National identity and the Other: imagining the EU from the Czech Lands
National identity and the Other: imagining the EU from the Czech Lands
复制标题
国家认同与他者：从捷克土地想象欧盟
DOI：
10.1080/00905991003641947
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Daniel R. Esparza
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Daniel R. Esparza
民族认同是通过与重要的他者的连续认同而构建的。本文探讨了捷克认同的变化和连续性现象。它在这里集中于对欧盟的认同，欧盟在两个方面已经成为当今最重要的他者：（a）（变化）有助于克服1989年至1993年期间发生的剧烈变化引起的认同危机（政权更迭，苏联解体，捷克斯洛伐克解体），以及随后与过去重要的其他国家关系的急剧变化：共产主义、苏联和斯洛伐克;（B）（连续性）重申19世纪民族复兴的基本要素之一，即民主，对欧盟的各种认同都是在民主基础上形成的。根据对民主含义的不同解释以及“其他层次”的其他三个标准，欧盟一直被“想象”为捷克人可以在其身份中蓬勃发展并确保其自由和民主价值观的实体（积极的他者），另一方面，作为一个“压迫者”实体，描绘了民主赤字，限制自由，并威胁到捷克的民族认同（消极的他者）。
National identity is constructed through successive identifications with significant Others. This article discusses the phenomenon of change and continuity in Czech identity. It is focused here on the identification towards the EU, which has become the most significant Other of today in two ways: (a) (change) contributing to overcoming the identity crisis provoked by the drastic changes that occurred between 1989 and 1993 (change of regime, disappearance of the USSR and the break-up of Czechoslovakia), and therefore the subsequent drastic changes in relations with past significant Others: communism, the USSR, and the Slovaks; and (b) (continuity) reaffirming one of the fundamental elements during the national revival in the nineteenth century, democracy, upon which the various identifications towards the EU have been aligned. According to the differing interpretations of what democracy means, and three other criteria of the “levels of Othering,” the EU has been “imagined,” on the one hand, as an entity where Czechs can flourish in their identity and ensure their freedom and democratic values (positive Other), and, on the other, as an “oppressor” entity which portrays democratic deficit, restricts freedom, and threatens Czech national identity (negative Other).