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Summary Readings Culture and Language Europe
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Week 2Lévy, Bernard-Henri. 2019. “Fight for Europe – or the wreckers will destroy it.” The Guardian, 25
January.
● Upsets dominant ideologies
● 1. “Europe as an idea was not important to the ancients”
○ In contemporary times we say the ancients found the idea important
○ The ancients believed everyone that wasn’t Greek was barbaric
○ There weren’t regional divisions - only Greek and barbaric
○ Greek in antiquity spread across vast land, even that not considered Europe
○ Europe only became a political/cultural entity in the Middle Ages
○ Notion of Greece as central is recent and fabricated (past interpreted for contempo-
rary use)
● 2. “We may wish to use the classical world as a homogenized foundation but it was diverse”
○ Greeks and Romans spread far beyond “Europe” into diverse lands
○ There was not strong, strict European identity
The threat they could be referring to:
Euroskepticism
The European idea is under threat
Rise if nationalism
Xenophobia
Fascism
The parliamentary election were occurring g when this article was written
Could be seen as an activist letter
Words used in the letter:
“battle for civilisation” – civilisation is a dominant representation of Europe
“legacy of Geert…” – defines Europe as a culture and as a legacy that must be renewed
“European identity”
Populism builds on European culture and the EU can become a threat
Europe is presented as a civilization, in need of defending – an idea
We would need to renew the legacy of dante, Goethe, Erasmus
The great European idea- what is this?
Upsets dominant ideologies
1. “Europe as an idea was not important to the ancients”
In contemporary times we say the ancients found the idea important
The ancients believed everyone that wasn’t Greek was barbaric
There weren’t regional divisions – only Greek and barbaric
Greek in antiquity spread across vast land, eve that not considered Europe
Europe only became a political/ cultural entity in the Middle Ages
Notion of Greece as central is recent and fabricated (past interpreted for contemporary
use)
1. “We may wish to use the classical world as a homogenized foundation but it was diverse”
Greeks and the Romans spread far beyond “Europe” into diverse lands
There was not strong, strict European identity
What is the threat to Europe? Why is Europe under threat?
o Euroscepticism
o Rise of nationalism
, o Rise of xenophobia/anti-Semitism
So, we need to fight for Europe, during the electoral elections.
Presenting Europe as a civilization 🡺 legacies of Dante, Goethe, and Erasmus. What does it mean? How
do we renew it? Do you agree with it?
The European Idea 🡺 constant reference to it.
Both of those authors would probably not agree with each other.
European culture should not be defined exclusively basing yourself on the past, More nuance
necessary. You need to take into account a plurality of perspectives, multiculturality
Paul Valéry: being European as a heritage of Greek, Roman and Christianity.
However Europe has begun to be used as “Europe” during Charlemagne’s time. Idea of Europe that
starts to rise during that time. “He had united most of Europe, western Europe, father of Europe” 🡺
important figure for European integration
Empire of Charlemagne does not include many of the European countries, He fought so was not a
peaceful European integration.
History that gets to be used to write/re-write history.
Nederveen Pieterse, Jan. 1991. “Fictions of Europe.” Race & Class 32.3: 1-10
“Plato t Nato” is wrong
We can’t explain Europe as an inherited culture that developed along a linear linage
This method/n ideology ignores contemporary multicultural realities
Nederveen is extremely opinionated in his writings
- Populism often builds on an indea of European culture/civilization that is underthreat
- From Plato to Nato- pieters: - wrong idea
- Paul Valery-who is European? – romanized, chirstianized, and disciplined by the greeks
Charles the great- holy roman emperor. Around this time
the idea of Europe rises because it was thought that he
united Europe sfirst since the roman empire; considered
as the father of Europe, the father of European
integration
What is European culture?
- Culture is inherently political
- On Wikipedia: Europe= the west
● It is inherently a site of conflict and politics
○ Who is part of it?
○ Who makes it? Etc.
