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Hic sunt dracones: Eastern Europe in the study of the Middle Ages

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Abstract

Eastern Europe continuously holds a precarious position in the Anglophone study of the Middle Ages. Although technically a part of Europe, it fell outside of the Carolingian world that has been at the center of traditional medieval studies. At the same time, the critique of the field’s traditional Eurocentrism and the growing emphasis on the Mediterranean basin and the global Middle Ages have further marginalized this region. As a result, the defining characteristic of Eastern Europe becomes its emptiness—a place where dragons may live. Yet given its unique positionality, Eastern Europe promises valuable contributions to the study of the Middle Ages. In addition to demonstrating the connectedness of Europe to surrounding regions, it would also expand the area of collaboration with scholars of Byzantium, evaluate traditional models, and foreground the diversity of European population. The inclusion of Eastern Europe will further repudiate the myth of a medieval Europe that is uniformly white and Christian. When viewed from its orient, this was a geographical space filled with followers of different religious traditions, claiming diverse ethnic identities, who interacted with each other and with the surrounding world.

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Notes

  1. See Bennett (2011) and Bartlett (1993).

  2. The colonial dynamic implied here can be observed in Bartlett (1993), and its modern origins are investigated in Wolff (1994).

  3. For further discussion of this nomenclature, including the differentiation between Eastern and eastern Europe, see Raffensperger (2022), Curta (2019), Berend, Urbańczyk, and Wiszewski (2014), Applebaum (2012), or Wolff (1994).

  4. This spatial delineation largely follows Curta (2019), though he extends the northern boundary up to the Barents and White Seas.

  5. This is reflected in the Charlemagne Prize (Curta 2019), which was first awarded in 1950 for ‘outstanding work toward European unity or cooperation between states’ (Karlpreis website). Its name and purpose suggest a vision of ‘Europe’ based on the Carolingian Empire as the image of the unified Christian West.

  6. As Raffensperger (2022) notes, studies on Western Europe may carry the designation of ‘Europe’ in their title, but the same is not permissible for publications examining Eastern Europe.

  7. See Catlos and Kinoshita, eds. (2017), Davis-Secord (2017), Abulafia (2013), Jacoby (2005), or Constable (2003).

  8. See Drayton (2022), Smail (2007), Bentley (1993), or Abu-Lughod (1989).

  9. Lomuto (2020) and Heng (2014). A similar idea is the concept of contemporaneity used by McClure (2015) and Dirlik (2007).

  10. Ertl and Schema (2022), Lomuto (2020), and Lomuto (2016).

  11. Abney (2021) critiques the World System and some of the subsequent tendencies in the scholarship on the Global Middle Ages from the vantage point of Western Africa.

  12. There is a growing literature on the creation of Eastern Europe as well as its study in context of postcolonial theory; see Anderson and Ivanova (2023), Lewicki (2023), Curta, (2022), Urbonaitė-Barkauskienė (2013) or Wolff (1994).

  13. For examples of significant recent studies of Eastern Europe in English, see Koval (2021), Perett (2018), Antonín (2017), Stanković (2016), Górecki (2015), Berend, Urbańczyk, and Wiszewski (2014), Verkholantsev (2014), Raffensperger (2012), Wolverton (2012), Klaniczay (2002), or Berend (2001).

  14. On these myths of racial and religious uniformity, see Ertl and Oschema (2022), Rambaran-Olm (2022), Heng (2021), Lomuto (2019), Vernon (2018), or Lomuto (2016).

  15. See Strickland (2003).

  16. See Anderson (2016) and Geary (2002).

  17. The development and use of terra nullius has been explored in the context of Australia and Pacific, where it has generated debates about its use, scope, and history; see Fitzmaurice (2008), Banner (2007), or Elder (2007).

  18. Frankopan (2019), Perry (2017), and Rubin (2014).

  19. See Phillips (2016), Frankopan (2015), Heng (2014), Starr (2013), or Abu-Lughod (1989).

  20. See Wolverton (2022), O’Connor (2019), or Raffensperger (2012).

  21. Raffensperger (2018), Bennett (2011), and Cameron (2011).

  22. See Swanson (2015), Logan (2002), or Lynch (1992).

  23. Raffensperger (2004) and Obolensky (1971).

  24. See Barthélemy (2009), Bisson (2008), Evergates (2007), or Reynolds (1994).

  25. Among the rather small group of studies dedicated the crusading phenomenon in Eastern Europe see Leighton (2022), Gładysz (2012), or Fonnesberg-Schmidt (2007).

  26. See Tannous (2018), Zimo (2018), Shukurov (2016), Tuley (2016), Wacks (2015), Korobeinikov (2014), Nirenberg (2014), Caputo (2008), Pick (2004), Ellenblum (1998), or Nirenberg (1996).

  27. In parallel to Chakrabarty’s discussion of historicism that framed the West as an archetype of modernity, which would be replicated with the passage of historical time and progress in rest of the world. See Chakrabarty (2000).

  28. See Bisaha (2023), Horníčková and Šroněk (2017), Kalous (2017) or Soukup (2017).

  29. See note 26 above

  30. See Baronas (2022), Kala (2016), Larsson (2009), or Mažeika (2001).

  31. Golev (2018), Stanković (2016), Curta and Kovalev (2008), Curta (2006), Fine (2006), or Curta (2001).

  32. See Carver and Klápště (2011).

  33. See Komatarova-Balinova (2022), chapters 9 and 10 in Curta (2019), or Schmieder (2018).

  34. See Favereau (2018), Schmieder (2018), Amitai and Biran (2015), or Amitai and Biran, (2005).

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Acknowledgements

The realization of this study is indebted to Julie Orlemanski, who envisioned and organized the original roundtable at the 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies, and who supported the publication of this cluster with her reviews, comments, and encouragements. I am also grateful for comments and discussion during the panel. My further thanks to K.A. Tuley for ongoing conversation, resources, and generous feedback on this article. And my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable observations and suggestions and to the editorial staff at Postmedieval. All mistakes are my own.

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Volek, J. Hic sunt dracones: Eastern Europe in the study of the Middle Ages. Postmedieval 15, 239–256 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-024-00308-3

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