Myth Of Europe Research Articles

Toward Pedagogies of Decoloniality: Evaluating Teaching Practice and Syllabus Design in IR Undergraduate Modules

Abstract Undergraduate teaching in international relations (IR) primarily focuses on state-centric topics of sovereignty, anarchy, and power politics, its dominant theories governed by Western interests. However, the implementation of decolonial pedagogies requires more than simply “adding” non-Western theories to curricula. The myth of Europe must be ruptured, revealing its idealized and partisan foundations, uncovering knowledges from the interstices. This article contributes to the pedagogic literature by exploring attempts to decenter the discipline, evaluating teaching practice and syllabus design in three IR undergraduate modules. Drawing on thirty-five semi-structured interviews with lecturers and students, it argues that students benefit from the introduction of decolonial pedagogies, developing broader curricula knowledge, and, crucially, epistemic criticality. Despite these benefits, implementing decolonial praxis in 12-week modules can be challenging. The article suggests starting-points for lecturers seeking to decenter their teaching, calling for pedagogies of decoloniality to be implemented at a departmental level, with faculty and institutional support.

Selected Contexts of the Contemporary Imaginarium of Europe: Metamorphoses and Activations of Political Images and Myths

This article reflects on contemporary images and myths of Europe as well as on those that accompanied European political discourse, or funded it. The choice of specific elements of the imaginarium is dictated by their rank and their political and social impact, as well as their links with the recent and current political and social reality (the Cold War period, the transformation years in Central and Eastern Europe, the ongoing migration crisis). The author considers the sources, transformations and activation of political myths and the specificity of political stories and structures, as well as the political and social functions that they perform. The significant motif of this article is related to the thought of Hans Blumenberg. The work on political myth is linked with the ‘socio-political’ need for significance and understanding of the processes, phenomena and events taking place in the social and political domain.

Il sogno di Europa e il ratto di Zeus

The aim of this paper is to give an account of the origin of the name “Europe” given to the continent and to narrate the myth of the girl so called abducted by Zeus. The myth of Europe that sees the derivation of the European population from the Phoenician people is close to that of Cadmus, Europe’s brother. The whole story makes continuous references to links between Phoenicia, Crete, and Boeotia, to the exchanges between Asia and Europe and to the intermingling of populations.

The Myth of Europe in Art and European Identities. The Divided Memory of Europe – Will Europe Succumb to Disintegration ?

The Polish government commissioned from Franciszek Starowieyski, a renowned Polish painter, a composition to embellish the new building of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland at the European Union in Brussels. The monumental Divina Polonia rapta per Europa profana, executed in 1998, was put on permanent show in the main hall of the Permanent Representation seat. ‘Divina Polonia,’ the second female figure featured in the canvas next to Europe, is depicted with a halo. F. Starowieyski referred to the classical myth of Europe (a Phoenician princess abducted by Zeus disguised as a bull) in order to emphasize the contrast between secular Europe and ‘holy’ Poland. What is the source of this combination of nudity and saintliness? Why has this otherwise liberated artist, who in hundreds of compositions obsessively portrays the female nude and remains distant from bigotry or clericalism, suddenly resorted to religious symbols? These intriguing and disturbing questions arose after seeing the exhibition on the myth of Europe shown in Florence. There, works of twentieth century artists from Western Europe did not contain religious symbols. We seem to be approaching the topical problem of the unity of Europe. The canvas Divina Polonia rapta per Europa profana is a symbolic summary of the two different historical experiences of the East and West of Europe.

Beyond the Nation State and the Comparative Method? Decolonizing the Sociological Imagination

Beyond the Nation State and the Comparative Method? Decolonizing the Sociological Imagination

Tracing the Line of Europa: Migration, Genealogy, and the Power of Holy Origins in Ancient Greek Narrative Knowledge and Cultural Memory

This essay explores the place of the mythical heroine Europa in the narrative knowledge and cultural memory of ancient Greece and modern Europe. Early Greek sources make reference to several women named Europa, only one of whom is Agenor's (or Phoenix's) daughter abducted by Zeus who made her the member of a divine lineage. However, during the fifth-century BCE, the diverse “Europa” figures came to be identified with the Phoenician princess; and the foundations were laid for the abduction story to take on its modern notion as founding myth of Europe. This elevation to founding myth can, in part, be attributed to Europa's membership in a family of eponymous founders. From the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods, Europa's kin gradually grew as various myths were integrated with each other—myths, which shaped identities by creating memory through storytelling. Mythical family bonds came to be seen as biological facts and served both to consolidate local identities and to affirm a Panhellenic identity in times when inner and outer boundaries had to be negotiated as a consequence of migration, colonization, or warfare. The high degree of migration and the dense genealogical network in the narratives of Europa's kin allowed many different groups to lay claim to this narrative knowledge and in doing so, created new myths and cults, interpretations and evaluations of a family well-established in the Greek mind on account of its holy origins. Thus foundation myths surrounding Europa helped to define cultural and ethnic space shaped by migration and the dialectics of unity and plurality. As such, these myths remain relevant to Europe today.

Myths of Europe

What are the myths of Europe? This article provides the conceptual framework through which this question may be approached. It begins by defining myth in such a way as to distinguish it from other forms of political symbolism and points to the distinction between cultural and political myths. From here, the relationship between mythical and historical narratives is analyzed via a study of how the main narrative cores through which Europeans have perceived themselves have worked in different periods and contexts as both. It concludes with a more detailed analysis of some of the icons that convey the myths of Europe.

The Myths of Europe: Legitimacy, Community and the ‘Crisis’ of the EU

The current debate over the ‘crisis’ of the EU has often been linked with criticisms of functionalism. From both a liberal‐political and a romantic position, functionalism has been charged with paying inadequate attention to questions of legitimacy and identity ‐ and particularly to the importance of myth ‐ in political community. For the romantic position, the functionalist project could succeed so long it did not enter the realm of national myths. For liberals, it can succeed only if supplemented by a European myth. Each holds in common, however, the belief that myth was missing from the integration process so far and that the key question involves myth’s relation to functionalism. This article argues that, rather than eliding mythic elements, functionalism actually draws powerfully upon modernist myths of rationalization, and that coming to terms more fully with this mythic structure is essential in assessing questions of the EU’s legitimacy and its ‘crisis’.

HAS THE PERIOD OF 'CIVILIAN POWER EUROPE' COME TO AN END?

During the Cold War, to the extent that it performed at the international stage, the European Community was portrayed as a ‘civilian power’, because it lacked the relevant military instruments and relied on ‘economic and diplomatic means’ to try to influence other actors.* 1 However; the myth of Europe as a civilian power was challenged with the end of the Cold War. In the post-Cold War security context; the withdrawal of many US forces from Europe, the Gulf War and the Yugoslav crisis demonstrated that the EU should back up its diplomatic and economic instruments with military capabilities.