Beyond 'Hellenes' and 'Barbarians': Asymmetrical Concepts in European Discourse

359 Pages·2022·4.144 MB·English

by  Kirill Postoutenko

Beyond ‘Hellenes’ and ‘Barbarians’

Beyond ‘Hellenes’ and
‘Barbarians’
Asymmetrical Concepts in European Discourse
Edited by
Kirill Postoutenko
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2023 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2023 Kirill Postoutenko
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Postoutenko, Kirill, editor, writer of introduction and conclusion.
Title: Beyond "hellenes" and "barbarians" : asymmetrical concepts in
European discourse / edited by Kirill Postoutenko.
Description: [New York] : Berghahn Books, 2023. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022019388 (print) | LCCN 2022019389 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781800736795 (hardback) | ISBN 9781800736801 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Discourse analysis--Political aspects--Europe. | Discourse
analysis, Narrative--Political aspects--Europe. | Europe--Civilization. |
Europe--Ethnic relations. | Other (Philosophy) | Koselleck,
Reinhart--Influence.
Classification: LCC P302.77 .B49 2023 (print) | LCC P302.77 (ebook) |
DDC 401/.41--dc23/eng/20220727
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022019388
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022019389
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-80073-679-5 hardback
ISBN 978-1-80073-680-1 ebook
https://doi.org/10.3167/9781800736795
Contents
List of Figures and Tables viii
Acknowledgements x
Note on Transliteration xi
Introduction. 1
‘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 41
Paul Paradies
Chapter 2.
‘Blond Flowing Hair’, ‘Tumid Lips’, ‘Rigid Posture’ and ‘Choleric
Temperament’: Universal Aspirations and Racial Asymmetries in
Linnaeus’s Descriptions of Homo Sapiens 56
Monica Libell
Chapter 3.
The Contribution of Asymmetrical Concepts to the Building of
Spanish Liberal Discourse in the First Half of the Nineteenth
Century: Methodological Reflections and Applications 85
Ana Isabel González Manso
vi Contents
Chapter 4.
‘Kultur’/‘Bildung’ vs ‘Civilization’: A Close Look at One Conceptual
Asymmetry in the Early Nineteenth-Century Finnish Discourse 101
Heli Rantala
Chapter 5.
Liberales vs Serviles: Symmetrization of Asymmetrical Counter-
Concepts and Political Polarization in Spain and Portugal (1810–34) 124
Luis Fernández Torres
Chapter 6.
‘Hellenes’ Revisited: Asymmetrical Concepts in the Language of
the Greek Revolution 149
Alexandra Sfoini
Chapter 7.
‘Civilization’ and ‘Barbarity’ in French Liberal Discourse during
the Conquest and Colonization of Algeria 181
Nere Basabe and María Luisa Sánchez-Mejía
Chapter 8.
‘People’, ‘Plebs’ and the Changing Boundaries of the Political:
Asymmetrical Conceptualizations in Spanish Liberalism from a
Comparative European Perspective 205
Pablo Sánchez León
Chapter 9.
‘Order’ vs ‘Chaos’: Asymmetrical Counter-Concepts and
Ideological Struggles in Early Twentieth-Century Russian Poland
Wiktor Marzec 225
Chapter 10.
Dutch McCarthyism? The Asymmetrical Opposition of
‘Democracy’ and ‘Communism’ in Holland between 1920 and 1990 258
Wim de Jong
Chapter 11.
Asymmetrical Oppositions and Hierarchical Structures in Soviet
Musical Criticism: The Case of the Essay Collection Za rubezhom
(Abroad) (1953) 285
Kirill Kozlovski
Chapter 12.
‘We the Basques’, and the ‘Other(s)’: Ethnic Asymmetries in
Basque Nationalist Discourse 298
Iñaki Iriarte López
Contents vii
Conclusion.
Beyond ‘Hellenes’ and ‘Barbarians’ 325
Kirill Postoutenko
Index 335
Figures and Tables
Figures
2.1. The first edition of Carl Linnaeus, Systema Naturae,
Leiden 1735, 10. Public domain (www.alvin-portal.org). 63
2.2. Schematic figure representing the relationship between
the four elements, humours and temperaments. Image
created by the author following Galen, Method of Medicine
[ebook], edited and translated by Ian Johnston and
G.H.R. Horsley, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2011, vol. 1, lix. 64
2.3–2.5. The tenth edition of Carl Linnaeus, Systema Naturae.
Monstrosus was a fifth variety, following the basic four
varieties. Group a is monstrous as a result of ‘loco’,
that is, geographical location and climate (Alpini stands
for the Sami people). Group b is monstrous as a result
of ‘arte’, that is, human culture (this group includes
Hottentots, as well as young European girls who suf-
focate in tight corsets). Carl Linnaeus, Systema Naturae
(Holmiae: 1758), 22. Public domain (www.alvin-portal.
org). The over-cultivation of Europeans that led young
girls to suffocate in corsets, might be behind Linnaeus's
suggestion that Europeans are governed by ‘ritibus’.
Most scholars of Linnaeus have chosen to translate the
word into law, but the Latin word is more akin to custom
and Linnaeus might have used it to mean trend or fashion. 68
Figures and Tables ix
9.1. Initial revolutionary mobilization. © Wiktor
Marzec. 237
9.2. Reconfiguration of the political field via chaos vs order
division. © Wiktor Marzec. 237
9.3. New political antagonism. © Wiktor Marzec. 238
Tables
0.1. Koselleck’s general references to and specific examples of
symmetry and asymmetry in conceptual pairs. 4
0.2. Koselleck’s general references to and specific examples of
the grouping of asymmetrical counter-concepts (AC). 5
0.3. Koselleck’s general references to and specific examples of
relations within the conceptual pairs of AC. 6
0.4. Koselleck’s specific examples of preferred modes of
reference, parts of speech and modalities in AC. 7
0.5. Bundling of AC in Koselleck’s article and the collected
works of Plato, Friedrich Nietzsche and Lothrop Stoddard. 15
0.6. Differentiation and non-differentiation between AC in
Koselleck’s article and the collected works of Plato. 15
1.1. Characters’ collocations in the Song of Roland. 45
1.2. Male characters’ collocations in the Song of Nibelungs. 49
1.3. Female characters’ collocations in the Song of Nibelungs. 50
2.1. Linnaeus’s four human varieties and their assigned
character traits. 71