Europe’s Ethnoschism. Nordic Manliness vs Latin Glamour, 1914-1929

ended

ETHNOSCHISM traces an ambient, diffuse but influential ethnotype, that of a manly, rough-hewn North vs. a frivolous, charming South – the former framed in terms of its ‘Germanic’ ethnolinguistic roots, the latter as ‘Romance’ or Latin. It analyses the widely-ramifying discursive diffusion of this ethnotype in its continuing ‘banal’ presence as a frame for social and political relations. The subject is highly topical, raising the still-burning issue of national intra-European divisions in terms of imputed ‘national characters’ by going it back to the years of their crystallisation (1914-1929) and studying the impact of cultural representations have in the political prejudices and ideologies. ETHNOSCHISM develops a new, interdisciplinary theory of the European North-South-opposition by studying its conceptual history from a radically interdisciplinary basis, combining the latest insights in 3 related specialisms in the culture-historical Humanities: imagology, the history of knowledge production (namely in racial theorizing), the intellectual history of European nationalisms. It studies ethnotypes in a completely new and original way, using them as a common discursive factor in the cultural field of representations and the political history of international relations. The methodological toolbox includes methods and approaches from different disciplines: the transnational and interdisciplinary history of national thought, Discourse Historical Approach, Imagology. The outputs include: two articles, a commented anthology, an edited book; two academic workshops. Measures to communicate the project activities include a website on the project, a temporary exhibition, the creation of an Educational Package for secondary-school students. Research and training activities at the Dept. of European Studies (UvA) will directly benefit my career prospects, equipping me with new skills and knowledge, and placing me at the forefront of the field as an interdisciplinary researcher.