Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Traditional syntheses of the history of European culture have used the concept of the classical tradition conceived as “ancient heritage” to justify an identity founded on the belief that there existed a cultural canon and that passing it on ensured the proper upbringing of future generations. The idea of heritage harmonized with the “grand narrative” of European history and led to a negative judgment regarding any noncanonic reaction to the western European model of discovering antiquity – to the Italian model during the Renaissance, the French model during the Enlightenment, and the German model of Altertumswissenschaft (classical scholarship) in the nineteenth century.In the humanities today, the growing interest in reception is opening up new possibilities for understanding the cultural tradition of regions, nations, and states. The canon is becoming a nonoperational concept and is unattractive to the contemporary consumer of culture; resistance, transformation, and noncanonical consumption are now perceived in a positive light. This creates a new opportunity to write the cultural history of regions like central-eastern Europe. In central-eastern Europe the lasting character of the classical tradition can be traced to its position at the margins of Europe and to the late development of nation-states. Instead of being seen as peripheral to the reception of antiquity, this area ... log in or subscribe to read full text