East of Cosmopolis : Cosmopolitanism and Russocentrism in Gorbachev's Common European Home

• “Kosmopolitizm” has been used in Russia as a word of abuse for 150 years. Paradoxically, the Russian official self-concept has frequently been defined in universalistic or post-national terms. I will here try to discuss Gorbachev’s vision of a common European home in light of the discourse of an ideal-typical cosmopolitanism with origins in the Enlightenment. What happens when a prevalent imperialistic universalism—with particularistic content—is challenged from a point of view of a more cosmopolitan universalism? Gorbachev’s policy, as well as the fall of the Soviet Union, is reconstructed conceptually in a diachronic context of previous Russian and Soviet responses to Western influences. By analysing the cosmopolitan, as well as russocentric, implications of Gorbachev’s efforts to link Soviet and Russian culture to a European and Western community, we might develop reflexive perspectives on general problems and contradictions of current globalization and integration.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Idé- och lärdomshistoria (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- History of Ideas (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Kulturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Cultural Studies (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

History of Ideas

Idéhistoria

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)