East Central Europe Between the Colonial and the Postcolonial: A Critical Introduction

Abstract

In this introductory chapter, we propose a comparative model for studying the in-between location of East Central Europe on the cultural, historical, and political map of Europe. To construct this model, we make a critical survey of theoretical frameworks that have been deployed so far and claim that postcolonialism can be used as a hermeneutical device for situating East Central Europe on the global map of (colonial) modernity. Analysing the approaches developed in studies on the region, we discuss the shortcomings of using postcolonialism for claiming the postcolonial status for the region.

Western Orientalism Targeting Eastern Europe: An Emerging Research Programme

“…Conversely, to become Central, Northern or Western European has meant to escape from the prison. For this reason, the Eastern European 'anxiety of incomplete belonging and not ranking high enough to merit the status of Europeanness' (Kołodziejczyk & Huigen 2023: 2), while to some extent certainly true, should not be overstated.…”