In, With, or Against Europe
Slavic Models of National Culture
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In the 19th century, thinkers from East Central Europe and Southeastern Europe were preoccupied with the culture of their respective nation and its place in Europe. On the basis of Pan-Slavism, there flourished a myth that placed the Slavic cultural model in contrast to the European model. This delineation, which fed on “late” nation-building and a concomitant minority complex, led to the cult of tradition and folklore. Prominent representatives of this thinking were Ján Kollár and L’udovít Štúr. But there were also other currents: The Czech literary group lumírovci, for example, called for catching up with the “developed” European nations and reconciling the cosmopolitan and the indigenous, the aesthetics of the universal and the aesthetics of folklore.
(Osteuropa 12/2009, pp. 175–192)