The Promethean role of Europe: changing narratives of the political and scholarly left

Divided national memories and EU crises: how Eurosceptic parties mobilize historical narratives

“…Every European nationstate has a troubled past that can be used to support or oppose European integration. Europeanism and anti-Europeanism in EU member states are contingent on relatively recent historical events and on how various political actors and groups adapt to these events and interpret them (Petrović 2017). Historical grievances of various political groups have not been overcome by the deepening of European integration or by the entrance of their states into the EU.…”

“…During the late 1990s and early 2000s, social democrats and greens, became more pro-EU and projected their values such as antinationalism, social cohesion, pacificism and environmentalism in the EU's official narrative (Petrović 2016(Petrović , 2017. However, recent EU crises have very clearly showed that not all European political actors and party families share these values and narratives, but want to project their own values and narratives at the EU level.…”

Narrative and Europeanization: bringing together two processual notions

“…This has been clearly demonstrated by an abundance of research literature coming from scientific disciplines such as anthropology, cultural studies, economics, geography, history, law, literary studies, political science and sociology (although the latter, we would argue, to date plays a somewhat minor role in this field). Thus, corresponding narratives have been crafted and construed, passed on and modified by various intellectuals, writers, artists, scholars and politicians (Chenal & Snelders, 2012;Dittmer, 2014;Forchtner & Kølvraa, 2012;Petrović, 2017) as well as by newspapers (Rovisco, 2010). Sometimes, this occurs in a professionally fabricated manner as in the case of the European Commission's attempt to foster a 'new narrative for Europe' (…”