Slavic (Dis)course
German Slavic Studies and Its Subject-Matter
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Slavic Studies emerged as the “science of the Slavs” in the Romanticism of the 19th century. The academic study of the Slavs and the political striving for emancipation and (re-) unification were closely linked to one another. Thus the question of the common roots of the Slavic languages and the regularity of differences dominated the field. Since the end of the East-West conflict at the latest, the unity of Slavic Studies has been called into question. If one would not invoke simply the tradition of the field, the debate over the discourse of the Slavs could lead to a reestablishment of the subject in cultural studies.
(Osteuropa 12/2009, pp. 251–262)