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The Boundaries of Europe: Deconstructing Three Regional Narratives

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 11; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10702890490883876

1547-3384

Λιλα Λεοντιδου,

Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration

Abstract The shifting boundaries of Europe as lines of enclosure and mobility restriction in the 'longue duree'are analysed here at the European/supranational level through the deconstruction of three regional narratives on "Europe" and its reborderings in different millennia. These narratives have had a lasting significance in identity construction and spatialities around the Mediterranean and are evidence of the historically specific and constructed nature of the boundaries of Europe, as well as the power relations involved in changing spatialities. Europe is a cultural construct that emerged around the Mediterranean in a captivating Greek myth, much earlier than the period of written history. The notion of Europe then 'shifted' to the northwest as a colonial cultural–religious construct of 'Christendom' during the Middle Ages, before nation-states emerged. Much later, European integration—in the context of globalization after the end of bipolarity—not only did not melt borders, but in fact created some new and often bizarre hierarchies supported by a bureaucratic narrative and an institutional discourse for unification after two devastating world wars. Unpacking these narratives is important in understanding sociopolitical constructions of 'Europe' and its boundaries, their hardening or relaxation, and criticizing essentialism, as well as commenting upon the ambivalent placing in the European Union of certain candidate and neighboring nations. Keywords: bordersMediterraneanEuropean UnionspatialitiesEuropean identitycultural geographygeopoliticsglobalizationessentialismontology I wish to thank Josiah Heyman and Tom Wilson for their critical reading and intellectual support, as well as two anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions. Reflections presented here originate in four delightful years (1997–2000) of intensive research work and learning I enjoyed as a project leader of a Targeted Socio-Economic Research (TSER) project on towns on the EU border in a network of colleagues named in the references (Leontidou et al. 2000, 2002 Lewis, G., Fink, J. and Clarke, J. 2001. "Introduction: Transitions and trajectories in European welfare". In Rethinking European Welfare: Transformations of Europe and Social Policy, Edited by: Fink, J., Lewis, G. and Clarke, J. 1–29. London, , UK: Sage and Open University. [Google Scholar]). I am also indebted to J. Fink, G. Lewis, and J. Clarke for stimulating seminars at 'their' O.U. and a nucleus scholars at the School of Humanities of the Hellenic O.U. during the spring semester of 2004, which unfortunately cannot be recaptured. I therefore wish to thank colleagues in two Open Universities for enhancing the interdisciplinary audacity of this article—while all responsibility for any errors or omissions remains my own. Notes 1 Horden and Purcell 2000 Horden, P. and Purcell, N. 2000. The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History, Oxford, , UK: Blackwell. [Google Scholar]: 16; see also Wintle 1996 Wintle, M., ed. 1996. Culture and Identity in Europe: Perceptions of Divergence and Unity in Past and Present, Aldershot, , UK: Ashgate. [Google Scholar]; Lewis and Wigen 1997 Massey, D. and Jess, P. 1995. A Place in the World?, Oxford, , UK: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar], Jordan-Bychkov et al. 2002, and many others cited later. 2 Derrida 1992 Derrida, J. 1992. The Other Heading: Reflections on Today's Europe, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. [Google Scholar]; see also Borradori 2003 Borradori, G., ed. 2003. 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(in Greek) [Google Scholar]: 261) does not agree with Davies' (1997 Davies, N. 1997. Europe: A History, London, , UK: Pimlico. [Google Scholar]: 1137) and Wintle's (1996 Wintle, M., ed. 1996. Culture and Identity in Europe: Perceptions of Divergence and Unity in Past and Present, Aldershot, , UK: Ashgate. [Google Scholar]: 75). The latter share the view that Europa means "West" after the Assyrian word "Ereb." We would actually rather adopt the etymology of the former two authors, associating Europe with the moon, which may also have something to do with the West, as the Eastern civilizations viewed it. For this information and other insights about myths and Goddesses, I am particularly indebted to Eftychia Leontidou and the pamphlets of the Womens' Group for the Study of Matriarchal Societies. 6 Hippocrates 1881 edn: 79; see also his p. 75 and our extended commentary on his treatise on Europe and Asia in Leontidou forthcoming Leontidou, L. forthcoming. Geographically Illiterate Land: Hellenic Idols in the Epistemological Pathways of European Geography, Athens, , Greece: Hellenica Grammata. (in Greek) [Google Scholar]: ch. 2. 7 First century ad, Davies 1997 Davies, N. 1997. Europe: A History, London, , UK: Pimlico. [Google Scholar]: 428, 1205. 8 First Hesiod (eighth century bc) referred to Europe as a geographical entity, in his Hymn to Apollo. Then there were Herodotus and Hippocrates (see above). Other authors cited by Graves (1992 Graves, R. 1992. The Greek Myths: Complete Edition, London, , UK: Penguin. [Google Scholar]: 196) and Kakridis (1986 Kakridis, I. Th. 1986. Hellenic Mythology 3: The Heroes, Athens, , Greece: Ekdotiki. (in Greek) [Google Scholar]: 261) are Pausanias, Theofrastus, Diororus, Apollodorus, and Hyginus. Ovid followed, but also Horace with his Odes, besides the visual artists whose works are now scattered in various museums. 9 See Anderson 1974 Anderson, P. 1974. 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According to Derrida, the date refers to an event that symbolizes terror and trauma beyond language. 12 Nomenclature des Unites Territoriales Statistiques (NUTS) are not only used by the EU to collect and represent statistical information, but tend to become the official subnational units from regional (NUTS 1) to municipal (NUTS 4) level. 13 Several of those narratives are listed in Lewis et al. 2001 Lewis, M. W. and Wigen, K. E. 1997. The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography, Berkeley: University of California Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 7–9. They range from EEC documents of the 1970s stressing principles of democracy and human rights to a Thatcher speech of the 1980s stressing free markets and a Prodi speech of 2000 on Europeans as "heirs of a civilization rooted in religious and civic values." 14 See the debate in the Rome EU Summit, October 2003. 15 We would disagree with Wintle (1996) Wintle, M., ed. 1996. Culture and Identity in Europe: Perceptions of Divergence and Unity in Past and Present, Aldershot, , UK: Ashgate. [Google Scholar], who considers modernism as the core of EU discourses, and also with the many who consider religion as the core of European culture.