Responding to the contemporary popularity of the term “barbarism” in political rhetoric and the media, and the lack of reflection on the implications and legitimacy of its use, this project will contribute to a historically grounded understanding of its past and contemporary uses, with an emphasis on the role of literature and art therein. It will also foreground this concept’s foundational role in modern European history and identity, which has not been adequately acknowledged. The main output will be a monograph on the concept’s modern history (in English). The project’s secondary aim is to establish an international network of scholars working on barbarism, in order to develop a follow-up collaborative project proposal. Since Greek antiquity, the “barbarian” captivates the European imagination and operates as the antipode against which self-proclaimed “civilized” groups define themselves. Therefore, the study of the cultural history of barbarism in Europe is a simultaneous exploration of the shifting contours of European identity.

The project foregrounds the foundational role of the concept “barbarism” in European identity, which has not been acknowledged adequately. Two starting points motivate the project:

1. Our wish to fill a gap in scholarship. There is no systematic conceptual history of barbarism from Greek antiquity to the present. Existing studies are marked by gaps and methodological shortcomings. The sparse studies of the conceptual history of “barbarism” (e.g., Koselleck, Salter, Droit) downplay the role of literature and art in the concept’s formation and privilege non-fictional (philosophical, historiographical, ethnographic) sources. Conversely, literary or cultural studies of barbarism regularly circumvent its conceptual history and etymology and conflate it with related categories, e.g., “primitivism” or “savagery” (Schillinger & Alexandre, Caruso & Rigoli etc.). Moreover, while there are studies of “the barbarian” in specific genres (e.g., Hall, Long), there are hardly any comparative, interdisciplinary studies thereof, especially concerning the concept’s modern history. Our collaboration will produce an original interdisciplinary study of the concept’s modern European history, with a unique emphasis on the role of literature and art.
2. The concept’s current popularity in political rhetoric and the media, combined with lack of reflection on the implications and legitimacy of its use. Since the end of the Cold War and the fall of Eastern-bloc communism in the 1990s, and especially since the events on September 11, 2001, the rhetoric of “barbarism versus civilization” figures prominently in Western political and public rhetoric. Against the backdrop of the so-called “culturalization of conflict” (Mamdani, Huntington), “barbarism” has become a popular signifier for terrorists, Muslims, migrants, and various “others.” Despite the term’s exclusionary workings and its role in constructing “enemies,” its use in public rhetoric remains largely uncontested and requires critical attention. This project will illuminate the historical traditions resonating in the term’s contemporary manifestations and contribute to a historical understanding of its past and present uses.

The project pays particular attention to reversals of the civilized/barbarian hierarchy, whereby the “civilized” pose as more barbaric than their “barbarians” (e.g., in Enlightenment philosophers); critiques and/or positive revaluations of barbarism, e.g., as a force of renewal through destruction (e.g., in Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, surrealism and avant-garde art); reconceptualizations of barbarism as a challenge to predominant modes of exercising political power (e.g., in Hardt and Negri, Deleuze and Guattari).

The project will investigate the following fields:

• Barbarism in aesthetic contexts (literature, visual art, film, music).
• Barbarism in scholarly contexts, as a category of knowledge employed in historiographical, anthropological, and ethnological scholarship from the 18 ^th to the early 20 ^th century, and reflected upon in contemporary cultural theory and (conceptual) history.
• Barbarism in political rhetoric and the media.

The intersections of these fields in various European national and cultural contexts will be explored based on the partners’ specializations. The project’s broad scope will be counterbalanced by our specific focus on, and detailed analysis of, case studies from the 18 ^th century to the present in which “barbarism” figures prominently and substantially.

• art history
• barbarism
• literary studies