Philosophy, Society and the Cunning of History in Eastern Europe

Philosophy, Society and the Cunning of History in Eastern Europe

charts the intellectual landscape of twentieth century East-Central Europe under the unifying theme of precariousness as a mode of historical existence. Caught between empires, often marked by catastrophic historic events and grand political failures, the countries of East-Central Europe have for a long time developed a certain intellectual self-representation, a culture that not only helps them make some sense of such misfortunes, but also protects them somehow from a collapse into nihilism. An interdisciplinary study of this sophisticated culture of survival and endurance has been long overdue. Not only is it charming and worth studying in its own right, but with the re-integration of the new Europe into the old one and the emergence on the Western European intellectual scene of many authors from the East, such a culture will also shape the European mind of the 21st century.

Exploration of Culture of Precariousness

This volume decodes and explores this culture of precariousness from the complementary angles of philosophy, political theory, intellectual history and literary studies. Expert contributors look at a wide range of topics, from philosophical martyrdom to collective suffering to geographical fatalism, and explore the works of key authors in the field including Cioran, Kołakowski, Kertész, Bauman and Žižek.

Publication Note

This book was originally published as a special issue of Angelaki: The Journal of the Theoretical Humanities.