbolic reproduction of the printed text, in both official and alternative spheres, and patterns of dissemination and reading. Building on archival research, statistical data, media analyses, and in-depth interviews with the participants of the post-1989 de-centralization and privatization of the book world, it revisits the established notions of ‘censorship’ and ‘revolution’ in order to uncover people’s performances that contributed to both the reproduction and erosion of the ‘old regime’.

Jacques Rupnik, one of the foremost experts on Eastern Europe, looks at the countries behind the Iron Curtain not merely as subjects of the Soviet Empire, but from within. Proposing a new way of thinking about the "other Europe"--One which takes seriously the predicament of individual nations squeezed between two superpowers -- Rupnik analyzes what made the Communist takeovers possible in the first place, describes the repressive delirium of the Stalinist era, and examines the demise of Marxism-Leninism both as ideology and as a credible system of government. Rupnik analyzes the lessons learned from previous attempts at reform and concludes that change is now taking place in the context of decay -- economic, social, environmental, and political -- and may bring about the retreat of the Communist Party. Finally he considers the "Gorbachev factor" : will reform in Moscow accelerate the dynamics of change, or will it force the Soviet Union to strengthen its hold on the outposts of its empire, the countries of the "other Europe"? - Jacket flap.

What is Europe? Who is European? What do Europe and European identity mean in the twenty-first century? This collection of sixteen essays seeks to answer these questions by focusing on Europe as it is seen through its own eyes and through the eyes of others across a variety of cultural texts, including sport, film, literature, dance, cartography, and fashion. These texts, as interpreted here by emerging researchers as well as well-established scholars, enable us to engage with European identities in the plural and to understand what these identities mean in larger cultural and political contexts. The interdisciplinary focus of this volume permits an exploration of European identity that reaches beyond the area of European studies to incorporate understandings of identity from the viewpoints of both insider and other. Contributors explore diverse understandings of what it means to be “other” to a country, a culture, a society, or a subgroup. This book offers a fresh perspective on the evolving concept of identity—in the context of Europe’s past, present, and future—and expands on the existing literature by considering the political tensions and social implications of the development of European identity, as well as its literary, artistic, and cultural manifestations.

Like a navigator, Derrida sets out from a Europe that has always defined itself as the capital of culture, the headland of thought, in whose name and for whose benefit exploration of other lands, other peoples, and other ways of thinking has been carried out. If such Eurocentric biases are not to be repeated, Derrida warns, the question of Europe must be asked in a new way; it must be asked by recalling another heading. Not only is it necessary for Europe to be responsible for the other, but its own identity is actually constituted by the other. Rejecting the easy or programmatic solutions of Euruocentrism or anti-Eurocentrism, of total unification or complete dispersion, Derrida argues for the necessity of working with and from the Enlightenment values of liberal democracy while at the same time recalling that these values do not themselves ensure respect for the other.