Abstract
In this paper, I argue that contemporary political and intellectual conflicts over the right course for European integration are reflected in the historiography of Jean Monnet, the so-called founding father of the European Union (EU). Multiple and mutually antithetical representations of Monnet are explored across the central themes of the contemporary European debate: nationalism, sovereignty, political methodology, and economic ideology. I investigate how the different faces of Monnet are constructed and used to legitimate contradictory scholarly standpoints regarding these central themes. Along the way, I attempt to decipher the puzzle of Monnet’s elevation to the status of a theoretical pioneer in EU Studies. Finally, I also explore how different roles assigned to Monnet in the various narratives of the EU’s origins contribute to the construction of European identity.
Highlights
There has been a growing emphasis on the need to link the debate on a collective European identity to the complex structure of social relations underlying the European political community (Eder, 2009)
Following Schwartz (1985), one could argue that the destiny of a fixed legacy could never befall a founding figure like Monnet, for in a democratic society, a great individual is always transformed, post-mortem, into a representative individual
Aiming at a sociology of the American politics of heroes, Cooley wrote that the question to pose to a dead hero should not be a historical, “What are you?” but should be a pragmatic, “How far can I use you as a symbol in the development of my instinctive tendency?” In this paper, I have shown Monnet to be Europe’s representative individual, a symbol used to develop opposing political tendencies
Summary
There has been a growing emphasis on the need to link the debate on a collective European identity to the complex structure of social relations underlying the European political community (Eder, 2009). Instead of focusing on official EU symbols such as flags and buildings, and measuring the public’s identification with these symbols, identity formation should be grasped in terms of organically emerging narratives that mediate European social conflicts and agendas. 435), “collective identities are constructed through stories.”. The emerging network of competing European narratives is the actual empiric of European identity research. I explore multiple scholars’ Jean Monnet narratives and interpret the functions of these narratives in advocating European identity agendas
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