engleski

Habermas and his Yugoslavia

"I emphasize (...) that neither the term Orient nor the concept of the West has any ontological stability ; each is made up of human effort, partly affirmation, partly identification of the Other. That these supreme fictions lend themselves easily to manipulation and the organization of collective passion has never been more evident than in our time, when the mobilizations of fear, hatred, disgust, and resurgent self-pride and arrogance— much of it having to do with Islam and the Arabs on one side, 'we' Westerners on the other— are very large-scale enterprises." (Edward W. Said) The passage above is from the preface of Edward W. Said's 25th Anniversary edition of "Orientalism" (2003), but it serves well to illustrate the guiding principle behind the Twelfth Annual Interdisciplinary German Studies Conference, "Germany and the Imagined East, " held on March 13-14, 2004, at the University of California, Berkeley. Although East and West presently seem charged with the same energy as North and South during the American Civil War, this conference focused not on drawing specific boundaries, like the infamous Mason and Dixon line, but on examining the countless perceptions of East-West relations. It seems altogether appropriate that German Studies take up this question, for twentieth-century Germany witnessed within its own national borders the power of West-vs.-East mentalities. For many in the West, Germany represented a shield against the Soviet East ; for their counterparts on the other side of the Wall, Germany was a barricade against the capitalist West. Whichever side one found oneself on, however, Germany was the middle country, the place that belonged to neither side completely. (...) In Part II, "Eastern Europe, " three essays analyze the connections in literature, philosophy and politics between the German-speaking world and former Yugoslavia, Romania and Russia. (From "Preface" by the editor, pp.IX and XV)

Habermas, Yugoslavia

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