EASTERN EUROPE, BETWEEN POLITICS AND CULTURE

The article attempts to articulate a sort of dialectic of the ruling culturalist discourse that is currently cast on the East European region. The opening moment consists of tracking down the culturalization of the Eastern region's identity and its impact on the continental map, namely the gradual extension - as revealed by the crisis - of the presumed frontiers of the 'Balkan' culture. The second stage will shift the perspective from the continental level, with its opposing cultures of efficiency and competitiveness versus laziness, passivity and corruption, to the particular level of the Eastern region itself. Here, an account of the events surrounding the Romanian 'coup d'etat' from the summer of 2012 will track down the effects of the culturalist discourse in the internal social dynamic of the region, and its gradual overlapping with the class divide. Finally, once the issue of class is touched, the very adventures of the culturalist discourse will take us back to the transnational level, where it is precisely the generalization and radicalization of the culturalist discourse that point towards its possible overcoming and dissolution in the structural issue of class struggle.