"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 otherizing-ascriptions, '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 'civilization' vs. 'barbarity,' 'liberalism' vs. 'servility,' 'order' vs. 'chaos', or even 'masters' vs. 'slaves,' in political, scientific and fictional discourses from Greek to Dutch, Finnish to German, British to Portuguese, and many other societies from the Middle Ages to the present day. Using aninterdisciplinary set of approaches, scholars across political science, literary criticism, and the history of science bolster and extend our understanding of this ever-growing conceptual 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.
Arvustused
This volume is a significant and innovative exploration of Kosellecks notion of asymmetric counter-concepts in the form of case studies based on a number of European cultures and histories. Beyond 'Hellenes' and 'Barbarians' places its theme firmly on the agenda of conceptual historians, which makes it a very valuable and insightful addition to conceptual history literature. Michael Freeden, University of Oxford
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Notes on Transliteration
Introduction: Asymmetrical Counter-Concepts: Chances and Challenges
Kirill Postoutenko
Chapter
1. Treason as Touchstone: Asymmetrical Relations between Heathens
and Christians in Middle High German Epic Literature
Paul Paradies
Chapter
2. Blond Flowing Hair, Tumid Lips, Rigid Posture, and
Choleric Temperament: Universal Aspirations and Racial Asymmetries in
Linnaeus Descriptions of Homo Sapiens
Monica Libell
Chapter
3. The Contribution of Asymmetrical Concepts to the Building of the
Spanish Liberal discourse in the First Half of 19th Century (Methodological
Reflections and Applications)
Ana Isabel González Manso
Chapter
4. Kultur / Bildung vs. Civilization: A Close Look at one
Conceptual Asymmetry in the Early Nineteenth-Century Finnish Discourse
Heli Rantala
Chapter
5. Liberales' vs. 'Serviles': Symmetrisation of Asymmetrical
Counter-Concepts and Political Polarization in Spain and Portugal
(18101834)
Luis Fernandez Torres
Chapter
6. Hellenes Revisited: Asymmetrical Concepts in the Language of
the Greek Revolution
Alexandra Sfoini
Chapter
7. Civilization and Barbarity in French Liberal Discourse During
the Conquest and Colonisation of Algeria
Nere Basabe, María Luisa Sánchez-Mejía
Chapter
8. People, Plebs and the Changing Boundaries of the Political:
Asymmetrical Conceptualizations in Spanish Liberalism in Comparative European
Perspective
Pablo Sánchez León
Chapter
9. Order vs. chaos: Asymmetrical Counter-concepts and
Ideological Struggles in the early 20th Century Russian Poland
Wiktor Marzec
Chapter
10. Dutch Mccarthyism? The Asymmetrical Opposition of Democracy
and Communism in Holland Between 1920 and 1990
Wim de Jong
Chapter
11. Asymmetrical Oppositions and Hierarchical Structures in Soviet
Musical Criticism: The Case of Essay Collection Za rubezhom (Abroad)
(1953)
Kirill Kozlovskii
Chapter
12. We the Basques, and the Other(s)": Ethnic Asymmetries in the
Basque Nationalist Discourse
Iñaki Iriarte López
Conclusion: Beyond Hellenes and Barbarians
Kirill Postoutenko
Kirill Postoutenko is Senior Researcher in the Special Research Area 1288 (Practices of Comparison) at Bielefeld University, Germany, and Adjunct Associate Professor (Docent) of Russian literature and culture at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is the author and editor of eight books and eighty articles devoted to the history of Russian poetry and literary criticism, history of media and communication in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, systems theory, conversation analysis, and social history of identity.
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