Transatlantic Central Europe : Contesting Geography and Redifining Culture Beyond the Nation

While there are still occasional uses of it today, the term "Central Europe" carries little of the charge that it did in the 1980s and early 1990s, and as a political and intellectual project it has receded from the horizon. Proponents of a distinct cultural profile of these countries—all involved now in the process of Transatlantic integration—used "Central European", as a contestation with the geo-political label of Eastern Europe. This book discusses the transnational set of practices connecting journals with other media in the mid-1980s, disseminating the idea of Central Europe simultaneously in East and West. A range of new methodologies, including GIS-mapping visualization, is used, repositing the political-cultural journal as one central node of a much larger cultural system. What has happened to the liberal humanist philosophy that "Central Europe" once evoked? In the early years of the transition era, the liberal humanist perspective shared by Havel, Konrád, Kundera, and Michnik was quickly replaced by an economic liberalism that evolved into neoliberal policies and practices. The author follows the trajectories of the concept into the present day, reading its material and intellectual traces in the postcommunist landscape. She explores how the current use of transnational, web-based media follows the logic and practice of an earlier, 'dissident' generation of writers. "The proposed book takes one phenomenon, the reinvention of the idea of Central Europe in the mid-1980s, and demonstrates how its proponents developed a transnational set of practices connecting political-cultural journals with other media, disseminating this idea simultaneously in East and West. I use a range of new approaches and methodologies, including visualization of text corpora and mapping techniques, in order to reposition the political-cultural journal as one central node of a much larger cultural system. There is more at stake here than simply documenting the intellectual history of dissidents from this region in the late 1970s and 1980s, or the cultural politics that developed in their wake. By unearthing the legacy of Cold War-era border-crossing networks in the post-89 period, I show how the use of transnational, web-based media alongside of radio and print media follows the logic and practice of an earlier, 'dissident' generation of writers. Anyone who has followed the chain of electoral and economic challenges that the former satellite countries have faced over the last twenty years might ask what has happened to the liberal humanist philosophy that the term 'Central Europe' once evoked? This book follows its trajectories forward into the present day, reading both its material and intellectual traces in the post-socialist landscape"--Provided by publisher. Table of Contents List of Figures List of Maps Acknowledgements Introduction: Movements of Texts across Borders Part One. Cross Currents and Its Transatlantic Central European Imaginary Chapter One: The Political-Cultural Journal: The Case of Cross Currents Chapter Two: The Debate over Central Europe—from Jews to Yugoslavia Part Two. Further Essays in Contesting Geography and Redefining Culture Chapter Three: Borders, Editors, and Readers in Motion Chapter Four: Transmedial Work-Arounds after 1989 Conclusion: Redefining Transatlantic Central Europe Today Bibliography Index Gallery The concept of Central Europe has receded as a political and intellectual project, and the term has lost most of the weight it had in the 1980s and early 1990s. Proponents of a distinct cultural profile of this group of countries all now involved in the process of Transatlantic integration used Central European as an alternative for the geo-political label of Eastern Europe. This book discusses the transnational set of practices connecting journals with other media in the mid-1980s that disseminated the idea of Central Europe simultaneously in East and West Introduction: Movements of texts across borders Part One. Cross Currents and its transatlantic Central European imaginary The political-cultural journal : the case of Cross Currents The debate over Central Europe from Jews to Yugoslavia Part Two. Further essays in contesting geography and redefining culture Borders, editors, and readers in motion Transmedial work-arounds after 1989 Conclusion: Redefining transatlantic Central Europe today.