The Motive Force Of Autobiographical Narrative And Identity Evolution: A Comparative Study Of The Europeanization Process Of Croatia And

This study mainly focus on a core issue: Under the induction of expectedsignificant benefits to join the EU,why some countries are always full of enthusiasmfor self-identity changing and evolving to the EU collective identity,and showed akind of power of identity convergence, while some countries have been reluctant tofully realize the Europeanized transition and evolution of self-identity, and showed anidentity divergence? Previous Europeanization studies were based on materialism oridealism,and constructed different theoretical models. Those theories which based onmaterialism were lack of attention to identity, discourse and other ideational factors,which tended to focus on the study of powers at the EU level as well as the benefits ofaccession to the EU and other relevant factors in the process ofEuropeanization.Those theories which based on idealism can avoid the simplecost-benefits-based perspective of analysis, but as the same as materialism, which isalso to uphold the structuralism and can’t open "black box"completely and clearlydescribe these countries own perception of Europeanization,thereby it ignored thebasic role of "internal causes".Hence, these theoretical framework can not answerthese research questions presented in this paper. Based on these theories’ deficiency,this paper presented an analytical framework which referred to the dynamic evolutionof identity and autobiographical narrative,and on this account raised theoreticalassumptions.This paper used the Europeanization process of Serbia and Croatia ascomparative case studies.Analytical framework proposed in this paper believes that autobiographicalnarrative played a key role in influencing the process of national self-identityconstruction and identification of the otherness. Autobiographical narrative not onlycan construct self-identity but also exercise a great influence on the nationalperception of self and otherness. So in the process of a country or organizationrecognized and accepted the others,the autobiographical narrative of this country ororganization will produce a key influence. In this paper, the process is assumed to bean evolutionary process of identity, that’s a process of discourse practice withincreased identification of the otherness makes self membership orientation toward identity convergence of otherness group membership.In order to more clearlyunderstand the content of the national autobiographical narrative and its impact on theevolution power of identity.Based on national identity construction theory andknowledge of the general narratology,this paper divided the country’sautobiographical narrative into three dimensions, namely the abstract level of mythnarrative, the political elite level of narrative manipulation and history educationin the public level.Each dimension can independently affect the self-cognitive effectsof otherness and the dynamic evolution of identity,meanwhile the three levels areinterrelated processes, abstract level of myth narrative can provide the backgroundknowledge and narrative material to the political elites, while through the history ofeducation,the national narrative content and narrative thinking can go deep into thepublic, and form a national consciousness and nationality.However different countriesmay have different autobiographical narrative for the same process of recognition,therefore, for the Europeanization process,different countries may take a differentattitude. So this paper argues that the evolution of the national identity have two typesof effects of process which refer to identity convergence and identity divergence. Botheffects of process represent two kinds of dynamic in the evolution of the nationalidentity,and the differences between two kinds of dynamic resulting from nationalautobiographical narrative.This paper selected the two different kinds of processes of Europeanization inSerbia and Croatia as a case for theory verification. Because of the two countries oncein a same country, they have similarities in many ways, but their Europeanizationpaths have emerged different processes. Based on the theoretical part of this paper,this paper analyzed the three dimensions of autobiographical narrative in turn,andrespectively studied how the three dimensions affects the dynamic processes ofevolution of two countries toward the EU collective identity. Through a detaileddemonstration, this paper proved the theoretical assumption and causality of variablesin the study.