Byt liminalny
Liminal being

Notes on shaping the image of Central and Eastern Europe in Western literature on the subject after 1989

Author(s): Marcin Niemojewski
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe; Western literature; transitional stage; liminality; discourse; myth; crisis
Summary/Abstract: After the disintegration of the Eastern Bloc and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the debate on Central and Eastern Europe did not end, despite numerous voices questioning the existence of the topic itself. The multilingual library on the region is constantly growing, covering the increasing number of works published in Western Europe and the United States. The article is an attempt to answer the question about how the image of Central and Eastern Europe is constructed in the Western literature on the subject published after 1989. The reading of selected works from this period reveals that the scope of interest in writing on this matter essentially has not changed and that considerations about Central and Eastern Europe as a historical, political and cultural phenomenon still dominate. There was, however, a noticeable shift in emphasis. New statements about the region which were created in the wake of successive crises such as the Balkan War and political and social perturbations in the countries of the region, bring about a clear correction of the belief that the changes in Central and Eastern Europe are unidirectional after the fall of the Iron Curtain and of understanding this breakthrough as a simple transition from one political and cultural order to another. In the texts that have been contributing to the next instalment of the above-mentioned debate over the last three decades, the ‘transitional stage’ appears as a specific disposition of the region, a model for its existence in history, and even a distinctive feature of Central and Eastern European identity. In order to examine such a recognised trend in shaping the image of Central and Eastern Europe, the author turns to the category of liminality introduced into the vocabulary of the humanities and social sciences by Arnold van Gennep and developed by Victor Turner. This category allows for capturing the similarities and common points in various approaches proposed in the discussed texts.

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