The end of a historical era is a good time to assess the myths that governed it. Though Europeans after 1989 achieved an unprecedented degree of unity on a remarkably federative basis, an imperialist mentality nonetheless informed the project, with Western myths of superiority and an equation of democracy with the free market effacing the alternative ideas that Easterners independently articulated in 1989. Many of the challenges to peace and the rule of law that the European Union now faces both within and without can be traced to this tragic misunderstanding. Theories of mythogenesis, particularly those of René Girard and Jan Patočka, can help us understand the history of European mentalities since 1989 and seize the opportunity of the present crisis to overcome past mistakes.
Biography:
James Krapfl is an associate professor of European history at McGill University in Montreal. James Krapfl is a historian of political culture. He is the author of a revisionist history of the central European revolutions of 1989, which systematically investigates the words and deeds of the millions of citizens who mobilized to build “a new society.”
>> Wednesday | 10th of May 2023 | 17:30-19:30
>> LS 15.02 | ReSoWi-Building, Universitätsstraße 15, C, ground floor