Magdalena Brodacka

The article discusses the problem of Central Europe as a myth-creating area with particular emphasis on the latest publication by Michał Masłowski, Mity i symbole polityczne Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej (2020). Origin, interpretation and actualization of myths confirm the thesis about their indelible presence (Leszek Kołakowski’s notion) in both national and broader, universalistic discourse. When discussing myths, Masłowski takes into account the chronology and the place of their origin, while reflecting on their current, modern transformations; the myth of progress and the myth of the declining West are of particular interest in this context. These considerations are complemented by the recent publications in Polish language: Larry Wolff ’s Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilizations on the Mind of the Enlightenment (2020), Timothy Snyder’s The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2019), and Iwan Krastew’s After Europe (2018).

The article In the Mirror of Literature. The Czech–Polish Central European Myth and Its Transformations is an attempt to outline the transformations of the Central European myth, which consists of the Habsburg myth and its transformations expressed in the works of Austromodernists after 1918; the revival of the Central European myth, which took place after the Second World War and was connected with the post-totalitarian regime introduced in the countries belonging to the Soviet bloc; and the posttransformation period – from the 1990s to the present. The comparative juxtaposition of Polish and Czech literature allows us to trace the development, transformation, and silencing of the myth of Central Europe, which at the same time expresses the identity problems of both nations.