CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Blagojevic, Una |
|---|---|
| Title | Historicizing Marxist Humanism: Dialogue and the Exchange of Ideas between the Praxis Circle and Beyond: The Events of 1968 |
| Summary | “1968” is increasingly approached from transnational and global perspectives, where the focus of research is placed on the entangled nature of protest and social movements across national and continental boundaries. For example, in Europe’s 1968, edited by Robert Gildea, James Mark, and Anette Warring, the contributors to the text assert that “1968” was a central year of political convergences, social solidarity, and shared European experiences in the twentieth century. Yet, they take issue with transnational approaches that often bring about a reading of the “process of European integration backward,” thereby writing 1968 into “a neat story of globalization.” As a result, transnational approaches can disclose a teleological reading of European history. Simply, the moments of 1968 resulted in the moments of 1989. Taking inspiration from this problem—as raised by the editors of Europe’s 1968—I will discuss the context of Yugoslavia, which seems at odds with the notion of transnational approaches leading to integral histories of Europe. As a way to negotiate this issue, this thesis address the particular case of Yugoslavia as a space of exchange between European leftist intellectuals within the wider context of the events of 1968. Thus, the paper will decenter historical as well as political-theoretical reflections on 1968 from the binaries of East and West and shift the continental dialogue between European leftist intellectuals to Korčula, an island in the Yugoslav Adriatic. I will ask how the journal Praxis and its associated Korčula Summer School facilitated an intellectual space in which critical Marxist (or generally “Left”) intellectual trends interacted within, and in relation to the events of 1968. I will also highlight the immediacy of reaction by the Summer School toward the Soviet-led invasion of Prague that occurred on the same day as the proceedings: 21 August 1968. Therefore, by reading the multiple events of 1968 through these virtual and real spaces of exchange (Praxis and Korčula, respectively), it problematizes the “transnational” as well as 1968 as a turning point in Yugoslav history. |
| Supervisor | Trencsényi, Balázs; Kopeček, Michal |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/blagojevic_una.pdf |
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