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As early as the 2nd century CE, Ptolemy divided the world into three major regions in his Geographical Guide (Geōgraphikē Hyphēgēsis): Europe, Asia, and Libya. However, the geographical contours of Europe are too unreliable to serve as a criterion for understanding or defining Europe. It is more of a phenomenon, an idea, than a specific territory or place (even if it naturally has its own space). Nevertheless, Goethe’s Europe is not the Europe of Dante or Miłosz. If you ask a Belarusian woman whether Spain belongs to Europe, she will undoubtedly say: »Of course.« However, if you ask a Spanish woman the same question, she will probably reply that for centuries the country was closer to the Arab world. Swiss people write books in which they wonder whether they belong to Europe; Belarusians do the same thing. It is as if many who live in Europe have doubts about whether they are European—or European enough. Nothing is so clear-cut here. Even when discussing Europe Day, you’ll find the dates May 5, May 8, and May 9: May 5 commemorates the founding of the Council of Europe in 1949; May 8 marks the end of World War II in European countries; and May 9, 1950 is considered the origin of the European Union. The actual founding of the European Union in 1992 seems to have made things even more complicated. The EU is often used as a synonym for Europe. That usage implies that a country not a member of the EU would not be included in Europe at all. In addition, there are the Eurozone and the Schengen Area, which have different members. Montenegro, for example, is not in the EU but uses the euro as its currency; Switzerland uses the franc but is part of the Schengen Area, and you do not need a separate visa to travel to Switzerland if you have a Schengen visa.
»Europe is not united linguistically, religiously, ethnically, and politically, but it is precisely this heterogeneity that serves as the starting point for European identity.«
Perhaps etymology will help. If we look at the origin of the word »Europe« in the Greek language, it is derived from two roots: »eurys,« meaning »wide,« and »ops,« meaning »face« or »eye”—something like »far-seeing,« which could be a description of the European coastline as seen by the Greeks from their ships, or it could mean »mainland.« Another view holds that the word »Europe« has its origins in the Semitic Akkadian language, which was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. There, the word »erebu« means »sunset,« since, from a Mesopotamian perspective, the sun setting in the west went down over Europe. And, of course, there are also mythological versions, including the well-known one in which Europa was the daughter of the Phoenician king who was abducted and raped by Zeus. All three versions provide fruitful metaphorical insights about what defines Europe and its culture.
Linguistically, religiously, ethnically, politically, and even climatically, Europe is not unified, but it is precisely this heterogeneity that serves as the starting point for European identity and European culture. When something is so vague—or rather, so diverse—it is difficult to define. Here, a parallel can be drawn to feminism, whose greatest challenge is that women do not act like a homogeneous group, which is why there are so many forms of feminism. So, it would make sense to speak of multiple Europes as well.
What holds Europe together?
But there must be something in common, something that holds Europe together besides the legacy of ancient Greek and Roman culture. When writing about the roots or common foundations of European culture, Western intellectuals, including Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel or T. S. Eliot, also have pointed to Christianity. There is undoubtedly a grain of truth in this. Yet it is also the case that pagan religious beliefs flourished in what are today Germany, France, and Great Britain before the arrival of Christianity, thus linking those regions to Eastern Europe and the Balkan countries. The difference between Western and Eastern Europe on this score, still noticeable today, is that societies in the latter have preserved a stronger and closer connection to their historical religions. For this reason, ethnographers in Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania have continued to document an extremely rich body of pagan folklore well into the 19th and 20th centuries.
When it comes to the history of architectural styles (Rococo, Gothic, Classicism, etc.), examples of each can be found in both Eastern and Western European cities: the Baroque St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv (Ukraine) and Mir Castle in Belarus, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000, with its combination of Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque elements. Nor should one overlook the »Polazker Songbook,« a unique monument to 17th-century Belarusian musical culture, which includes more than 200 songs and dances from the Renaissance and early Baroque periods of both Eastern and Western origin.
At the same time, it should be noted that European modern art is based, among other sources, on Japanese ukiyo-e art, a derivation that calls into question the Eurocentric narrative of art history. What was termed »Japanism« was more than a mere fascination with exotic culture (Orientalism). The influence of Japanese artists penetrated deeper, more fundamental levels, leading to flat composition, asymmetrical perspective, and the use of pure colors by Western artists such as Gauguin, Degas, Mucha, Cassatt, and others.
