ABOUT THIS BOOK

The last volume of the Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe 1770–1945 series presents 46 texts under the heading of "antimodernism". In a dynamic relationship with modernism, from the 1880s to the 1940s, and especially during the interwar period, the antimodernist political discourse in the region offered complex ideological constructions of national identification. These texts rejected the linear vision of progress and instead offered alternative models of temporality, such as the cyclical one as well as various narratives of decline. This shift was closely connected to the rejection of liberal democratic institutionalism, and the preference for organicist models of social existence, emphasizing the role of the elites (and charismatic leaders) shaping the whole body politic. Along these lines, antimodernist authors also formulated alternative visions of symbolic geography: rejecting the symbolic hierarchies that focused on the normativity of Western European models, they stressed the cultural and political autarchy of their own national community, which in some cases was also coupled with the reevaluation of the Orient. At the same time, this antimodernist turn should not be confused with rightwing radicalism—in fact, the dialogue with the modernist tradition was often very subtle and the anthology also contains texts which offered a criticism of 'modern' totalitarianism in an antimodernist key.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Ahmet Ersoy is lecturer at the Department of History, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul.

Maciej Górny is Research Fellow at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and Centre for Historical Research in Berlin.

Vangelis Kechriotis is lecturer at the Department of History, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul.

Marius Turda is Professor and Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities at Oxford Brookes University.

Michal Kopecek is Research Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History, Prague.

Balázs Trencsényi is a Professor at the History Department of Central European University.

Diana Mishkova is Associate Professor in Modern History of Southeastern Europe, Senior Researcher and Director of the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia.

REVIEWS

"This intelligently chosen and extremely useful anthology provides insight into the way narratives of national identity were shaped in the region noted in the book's title. Items include such richly varied materials as anthems, songs, constitutions, manifestos, novels, correspondence, autobiographical materials, and contemporary historical narratives. Each item is accompanied by information on the author and context as well as bibliographical material. Summing up: Highly recommended. All levels and libraries."
-- Choice

"The linguistic diversity of Europe (to stay within the limits of our continent) makes it culturally rich; yet, how hard-to-attain this cultural wealth sometimes is! This becomes particularly relevant when it comes to a content that is complicated and related to things of personal importance to people. And such is the case with problems of collective identity – particularly, national questions – that have been arousing strong emotion from time immemorial, attracting interest of numerous researchers in several last decades. While these problems cannot possibly be completely helped, they can be alleviated. Entering into international – that is, English-language – scientific circulation at least a selection (even if just samples) of original reference texts, not quite accessible due to the language barrier (among other factors), is one possible method. A task of this sort was undertaken a dozen years ago by a multinational team of young researchers who enjoyed institutional support from the Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the Central European University of Budapest, Hungary. Their publications describe the shaping of collective identities under imperial and post-imperial conditions – ‘collective’ actually meaning, in this particular case, ‘national’. The nationalist narratives whereby nation is a ‘natural’ and ‘perennial’ entity, are deeply rooted in the central-eastern part of our continent. The authors endeavour to demonstrate the ways along which such discourses and complexes of ideas or concepts developed."
-- Acta Poloniae Historica

"The editors hope to overcome two tendencies. The first tendency is to treat the 'process of creating national identity in Central and Southeast Europe' as something exceptional. The editors very much reject the idea of studying these cultures only in terms of themselves. However, they also reject any notion of explaining these cultures by comparing them to an ideal Western type: 'we sought to abandon the 'Platonic' image dividing the continent in two ontologically incompatible worlds: the transcendent world of the Real – the Occident, and its ontologically inferior imitation – the Orient, the 'Remainder of Europe'. The editors of this series very much succeed in their attempt to get readers to look across national boundaries when studying the region. The multitude of languages required by any scholar to pursue cross-cultural comparisons in the region is no doubt a discouragement to many. By taking the time to provide the documents in English translation in one central collection, the editors have done much to facilitate the breaking down of traditional boundaries."
-- Slavic and East European Journal

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction Balázs Trencsényi and Sorin Antohi: Approaching Anti-Modernism Chapter I. Integral Nationalism Nikola Pašic: The Agreement of Serbs and Croats Georg Schönerer: The Pan-Germans’ program for the future Roman Dmowski: Thoughts of a modern Pole Nicolae Iorga: On national culture Aurel C. Popovici: At the crossroads of two worlds Vladimir Cerina: In the city of cynics Babanzâde Ahmed Naim: The question of nationalism in Islam Jozef Tiso: The ideology of the Slovak People’s Party Dezso Szabó: Tomorrow’s nationalism Chapter II. The Crisis of the European Conscience Karl Kraus: The last days of mankind Mircea Eliade: Spiritual itinerary Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar: On East and West Leopold Andrian: Austria through the prism of the Idea Mihály Babits: Mass and nation Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz: Unkempt souls Ivan Hadzhiyski: An optimistic theory of our people Chapter III. In Search of a National Ontology Ion Dragoumis: Hellenic civilization Jaroslav Durych: The mission of the Czech state France Veber: The ideal foundations of Slavic agrarianism Anton Wildgans: Speech about Austria Lucian Blaga: The Mioritic space Vladimir Dvornikovic: Epic man Nikolaj Velimirovic: Serbian nation as a servant of God Nayden Sheytanov: The Bulgarian worldview László Németh: In the minority Chapter IV. Conservative Redefinitions of Tradition and Modernity Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Writing as the spiritual space of the Nation Gyula Szekfu: Three generations Heinrich von Srbik: Austria in the Holy Roman Empire and in the German Confederation Živojin Peric: Religion in the Serbian Civil Code Milan Šufflay: The depths of national consciousness Karel Kramár: In defense of Slavic politics Petar Mutafchiev: Towards a philosophy of the Bulgarian history Nichifor Crainic: The meaning of tradition Ömer Lütfi Barkan: The legal status of the peasant class in the Ottoman Empire Ladislav Hanus: Slovak statehood Manifesto of the Slovenian National Defense Corps Chapter V. The Anti-Modernist Revolution Ideological declaration of the Camp of Great Poland Janko Janev: The spirit of the nation Hüseyin Nihal Atsiz: Turkish unity Ioannis Metaxas: Speech on the occasion of the inauguration of public works Emil Cioran: The transfiguration of Romania Lazër Radi: Fascism and the Albanian Spirit Štefan Polakovic: Slovak National Socialism Emanuel Vajtauer: Czech myth Svetislav Stefanovic: The building of New Serbia as a peasant state Edvard Kocbek: Comradeship Basic secondary literature on identity discourses in Central and Southeast Europe Glossary