Beyond 'Hellenes' and 'Barbarians'

Asymmetrical Concepts in European Discourse

Kirill Postoutenko

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781800736795
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781800736801
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Forty years ago, German historian Reinhart Koselleck coined the notion of 'asymmetrical concepts', pointing at the asymmetry between standard self-ascriptions, such as 'Hellenes' or 'Christians', and pejorative other-references ('Barbarians' or 'Pagans') as a powerful weapon of cultural and political domination. Advancing and refining Koselleck's approach, Beyond 'Hellenes' and 'Barbarians' explores the use of significant conceptual asymmetries such as 'civilization' vs. 'barbarity', 'liberalism' vs. 'servility', 'order' vs. 'chaos' or even 'masters' vs. 'slaves' in political, scientific and fictional discourses of Europe from the Middle Ages to the present day. Using an interdisciplinary set of approaches, the scholars in political history, cultural sociology, intellectual history and literary criticism bolster and extend our understanding of this ever-growing area of conceptual history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Note on Transliteration
• Introduction. ‘Asymmetrical Counter-Concepts’: Chances and Challenges
• Chapter 1. Treason as Touchstone: Asymmetrical Relations between ‘Heathens’ and ‘Christians’ in Middle High German Epic Literature
• Chapter 2. ‘Blond Flowing Hair’, ‘Tumid Lips’, ‘Rigid Posture’ and ‘Choleric Temperament’: Universal Aspirations and Racial Asymmetries in Linnaeus’s Descriptions of Homo Sapiens
• Chapter 3. The Contribution of Asymmetrical Concepts to the Building of Spanish Liberal Discourse in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century: Methodological Reflections and Applications
• Chapter 4. ‘Kultur’/‘Bildung’ vs ‘Civilization’: A Close Look at One Conceptual Asymmetry in the Early Nineteenth-Century Finnish Discourse
• Chapter 5. Liberales vs Serviles: Symmetrization of Asymmetrical Counter-Concepts and Political Polarization in Spain and Portugal (1810–34)
• Chapter 6. ‘Hellenes’ Revisited: Asymmetrical Concepts in the Language of the Greek Revolution
• Chapter 7. ‘Civilization’ and ‘Barbarity’ in French Liberal Discourse during the Conquest and Colonization of Algeria
• Chapter 8. ‘People’, ‘Plebs’ and the Changing Boundaries of the Political: Asymmetrical Conceptualizations in Spanish Liberalism from a Comparative European Perspective
• Chapter 9. ‘Order’ vs ‘Chaos’: Asymmetrical Counter-Concepts and Ideological Struggles in Early Twentieth-Century Russian Poland
• Chapter 10. Dutch McCarthyism? The Asymmetrical Opposition of ‘Democracy’ and ‘Communism’ in Holland between 1920 and 1990
• Chapter 11. Asymmetrical Oppositions and Hierarchical Structures in Soviet Musical Criticism: The Case of the Essay Collection Za rubezhom (Abroad) (1953)
• Chapter 12. ‘We the Basques’, and the ‘Other(s)’: Ethnic Asymmetries in Basque Nationalist Discourse
• Conclusion. Beyond ‘Hellenes’ and ‘Barbarians’
• Index