Ambiguity And Fluidity In The Concept Of European Identity-From The Perspectives Of Cultural Criticism

One of the most important features marked in the last a few decades around the whole world is the European Integration movement. In order to achieve more profound level of integration, all-facet areas should be working on, and one crucial factor among them is to establish a meaningful European identity shared by all the member states of the EU. Due to the urgent need for identity construction, various versions of understanding have appeared. The current dilemma, however, is that an accurate definition for such an identity has never been properly attained, neither by scholars nor by institutions such as EU. On the other hand, some scholars are against the effort to provide identity with a settled definition. Developed mainly around the issue of European identity, this thesis aims to probe the fundamental nature of identity all the way back by putting it into the cultural criticism theories, for so much related to the international relations and politics, identity issue should be essentially perceived as a cultural conception.Around the perspectives of cultural criticism, this thesis mainly consists of three chapters apart from the introduction and conclusion.The introduction offers an overall background of the current studies and outcomes of European identity both home and abroad. Furthermore, it also offers a tentative definition of "identity" as the restriction of the argumentation as well as the theme and structure of the whole thesis.Chapter One is mainly concerned with the understandings towards a European identity and the potential problems with these understandings. The first vague conception to be made clear is the difference between taking Europe as a cultural or geographic concept. On the premise that European identity should be seen as a cultural concept, definitions, which have been provided, still seem ambiguous and improper for they are too much related to the practical function of identity while neglecting the fundamental nature of the conception. Thus the discussions on dichotomies, which reflect the predicament of European identity creation, are to be chosen as the suitable intermediaries in perceiving the fluid and ambiguous European identity.Chapter Two concentrates on set of the dichotomies, which is indispensable in discussing identity issue, namely the relationship between Us group and Other group. Starting from the importance and connotations of this binary opposition, this chapter goes deeper into the theoretical relationship between the two sides and applies it into different stages of European history to examine the fluid and ambiguous contents of the dichotomy and the following problems of defining the boundary between Us and Other in European identity hereafter.Chapter Three deals with the other set of dichotomy, which affects identity construction, namely the relationship between Conscious and Unconscious. Conscious and unconscious are possessed by an individual as well as a collective group at the same time. They reflect the European identity in different levels while it is the unconscious part which is hard to grasp that plays a much more crucial role. Because of this reason, European identity has always been a vague term, as in the fashion of Nietzsche's nihilism towards a meaningful European vision.The conclusion sums up the whole thesis by emphasizing the fluidity and ambiguity of the concept of European identity and offers a possible solution while confronted with such a nature so as to further strengthen the process of integration.