From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Invitation to participate in the project on Easter and Central
Europe

Esteemed colleagues,

I would like to draw your attention to the project initiated and
coordinated by the Canadian-Austrian Center for Central and Eastern
European Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB. Canada. My
colleagues and I are hoping that some of you might be interested in
participating in this two year research project. At this point the
dinamics of the project are as follows:

1. Establishing the netwoork of scholars, artists and writers
interested in the subject of our research. This phase should be more-
less completed by mid-October 2000.

2. Coordinating individual preferences in terms of research topics
and outlining the general framework of the project - should be
completed by the end of December 2000. This phase includes an active
correspondence among participants and the exchange of ideas.

3. Preparing a conference (by invitation) in order to present
findings ( papers) on component topics. It is our aim to organize the
conference in Vienna sometimes in the fall of 2001. In the meantime,
we would try to present the findings and research papers in the form
of an electronic journal or/and in printed form.

4. It will be determined at the later date as to how the proceedings
from the proposed conference should be presented- as proceedings or
in the form of a book.

I hope that you will find our project interesting. I look forward to
your comments and suggestions. Those of you who wish to contact me,
could do so at any/both of the e-mail addressess listed at the end of
the text.

I wish you all good and productive summer, fine readings and numerous
papers.

Kind regards.

Srdja Pavlovic
Department of History and Classics
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB.
Canada


Tradition, Cultural Boundaries and the Construction of Spaces of
Identity: Case Studies for Central Europe


A preoccupation with defining the region of Central Europe can be
traced back to the late 1840s, but it acquired a new sense of urgency
in the 1980s. That was the time when old certainties no longer seemed
to apply and social, political and economic changes led to the
breakdown of previously relatively stable representations of
community and group membership. Issues of identity formation became
the key to the interface between subjective positions and social and
cultural situations, and a cultural turn brought identity politics to
the fore in geography and history. All this added to the challenge of
finding traces and definitions of a "Central European" culture. The
urgency of the discussions surrounding the concept of a "Central
European" space and - often desperate - attempts to look for a
definition are indicative of the importance of such
conceptualizations. Such attempts represent the process of coming to
terms with what has been very often described as a "crisis of
identity" in contemporary academic and popular discourse. The
dissolution of formerly apparently stable territorial units
in "Central Europe" after 1989 seems to have accelerated these
tendencies. The loss of Heimat seems to constitute a basic condition
for the existence of the perceived need to stabilize the meaning of
cultural belonging around spaces invested with memory/nostalgia - a
form of stable, "authentic" identity that precludes other forms of
identification. Unfortunately, this goal is often achieved
through "cleansing" the space to which the "authentic" identity is
tied with. This process also means rewriting its multiple narratives
and representations and, ultimately, reshaping its histories.

This is precisely the starting point of our investigation: the
project tries to analyze and interpret the connections between
tradition, cultural boundaries and the construction of spaces of
identity in their media representations for "Central Europe". It is
assumed that manifestations of mechanism of identification - the
basis of imagining communities - are contingent cultural phenomena
informed by discursive representations, rather than stable spaces
defined by (and existing through) a shared history and tradition. The
very vagueness of the concept of a "Central European" cultural space
bears witness to the manifold mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion
of these imagined communities on which individual identities rest -
representations that are politically activated and negate or obscure
other representations of community (gender, class, etc.).
Consequently, we assume that feelings of territorial cultural
belonging, of Heimat and exile, must be analyzed through the prism of
migration patterns, diasporic experiences and urban lifestyles in
order to unveil its current actualization and (mis) representations.
Thus, the project will scrutinize such discursive forms of
identifications and analyze their range, their implications and their
hidden and manifest mechanisms of exclusion. That means outlining and
analyzing the symbolic geography that separates the insiders from the
outsiders, informed by history and politics but implying identity. At
present, numerous discussions of the topic are steeped in the longing
for wholeness, unity and integrity and are driven by the need to
clarify where "Central" Europe ends. Our project adopts an
epistemology of cultural difference that investigates the
(culturally) constructed nature of these common symbols and
histories, and traces the multiple vectors of domination and
resistance involved in their emergence. Central Europe and its
cultures are seen as conjunctions of many histories and many spaces.
We will attempt to single out some of these manifold and diverse
discursive representations of a Central European identity space,
analyze their genesis and interpret their potentialities and
implications. Such approach inevitably brings out the following
questions:  Whose history is being negotiated? Which experiences
constitute the past as part of an imagined community, a community of
subjects that speaks as we do (S.Hall)? In what manner are the
differences manifested and represented? How is the difference marked
in relation to identity? What is the significant 'other' of the
identity being constructed? Which other markers of difference does it
obscure (class, gender, popular culture)? What effect does the
classificatory system have on material and social conditions?

The object of our analysis will be individual case studies, the
histories and narratives in which these conflicting identifications
are negotiated, as well as contemporary mass media (film, television,
popular culture and literature). A special emphasis will be put on
analyzing the historical narratives that underline these processes of
identification.

CONTACT:  Srdja Pavlovic
      Department of History and Classics
    2-28 Henry Marshall Tory Building
    University of Alberta
    Edmonton, Alberta  T6G 2H4
    Canada
    Tel: (780) 436 - 0096
    E-mails:[log in to unmask]
    [log in to unmask]










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