Socially, Western Europe adopted the old hierarchical order of social classes and strata; Eastern Europe might have retained this hierarchical system as well had it not been for the Bolsheviks‹ seizure of power and the totalitarian regime of communism to which it gave rise. American culture, on the other hand, is based on the idea of social mobility and, in a sense, stands in contrast to European aristocracy.
Hostility between Western and Eastern Europe
The image of the »decaying West« became a political cliché used in Soviet and Russian propaganda against Western Europe and capitalism. The confrontation between the USSR and the United States as well as the allies of both countries, culminating in the Cold War, led to even greater hostility between Western and Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe and the Balkans are still regarded as second-rate or, as Czesław Miłosz put it, »members of the family and poor relations.« There are very few sources about Eastern Europe written by local Eastern European scholars and then translated into Western European languages. That lacuna clearly illustrates the politics involved in historiography and other academic fields—a phenomenon Edward Lucas has termed the »Westsplaining« of the region.
Despite the democratic values of which Europe is so proud, its history is rife with bloody wars and armed conflicts, the denial of women’s rights (one need only think of Switzerland, which did not grant women the right to vote until 1971), not to mention colonization and »Orientalism.« Wars and colonization were often waged under the pretext of »civilizing barbaric peoples,« which makes the concept of culture seem questionable in this context. That, too, is Europe. While some (wealthy white men from the West) were already able to live their idealistic lives, enjoy privileges, and sing the hymn to »Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité,« others (women, even those from the same social class) still had to fight for these rights and freedoms—and wait a century for them. This also illustrates a distinctive feature of Europe, namely what Ernst Bloch termed »asynchronicity”—when, at a single historical moment, social groups and structures from different eras coexist side by side. In one place it may be the year 1937, while 1,000 kilometers away it is the year 2026.
Europe as a Community of Memory
Unfortunately, politics very often defines culture as well—new political forces are attempting to erase our shared European history, as has happened in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, or as seen in the United Kingdom, which, following Brexit, lost the right to have its cities designated as European Capitals of Culture. Especially since the onset of COVID-19, international festivals and collaborative projects in Europe seem to be fading. »Creative Europe« is the European Union’s most important program for promoting the cultural, creative, and audiovisual sectors, yet it accounts for a mere 0.2 percent of the EU’s total budget.
»The language of Europe is translation.« (Umberto Eco)
Aleida Assmann views Europe as a community of memory, where the memories of all the stories of suffering are preserved, including those one would prefer to forget. Unfortunately, this is not yet the case; countries continue to quarrel about historical interpretations and cultural heritage. Drawing on the concept of the »American Dream,« Assmann suggests reflecting on the »European Dream.« And one immediately senses the difference: While the American Dream is a personal matter, the European Dream is the dream of a community that is extremely heterogeneous and multifaceted, traumatized by neighbors or former empires such as France, Great Britain, Russia, and the Soviet Union. In agreement with Assmann, one might express the hope that intellectual flexibility, greater empathy, and less arrogance and paternalism will become the defining values of European culture and politics.
»The language of Europe is translation,« said Umberto Eco in 1993. This underscores the multilingualism of this region and the fact that its value lies precisely in its polyphony, rather than in a uniform lingua franca, as is the case in America. Like Europe itself, culture is not straightforward; it has a certain hierarchy, High culture and mass culture, pop culture and folk culture coexist. But perhaps culture itself is Europe’s lingua franca, the value and significance of which are manifested in its polyphony.
Is there hope that the Western »esprit cultivé« (cultured mind or cultured person) will broaden its perspective (as the name »Europe« itself suggests) and question the cultural canon, so that when one speaks of European culture, one also thinks of Artemisia Gentileschi and Chantal Akerman alongside Stanisław Moniuszko, Yudel Pen, or Lucia Moholy? Yes, there is always hope, but today, as a writer from Belarus, I am asked the same questions about my country that Wisława Szymborska was asked 60 years ago about her homeland, Poland. “ La Pologne? La Pologne? It’s terribly cold there, isn’t it?«