Europe and It's Others
Term:
Fall 2011
Subject Code:
GHIS
Course Number:
5160
Urgent questions about the meaning of "Europeanness" emerged in tandem with the creation of the EU at the end of the twentieth century. Scores of books and articles have been written, for example, on the subject of what it means to be British, or what constitutes French culture. Beginning with Benedict Andersons concept of "imagined communities," this course studies the meanings and lived experience of race, ethnicity, and nationality as the question of identity was formulated and reformulated over the course of more than a century. It examines responses to changes produced by imperial expansion, war, immigration, decolonization, labor migrations and the global market, seeking to expose the processes that created Europeanness through changing patterns of inclusion and exclusion and redefinitions of self and other. It studies both national policy and the practices of everyday life, using primary sources, critical historical and literary writings, novels and films.
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