Ideologies of Eastness in Central and Eastern Europe (BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies)

This book explores how the countries of Eastern Europe, which were formerly part of the Soviet bloc have, since the end of communist rule, developed a new ideology of their place in the world. Drawing on post-colonial theory and on identity discourses in the writings of local intelligentsia figures, the book shows how people in these countries no longer think of themselves as part of the "east", and how they have invented new stereotypes of the countries to the east of them, such as Ukraine and Belarus, to which they see themselves as superior. The book demonstrates how there are a whole range of ideologies of "eastness", how these have changed over time, and how such ideologies impact, in a practical way, relations with countries further east. Cover 1 Title Page 10 Copyright Page 11 Table of Contents 12 List of figures 13 Acknowledgements 14 1 Central and Eastern Europe and the idea of the East 16 2 Central and Eastern Europe in a center-periphery perspective 31 3 The dependence doxa: Western hegemony and its naturalization in Central and Eastern Europe 47 4 The intelligentsia doxa: the hegemony of the intelligentsia and its naturalization 79 5 Post-colonial theory in the Central European context 104 6 The Kresy (old borderlands) discourse and its critics 130 7 The new borderlands discourse 167 8 Constructing new identities for Eastern Poland 190 9 Belarussian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian reactions to Polish discourses on the East 244 10 Conclusions: critical theory in the Central European context 270 References 282 Index 300