For information (extract).


Patrick Boylan

===========================

THE NEW YORK TIMES
January 29, 2000

ARTS

Idea of a Unified Cultural Heritage Divides Europe

By MICHAEL Z. WISE

BRUSSELS -- When a group of prominent Europeans gathered
recently to discuss an ambitious plan to found a Museum of
Europe, a British participant suggested -- not entirely in jest -- that
the new institution might acquire one of Margaret Thatcher's
notorious handbags that became a symbol of her angry opposition
to taxpayer support for the European Union.

That such an artifact would actually go on display is unlikely. The
museum aims to emphasize Europe's shared cultural heritage
rather than the rancorous conflicts that frequently plague
European integration. But the challenge facing the museum is
considerable because, as its mission statement admits, most
Europeans regard the 15-nation European Union as a "cold,
bureaucratic monster, a soulless producer of administrative
edicts."

Indeed, banana import quotas and demands for agricultural
subsidy cuts are hardly the stuff of which dreams are made.
Advocates of the "European idea" are increasingly concerned that
it be perceived as more than a technocratic enterprise and acquire
democratic legitimacy in the eyes of the average citizen. "We are
seeking a shared identity -- a new European soul," the European
Commission president, Romano Prodi, has declared. "We need to
build a union of hearts and minds, a shared sense of common
destiny, of European citizenship."

The museum, which backers hope will open on a site fronting the
European Parliament in Brussels by 2003, is an attempt to
reinforce the idea of a common European identity. "The European
Union which is taking shape before our eyes is not a recent
invention born of politicians' whims but the product of a long
maturation of a time-honored idea as old as Europe itself," the
mission statement argues.

Of course, the quest for the roots of Europeanness far predates
this late 20th century experiment in pooled sovereignty. Since the
political necessity that helped forge the community of West
European nations vanished with communism's demise, the
examination of these roots has intensified, yet just where the
broader idea of Europe began is proving open to contentious
interpretation.

Most recently, Greece, regarding itself as the cradle of European
democracy, has geared up to torpedo the museum project as
currently conceived. The Greek government objects that the core
exhibition is to have as its starting point not the classical era but
the Middle Ages. Museum organizers consider the ninth century
empire of Charlemagne and Latin Christendom as having set
Europe upon the path toward unification.

Greek civilization failed to promote a larger European
consciousness, argues the museum's scientific director, Elie
Barnavi, because it discriminated between citizens and barbarians.
Roman civilization featured a similar dichotomy, he says, and
therefore the exhibition timeline should begin with the Holy Roman
Empire, not ancient Rome. In response, the Greek government
lodged a formal protest against the museum at a meeting of E.U.
cultural ministers in November. Italy has yet to weigh in on the
treatment of the Roman world.

"Europe has had many different ideas of itself over time," said
Anthony Grafton, professor of European history at Princeton,
whose survey course is sometimes dubbed "Plato to NATO." In
such a course, or in a museum exhibition, Mr. Grafton said, it is
important to remember "you're teaching a construct." He added,
"Eastern Europe, for example, was at times central to European
history in ways we tended to forget earlier in the 20th century."

Indeed, Europe's geographic borders have shifted continually. In a
forthcoming volume, to be published by an E.U. think tank,
Heinrich Schneider, a professor at the University of Vienna, writes,
"How far Europe will reach tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow,
or in the next century and later, cannot be looked up in a historical
atlas of the Antique, the Middle Ages, of the 20th century, or of
the cold war period."

Lack of consensus has not hindered the proliferation of museum
shows emphasizing that today's Europe is being built upon a
shared culture, however. An exhibition financed by the Council of
Europe, which promotes pan-European cultural cooperation, is
currently touring the continent, embracing the Greek view. The
exhibit argues that the story of Ulysses is European culture's
founding myth, and that even before people in this part of the
world wrote down their myths and legends, Europe could be
distinguished as an emerging entity.

"Diversity is doubtless a richness, but it is not by stressing our
differences that we shall improve the lot of our children," the
exhibition catalogue reads. In Berlin, the Museum of German
Folklore reopened in June in a new incarnation, the Museum of
European Cultures. "The founding of a cultural-historical museum
with a European orientation reflects political circumstances: Europe
is growing together and museums want to do their part," the
revamped institution states in its literature. And in Paris, France's
National Museum of Folk Arts and Traditions has proposed
undergoing a similar metamorphosis.

In earlier efforts to inspire its citizens, the European Union devised
a repertory of symbols amounting to the traditional trappings of
nationhood: European flags, passports, automobile tags and an
anthem.

More recently, the European Parliament has called for a new
history textbook to be written for use in schools across the
continent that will place individual national histories in a European
context. The new Europe, supporters of revised textbooks say,
needs to develop its own set of shared heroes and villains, battles
and revolts.

But others are wary that such reinterpretation is really a rewriting
of history. In a recent issue of the journal Antiquity, the British
archaeologist Mark Pluciennik cites increased financing for
academics from the E.U. and the Council of Europe as creating
"pressures to consider, write about and work on a pan-European
scale." He goes on to warn of the "potential abuse of archaeology
as propaganda" and that "some academics have accepted the
challenge of rewriting the past with an alacrity that is far more
Orwellian than anything produced by the E.U."

Still others worry about a loss of national distinctiveness, fears that
have only increased as concern mounts about globalization as a
homogenizing force. As the E.U. looks ahead to negotiations to
admit Turkey and Central and Eastern European nations as
members, the search for a clear-cut identity to undergird the
integration process grows more complex. The eastern and
southern boundaries of Europe are being heatedly debated and the
growing presence of immigrants from other continents throws up
questions about what qualities distinguish Europe from anywhere
else.

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