Exploring Europe’s ‘Others’

Catalog description

3 Lecture Hour(s) 0 Lab Hour(s) This course will examine that deliberate historical construction of the image of “Eastern” Europe and the “Balkans” which categorized entire peoples as being half-barbarian and thus only half-civilized. This served to convince “Western” Europeans of their own superiority so that the terms “Eastern” Europe and “Balkans” became synonymous with ethnic hatred, backwardness and barbarism. Students will look at literature from these regions in order to understand their struggle to confront, resist and critique these stereotypes.