Conceptualizing Eastern Europe: Past and Present

Abstract

The ideas presented in the dissertation are based on the premise that the concept of Eastern Europe is a construction, which received its meaning(s) trough events and shifts, which also shaped the idea of Europe. To analyze these influences several labels and aspects of history, which constructed the concept of Eastern Europe can be recognized. The author argues that there can be five important aspects, forming the concept and providing meanings, discerned and considered: (1) geography associated with the Eastern border of the European continent and its flexibility; (2) cultural trends, mainly provided by the ideas of the Enlightenment, which present the eastern part as wild, barbaric and uncivilized; (3) political formations, which by military and political means conquered or lost the region, alienating it with the West or making it a 'buffer zone'; (4) Economic aspects of backwardness and the constant try to catch-up with the West; and (5) the discourse about the region itself, historiography depicting the formations and ascribing labels to discourse. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)