The essays in this anthology address processes of defining European cultural borders, as well as their dependence on – and relation to – various kinds of European belonging and national identity. By proceeding from cultural borders as the object of investigation, we open the door to a range of cases that is both broader and more complex than the ambit of territorial borders.
The fact that this anthology combines studies on a great variety of cultural borders, literary, linguistic, religious, historiographical and ideological among others, is also new. A closely related development is the growing complexity of identities and the multiplicity of border-making, including phenomena such as linguistic complexity, religious diversity and regional affinity.
We define cultural borders broadly and consider them to be more than simply legal or political constructs. An historical, linguistic and cultural analysis suggests that people will always need borders to define themselves in relation to others but that borders operate in different ways and at different levels; moreover, the degree to which they influence society changes over time. We subscribe to the premise that there is a need for a "radical break with substantialist notions of Europe’s borders and identity" (Klaus Eder 2006) in favour of a focus on their cultural constructions.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
List of Figures and Tables
Introduction
Mats Andrén & Ingmar Söhrman
PART I: THE CHALLENGES OF RELIGIOUS BORDERS
Chapter 1. Territorial and Religious Identifications in Europe
Linda Berg
Chapter 2. Europe with or without Muslims: Creating and Maintaining Cultural Boundaries
Göran Larsson & Riem Spielhaus
Chapter 3. Ilm al-Hududuyya: Un-Inheriting Eurocentricity
Klas Grinell
PART II: LINGUISTIC BORDERS IN PRACTICE
Chapter 4. When the Intercultural Goes National: Textbooks as Sites of Struggle
Katharina Vajta
Chapter 5. The Pluricentric Borders of Bavaria
Barbara Loester
Chapter 6. The Influence of Imagined Linguistic Performances
Ingmar Söhrman
PART III: MENTAL SPACES AND BARRIERS
Chapter 7. Mental Barriers Replacing Nation-State Borders
Fernand Fehlen
Chapter 8. Crossing Borders and Redefining Oneself: The Treacherous Life of Aino Kallas
Katarina Leppänen
Chapter 9. Evolving Symbolic Divides: in Basque Language Promotion Logos
Johan Järlehed
PART IV: SCHOLARS MAKING BORDERS
Chapter 10. The Controversial Concept of European Identity
Mats Andrén
Chapter 11. The EU as a 'Large Space'? Carl Schmitt and the Contemporary Dilemmas of Political Rituals and Cultural Borders
Jon Wittrock
Chapter 12. How Prehistory Becomes Crucial for Border Making
Per Cornell
Conclusion
Thomas Lindkvist & Katharina Vajta
Index
