FW: Kundera article

[Sergey Glebov]

Dear Susan,

 

No, it doesn't, it seems to me. Apart from the fact that there is little
"objective" in history or, indeed, in "the West," the Habsburg empire was as
different (or, perhaps, more different?) from France or England as it was
from the Russian empire. I find the very attempt to create "historical
regions" of Europe highly problematic. Sweden and Finland, for instance, did
not share in the Renaissance and hardly had any "feudalism." Does it make
them less "European"? And as we know from a number of recent studies, the
perception of, say, Bohemia or Hungary as "eastern" has become a commonplace
long before the 20th century. This is not to say they should be treated as
such or lumped together with Russia in some sort of "eastern bloc" thing.
But it also futile to try sustain a historical argument of a profound
difference or a boundary of "the west". 

We simply cannot take for granted inventions of cultural boundaries. It's
not an analytical concept but a concept of political practice. We should,
perhaps, be more interested in why and how these boundaries are invented,
and in that sense I think Andrey Shcherbanok's argument is right to the
point. 

The exception of Czechoslovakia from the authoritarian rule is no more
evidence that it is profoundly different from Russia than that it is, say,
profoundly different from Hungary. I am afraid, history can be of little
help to Kundera here.  

 

Susan Kresin wrote: 

 

I think that a "historical intervention," as you call it, is completely on
line here.  After all, doesn't the Hapsburg history of the Czech lands
automatically - and objectively - give them a more Western orientation that
sets them apart from Russia? The "single exception of Czechoslovakia" during
the interwar period is perhaps further evidence.

 

Susan Kresin

 

 


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------