The Interpreters of Europe and the Cold War: Interpretive Patterns in French, German, and Polish Historiography and Literary Studies
The Interpreters of Europe and the Cold War: Interpretive patterns in French, German, and Polish historiography and literary studies Barbara Picht / Europa-Universität iadrina Fran!furt #$der% &his postdoctoral project e(amines the "irst two postwar decades, as many societies gradually found their European and national *places* and had to legitimi+e these culturally and historically against the backdrop of the ,old -ar rivalry of systems and ideologies. It investigates academic self-designs in postwar Europe, with the focus on literature and historiography as the central discourses in constructing national identities. &he project selects a historian and a literary scholar each from France, the Federal /epublic, the G0/ and Poland, whose wor! figured signi"icantly in the discursive processes of the postwar period1 Fernand Braudel and /obert 2inder in France, -erner ,on+e and Ernst /obert ,urtius in -est Germany, -alter 2ar!ov and -erner 3rauss in East Germany, and $s!ar 4alecki and ,+esła) 2iłos+ in Poland and, respectively, in U6 e(ile. 6tri!ingly, we find that the ,old -ar played a rather marginal part in these historians7 and literary scholars7 agendas. Even into the 89:;s, they argued ta!ing the idea of an undivided Europe for granted. -hat BERLI=ER 3$<<EG KALTER KRIEG > BERLI= ,EN&ER FOR ,$<0 -?R 6&U0IES @;8A Barbara Picht The Interpreters of Europe and the Cold War !ind of historical thin!ing *encountered* the ,old -ar in their wor!B 4ow could they hold fast to understandings of Europe and the nation that, from today7s perspective, seem far more suited to either the pre- and interwar periods or even the decades following 89C9 than to the height of he ,old -arB In star! contrast to what one might e(pect, these thin!ers sought neither to undermine the systems7 frontiers nor to construct a political alternative to the bipolar logic of the time.
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