Kundera article (cont.)

[Katerina King]

Finally a post that gets to the crux. Thank you! I think Kundera's 
article is not about where Czech literature should be but about Kundera 
trying to position *himself* as a Western, (not Slavic!) writer, for now 
and for posterity. This is nothing new or surprising; he's been riding 
that hobby-horse for many years. It is also, if I may, a typically Czech 
stance. We hate to be grouped with Russians after the many humiliations 
of the post 1948 era. But this was not always the case in Czech history. 
Are there cultural similarities between us and other Slavs? Of course 
there are! And kicking and screaming, in French or otherwise, won't make 
that fact go away.

Sincerely,

Katya King

On 1/12/2007 10:53 AM, Andrey Shcherbenok wrote:
> Slavoj Zizek once noted that almost every country in Europe has
> traditionally perceived itself as the outpost of the civilized "West"
> bordering with oriental barbarians on the East. Indeed, to extend Zizek's
> examples, in their own self-conception Great Britain is, of course, more
> civilized than continental Europe, France has to defend European values
> against barbarian oriental Germany, Slovenia is an outpost of the West
> against the oriental orthodox Serbia, Germans, of course, regard countries
> like Slovenia or Poland as essentially Eastern, Poland sees itself as the
> desperate defender of civilization against the barbarian pressure of the
> oriental Russian Empire, Ukraine is, as we know, part of Europe, unlike its
> oriental neighbor on the East, and Russia more often than not perceived
> itself as the essentially Western country protecting Europe from the attacks
> of Mongolian hordes and exporting European civilization to Central Asia et
> al. So, I believe Kundera's article is just another instance of the same
> speculative way of thinking, made more urgent by the struggle of the new
> members of the EU not to be regarded second-rate compared with the EU's
> older members.
> 
> Andrey Shcherbenok
> Columbia University
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Peitlova Katarina
> Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 6:31 AM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Kundera article (cont.)
> 
>   Such people might start with Russian
>> (as a language), and proceed to other Slavic languages, including Czech
>> -- which would be made much more accessible by prior studies within
>> the same language family (Slavic).
> 
> It's rather curious : if I want to study Japanese language  I should at 
> first study Chines? I don't think that everybody should at first learn 
> Russian language if he wants to know Czech,Slovak,Polish,Serb,Croat - and so
> 
> long - other Slavic languages.  There's really abyss between Russian and 
> Czech. First and not least the alphabet / cyrillic against latin.  We should
> 
> finally recognize that nowadays  doesn't exist old  geopolitical "division" 
> of  part of Europe to so called "EAST " and "WEST"  .I can't hear anymore 
> how Italian TV news program continues  to call "paesi dell'est"  non 
> distinguishing the existence of present  political changes  after 1989.
> Division "EAST" and "WEST" was purely political  - it came in usage  after 
> second WW 1945. Nobody called  Czechoslovakia  ,established in 1918, 
> "EAST". It was and still is geografically the Central part of Europe . So 
> STOP with this EAST! And I think that  even Kundera  is trying to  call 
> attention  to this problem : that  Czechs   with their culture,literature 
> and story don't make part of "oriental" Russia.
> 
> PhDr.Katarina Peitlova -Tocci
> Italia 
> 
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-- 
Katerina P. King, Ph.D.
Director for Graduate and Professional School Advising
Career Development Center
Mount Holyoke College
50 College Street
South Hadley, MA 01075-1456
Tel. (413)538-2080  Fax. (413)538-2081
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/cdc/5187.shtml

***
There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked 
long.
- Louisa May Alcott
	

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