● Creates an identity (local, national…)
● Western culture according to Wikipedia:
○ “Western canon” “civilization” - too broad and unifying therefore excluding diversity
○ “Cultural heritage is always influenced by Christianity heritage” - clear superiority or
elitist views on Christianity
○ “Extending culture through colonialism” - makes it a neutral activity
● “The European civilization is in danger of succumbing to the EU Empire”
○ Europe and EU aren’t the same
○ Civilization refers more to a cultural identity
○ European civilization can essentially be traced back to antiquity
● Greece is central to European identity and culture:
, ○ “When hearing the name Greece, a European man will feel at home”
-
We are all Greeks: - the myth of Europa, doughet of a phenician king that was seduced by Zeus who
transformed himself in a bull and carries her away. According to this myth Europe is from Phoenicia (from west
Asia)
-Another myth is Aeneas flees burning troy, arrives in Italy and sets up Rome. Troy is also
outside of Europe
- these myth are a product of intercultural interaction, cross culture interaction
● 1. Myth of Europa and Zeus
○ Europa was the daughter of a Phoenician
○ Zeus turned into a bull and seduced Europa
○ But in this manner, Europe actually derives from Asia due to the location of Phoenicia
○ This would mean Europe has oriental/foreign roots
● 2. Aeneas Flees Troy
○ Aeneas flees to Rome
○ Many Europeans claim genealogy from fleeing troy therefore have Trojans as ances-
tors (Tudor and Habsburg Dynasty)
○ These myths show Europe as an entity that pre-dates antiquity
○ Myths show cross cultural influence
The world according to Herodotus:
- The greeks didn’t see themselves as European; everything beyond Greece were barbarians
- The niton that Europes is of Greek origins was a later invention, later 19 th century
The past is an interpretance for contemporary use. Delante reading
● The essential conditions one must meet to be considered European:
○ A man whom the European mind can come to full realization
○ Been Romanized, Christianized, and their mind has been disciplined by the Greeks
○ Caesar, Trajan, Plato, etc. have authority and meaning in their mind
● Emphasizes a linear lineage, history, and inherited culture
Europe identity
● A white supremacy group of Europeans in the US
● Racial pride
● “They have a flawed understanding”
○ Try to push white, western culture to antiquity through the show of white Roman
sculptures but ROman sculptures were made from a vast palette of skin colors
● Antiquity used to advance their “superior, white lineage”
● But diversity in the Roman Empire was of political importance
○ Enemies turned to soldiers and therefore these empires grew strong and were able to
expand
● Many people had a problem with a BBC cartoon that portrayed black Roman soldiers
, ○ Some stated it was “anachronistic, only trying to be politically correct and not histori-
cally accurate”
● There is constant tension between “origin myth construction vs. historical reality”
● Culture is always built from cross-cultural interaction
Delanty. Gerard. 1995. “The origins of the idea of Europe.” Inventing Europe: idea,
identity, reality, 16-23. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
● Europe became used in the cultural sense only in the period of Charlemagne
● Viewed as the Golden Age of Europe
● Charlemagne:
○ “The Holy Roman Emperor”
○ Thought to have united Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire
○ Important figure in European integration
○ Generally referenced as an emblematic figure
○ His motivation for unification in reality was to extend the reach of his empire (not
peaceful integration)
● Use Charlemagne as an emblem is exclusive:
○ Many EU countries now weren’t considered EU under his rule
● By romanticizing Charlemagne, one sidesteps the violence used during unification
○ Many people warp the story to fit political agendas
○ They essentially ‘rewrite history’
The Necessity of Permanent Criticism: A Postcolonial Critique of Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of
Heaven
Movie appears in 2005, a time when the war in Iraq was happening, Israeli-Palestinian conflict
etc
Negative reviews tended to focus on poor acting, predictable battle scenes, and fairly
minorhistorical inaccuracies—nothing that should, at least on the surface of things, foster
hostilitybetween Christians and Muslims.
, it also comforts a Western audience byalleviating (1) their guilt about past and present
efforts to colonize the Middle East and (2) theirdeep and persistent fear of Islam, which has
reached new levels of intensity since September 11,2001
This film does so by making rhetorical moves that amountto anything but tolerance,subtly
influencing viewers to see colonization as a reflection of high ideals and to view Islamas a dim
reflection of their own beliefs.
hus,Kingdom of Heavenpreaches a message oftolerance while ironically embodying forms of
neocolonialism and Orientalism
he movie rewrites the Crusades (and similar colonizing efforts inthe Middle East),
rationalizing Western occupation of Middle Eastern lands and transformingone of Islam’s
greatest heroes into a spokesperson for Western values.
Employing postcolonialmethodology, the article shows howKingdom of Heavenparticipated in
a discourse thatconvinced many of the necessity of invading Iraq, upholdingfanciful visions of
the invasion’saftermath that blinded viewers to the potential difficulties that lie ahead
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