Post-Soviet Trends in Lithuanian Historiography: the Cultural Construction of National Identity

Dr Moreno Bonda (Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania)

5.30pm (tea and coffee from 5pm), Central and East European Studies Seminar Room, 8 Lilybank Gardens

During the last , Baltic countries have been experiencing a sort of intellectual and literary Renaissance. The same applies to the historical studies in the region. The diachronic investigation of the academic historical production revealed a privileged perspective for the study of identity-building processes.

This seminar aims at presenting a short history of the Lithuanian historiography focusing mainly on recent trends (from the first to the second independence). Moreover, its contextualization in the Central and Eastern European political and intellectual debate about post-communist nationalism will illustrate the transition from the ethnical to the cultural construction of the national identity.

As a matter of fact, in the narrative construction of the past, in Lithuania as well as in Czech Republic as an example, manifest is the failure of ethnical, linguistic and territorial approaches and the necessity to adopt a more flexible "tool" to construe national identities.

All welcome.

The CEES West Coast Seminar Series is supported by the MacFie Bequest, named after Professor Alec MacFie, Adam Smith Professor of Political Economy at the University from1958. 

Enquiries: Ammon.Cheskin@glasgow.ac.uk, +44 (0)141 330 2845/5585

First published: 13 September 2012

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