The Union of Laughter and Forgetting? The European Union and the Construction of its own History

Dublin Core

Title

The Union of Laughter and Forgetting? The European Union and the Construction of its own History

Description

As recently as one year ago, the European Union was seemingly on a direct path toward its avowed goal of "ever closer union." In numerous publications, EU authorities asserted that they had the confidence of European peoples desirous only of further integration. In the wake of the failed referenda for a European Constitution, however, enthusiasts of European Union can no longer be certain that their enterprise will succeed. The European Union, once strong and united, seems now an entity teetering on the edge of collapse. The reasons for such a dramatic shift are, of course, wide-ranging. Yet I would suggest that a great part of the general European disillusionment with European Union has come about as a result of the actions of the Europeanists themselves. Over the last decades, European officials have exhibited a frightfully high incidence of revisionism in their literature. This practice, I argue, has caused many Europeans to question the integrity of the project of European Union. For my presentation, I intend to undertake a close study of a selection of documents published by the European Communities. In this endeavour, I will compare and contrast the messages imparted in different editions of these works and consider the semiotic significance of the textual and non-textual language appearing therein. In this manner, I hope to achieve two aims. First, I mean to add a corrective element to a literature that, guided by a teleological interpretation of integration, endows integration with”logic" to be found only in hindsight. Second, I intend to examine the many meanings that the EU has had over its history and assess how closely policy has adhered to the ideological goals of prominent Europeanists. In sum, I hope to shed light on the fundamental disconnect between advocates of Europe and the "man on the street" and help establish a dialogue which may contribute to resolving the current impasse within the European Union.
Full text available: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v2i4.178

Creator

Tesler-Mabe, Hernan

Source

Canadian Journal of European and Russian Studies; 2006: RERA V2:4 European Identities and Minorities (backfile abstracts)
2562-8429
10.22215/cjers.v2i4

Publisher

Centre for European Studies, Carleton University

Date

2006-12-01

Type

info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article

Identifier

Citation

Tesler-Mabe, Hernan, The Union of Laughter and Forgetting? The European Union and the Construction of its own History, Centre for European Studies, Carleton University, 2006, accessed November 7, 2024, https://igi.indrastra.com/items/show/2715

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