The idea of Central Europe: literary projections (M. Kundera, D. Kiš, J. Andrukhovych)

Abstract

Background: The talks about Central or Central-Eastern Europe are actualized by new political and ontological challenges and feelings of obstruction when one after another Soviet interventions took place in this space. M. Kundera's essay "The Tragedy of Central Europe" is quite quoted and analyzed not only in literary studies, but also in philosophical, historical, political and other studies. His text inspired others authors to create their own vision of the Central Europe. But it’s one of the first attempts of a comparative analysis of the aesthetic and philosophical ideas of Kundera, Kiš, and Andrukhovych has been made. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to clarify the peculiarities of the expression of the idea of Central Europe in the aesthetic and philosophical thought of Milan Kundera, Danylo Kiš, Yurii Andrukhovych, thus demonstrating the various manifestations of this concept in Slavic literature. Results: Central Europe (in Adrukhovych case is Eastern-Central Europe) is a floating cultural space with apocalyptic and anti-imperial character wich has post-Habsburg and urban dominants. Oppositions of “one's own” and “foreign”, “cultural” and “barbaric”, “harmonious” and “imposed” are clearly traced. Literary projections of Central Europe are accompanied by attempts to reconstruct it, recreate it from ruins, and fix the vanishing world, where universal (Habsburg heritage) predominates, in which national (in these cases Czech, Jewish, Ukrainian) and anti-colonial issues are intertwined. Key words: Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, prose, space, apocalyptic, anti-imperialism.