Modernity to the East of the Center. In Krytyka, No. 3-4 (185-186), 2013, pp. 9-12.

The article examines the concept of “Eastern Europe” in Larry Wolff’s book Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment. It shows that “Eastern Europe” emerges as an intellectual construct formed within the context of Western European modernity. Particular attention is paid to the methodology based on Immanuel Wallerstein’s “center–periphery” opposition and Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism, in which the East is interpreted as an idea of the “Other” of the West. In this vision, the region appears as part of another Europe, an alternative project of modernity, or, metaphorically, a European shadow.

The author points out the limitations of this approach, which are linked to colonization as a necessary component of European modernity and to a hidden Eurocentrism. The article stresses the need to deconstruct the codes of oppression and to reconsider the cultural archive in order to understand the history of Eastern Europe more adequately.