East Central Europe Between the Colonial and the Postcolonial in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies)

This open access book explores the ambiguity of East Central Europe during the twentieth century, examining local contexts through a comparative and transnational reworking of theoretical models in postcolonial studies. Since the early modern period, East Central Europe has arguably been an object of imperialism. However, at the same time East Central European states have been seen to be colonial actors, with individuals from the region often associating themselves with colonial discourses in extra-European contexts. Spanning a broad time period until after the Second World War and covering the governance of Communism and its legacies, the book examines how cultural and literary narratives from East Central Europe have created and revised historical knowledge, making use of collective memory to feed into identity models. Siegfried Huigen is Professor of Dutch and South African Literature at the University of Wrocaw in Poland and Visiting Professor at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. He has written and co-edited a number of books and journal articles on colonialism in South Africa, Indonesia and East Central Europe. His most recent book, Shaping a Dutch East Indies (2023), explores the construction of an authoritative representation of the Dutch colonial empire at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Dorota Koodziejczyk is Associate Professor at the Institute of English Studies, University of Wrocaw, Poland. She is Chair of Olga Tokarczuk Ex-Centre. Academic Research Centre, Director of the Postcolonial Studies Centre and board member of the Postdependence Studies Centre. Her publications include Postcolonial Perspectives on Postcommunism in Central and Eastern Europe (2016, 2018), co-edited with Cristina Sandru, three issues of the European Review co-edited with Siegfried Huigen, and studies in comparative literature Acknowledgments 6 Contents 7 Notes on Contributors 9 East Central Europe Between the Colonial and the Postcolonial: A Critical Introduction 13 East Central Europe: The Allure of In-Betweenness 13 Debating a Postcolonial Perspective on East Central Europe 18 Postcolonialism’s Désintéressment—A Left-Wing Commitment or Metropolitan Ignorance? 22 Towards a Comparative System—Postcolonizing the Postcommunist Europe 26 Conclusion: Postcolonial Sensibility as Critical Thought 32 About the Book 35 References 39 Locating East Central Europe Through Comparative Methodologies 45 East Central Europe as a Historical and Conceptual Space: On the Production of Knowledge from an (Historical) Area Studies Perspective 46 What’s New About Area Studies in the Twenty-First Century? 48 A Genealogy of Area Studies in Two Postwar Periods 49 “1989” and the “Spatial Turn” 53 Eastern Europe in a Globalised Science 55 Eastern/East Central Europe and the “Hyperreal Europe” 58 The Twenty-First Century or Why We Still Need Relational History in a Postcolonial Vein 60 References 62 Polish Stereotypes of the East: Old and New Mechanisms of Orientalisation in the Regional and Transnational Dimensions 67 Introduction 67 Orientalism and the Dimensions of Dependency in the Eastern Peripheries of Europe 69 Postcolonial Approaches to Polish Discourses of the East and Borderlands Ideologies 75 Polish Discourses of the East and the Belarussian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian Identity Disputes 80 New Identities in Eastern Poland and Orientalism 83 The Cities of Białystok and Lublin and Their “Eastern” Identity 88 Identity Dilemmas of the Eastern Borderlands 89 References 90 Appraising the Empire from European Peripheries 96 Colonial Ambivalence and Its Aftermath: Colonialism and Anti-Colonialism in Independent Poland and Ireland 97 Ireland and Poland as Objects of Colonialism 100 Ireland and Poland as Agents of Colonialism 103 Ireland and Poland as Critics of Global Colonialism 106 Conclusion 110 References 114 The Unbearable Virtues of Backwardness: Mircea Eliade’s Conceptualisation of Colonialism and His Attraction to Romania’s Interwar Fascist Movement 121 Introduction 121 Cultural Debates and Intergenerational Politics in Interwar Romania 123 Experiencing India 126 The Return from India—Scholarly Work and Political Commitment 134 Eliade’s Reflections on Colonialism and Romania’s Peripheral Position 137 Conclusion 143 References 144 Reportage from the (Post-)Contact Zone: Polish Travellers to Decolonised India (1950–1980) 149 A Postcolonial Contact Zone 150 A Socialist Critique of Colonialism 153 Traces of Colonialism in Indian Cities 156 Capitalism and Colonialism Intertwined 158 The Ambiguous Position of a Polish Reporter in India 161 Conclusion 163 References 166 An East Central European “Sahib” in a Former Colony: Andrzej Bobkowski in Guatemala (1948–1961) 168 The Decision of Life and Death 169 To Be a Quetzal 172 Among Caballeros 175 A View from the Top Drawer 180 Conclusions 183 References 185 Emigres, Exiles, Settlers—Framing Displaced Identities 188 Regained Landscapes: The Transfer of Power and Tradition in Polish Discourse of the Regained Territories 189 Post-Yalta Cartographic Shifts: The Discourse of the Regained Territories and (Post)Colonialism 189 Regained Landscapes 194 Terra Nullius 197 “Fatherland-Ness” 199 Nativeness in Motion 201 Transitive Landscape 205 Conclusion 205 References 210 Between Pedagogy and Self-Articulation: Roma Necessary Fictions in East Central Europe 214 For the Right to Free Mobility 218 They Lived in the Dark Until the People’s Authority Thought About Them! 219 References 234 Soviet Colonialism Reloaded: Encounters Between Russians and East Central Europeans in Contemporary Literature 236 Introduction 236 City of Exiles: Representations of Berlin in World Literature 238 A Russian City: Russians in Berlin and Their Invisible Others 243 City of Russians? Images of Russians in Berlin by East Central Europeans Writers 246 The Chronotope of Staged Encounters: Kaminer, Šteger, and Be’er 251 Conclusion 254 References 256 Index 259