Collective memory and European identity. The effects of integration and enlargement

Abstract:

This work aims to address two crucial aspects of European identity under the conditions of the extension of European integration to the East.

The work is organised in three parts. Following an introduction, part one explores collective memories of a European past and the role for a European identity across the European divide. Chapter two opens with a look at the concept of ‘multiple modernities’ and their growing prominence in the last three decades. Chapter three examines the legacy of the East European past and notions of collective memory that have defined identity so sadly wrapped around by stigma. Chapter four considers the Jewish community in post-war Germany and the influences flowing into it from the globalised Jewish diaspora.

Part two comprises three chapters containing case studies. Chapter five examines the negative perceptions that persist in German-Polish relations and the probable impact that membership of the EU might have upon them. Chapter six examines the Italian experience since the end of the Cold War and their rediscovery of the ‘Europeanness’ of countries such as Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Chapter seven explores the influence of collective memory and national sentiment in the shaping of Spain’s perceptions and symbolic representations of the European Union’s Eastern Enlargement.

Part three offers the mirror image of part two with case studies from Eastern Europe. Chapter eight examines the shaping of public opinion in Hungary about entry into NATO. The ninth chapter considers the Czech experience and the challenge of identifying ‘difference’ within the European theatre. The final case study examines the truly exceptional history of Kaliningrad and the mixed nature of its collective memory.

Chapter eleven closes the work with an exploration of the contribution that these separate but collective memories might have upon the formation of a European identity.

The work will interest scholars and students engaged in political sociology and European studies.