Full Description
Is it possible to create a collective European identity? In this volume, leading scholars assess the link between collective identity construction in Europe and the multiple memory discourses that intervene in this construction process. The authors believe that the exposure of national collective memories to an enlarging communicative space within Europe affects the ways in which national memories are framed. Through this perspective, several case studies of East and West European memory discourses are presented. The first part of the volume elaborates how collective memory can be identified in the new Europe. The second part presents case studies on national memories and related collective identities in respect of European integration and its extension to the East. This timely work is the first to investigate collective identity construction on a pan-European scale and will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students of political sociology and European studies.
Contents
Contents: National identities and collective memory in an enlarged Europe, Willfried Spohn. Collective Identities in Europe and European Identities: European self-understanding in the Twentieth Century, Hartmut Kaelble; East-European historical bequest en route to an integrated Europe, Jerzy Jedlicki; Global diaspora? European Jewish consciousness? Reflections on German Jewry and the postmodern debate, Y. Michal Bodemann. Europe, National Identities and Collective Memory in Western Europe: Re-modelling the boundaries in the New Europe: historical memories and contemporary identities in German-Polish relations, Oliver Schmidtke; Italy, EU-enlargement and the 'reinvention' of Europe: between historical memories and present representations, Ilaria Favretto; Spain's 'Special Solidarity' with the East: the influence of collective memory on Spanish attitudes to EU enlargement, Pablo Jáuregui. Europe, National Identities and Collective Memory in Eastern Europe: NATO and Hungarian public opinion, András Kovács: Troublesome anniversary: the rise of the Czechoslovak Republic and its European fellows in Czech collective memory, Karel Kubiš; Converting history into 'cultural treasure' in post-1991 Kaliningrad: social transitions and the meaning of the past, Olga Sezneva. The Argument Revisited: Remembering national memories together: the formation of a transnational identity in Europe, Klaus Eder; Index.
