What is European in the history of Europe? In order to answer this question, Wolfgang Schmale uses two approaches. Firstly, he develops the concept of a performative speech act into what he defines as a collective historical speech act . Secondly, he looks at European history from a gender point of view. Europe was generally thought to be male - considering the former Republic of Letters' definition of Europe as a male civilization. However, the 18th-century's performative speech act presently loses its binding force as European civilization develops from 'male' to diversity and plurality, yet right wing parties try to defend and to repeat the historical performative speech act by ignoring the fundamental switch in European civilization. This will only produce violent conflicts. This book considers developments and consequences in a post-performative epoch.

Wolfgang Schmale war bis September 2021 Professor für Geschichte der Neuzeit an der Universität Wien. Er ist Mitglied der Academia Europaea und der European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Zu seinen Forschungsschwerpunkten zählen das 18. Jahrhundert und die Aufklärung, die Geschichte Europas und der Europäischen Integration, die Geschichte der Menschenrechte sowie Gender Studies und Digital Humanities.

Leseprobe