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.
Author(s): Kirill Postoutenko
Series: European Conceptual History, 8
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 358
City: New York
Beyond ‘Hellenes’ and ‘Barbarians’
Contents
Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration
Introduction
Chapter 1. Treason as Touchstone
Chapter 2. ‘Blond Flowing Hair’, ‘Tumid Lips’, ‘Rigid Posture’ and ‘Choleric Temperament’
Chapter 3. The Contribution of Asymmetrical Concepts to the Building of Spanish Liberal Discourse in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 4. ‘Kultur’/‘Bildung’ vs ‘Civilization’
Chapter 5. Liberales vs Serviles
Chapter 6. ‘Hellenes’ Revisited
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
Chapter 9. ‘Order’ vs ‘Chaos’
Chapter 10. Dutch McCarthyism?
Chapter 11. Asymmetrical Oppositions and Hierarchical Structures in Soviet Musical Criticism
Chapter 12. ‘We the Basques’, and the ‘Other(s)’
Conclusion
Index
