ONCE UPON A TIME, WHEN EUROPE BECAME A MAN – 18th– AND 19th–CENTURY EUROPE CONCEPTIONS

SERBIA AND THE BALKANS: THREE CENTURIES OF EMBRACE WITH EUROPE,  [pp. 21-37]  

AUTHOR(S) / АУТОР(И): Wolfgang Schmale

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DOI: 10.46793/7494.189.021S

ABSTRACT / САЖЕТАК:

To this day, the image of Europa straddling the bull, which originated in antiquity, serves to identify Europe. On the superficial level, Europa is depicted as a woman. In the early modern period, Europa was transformed into the allegory of Europe. From the second half of the 16th century onwards, Europe was often depicted together with other continents—America, Africa and Asia. It was customary to insert these personifications into entire allegorical pictures, which were intended to represent the civilisa- tion of the corresponding continent. The figures were often male. In the 18th century, the creation of cul- ture or civilisation was assigned to the male sex, and Europe was increasingly defined as a civilisation—a male civilisation. This was fully in line with the concept of hegemonic masculinity established in bourgeois society in the course of the 19th century. Europe metaphorically became a man, and it was no coincidence that ‘Europe on the bull’ was increasingly used as a caricature. It is only in the 21st century that one en- counters attempts to portray Europe as a queer person and to deconstruct the binary metaphor.

KEYWORDS / КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ:

continent allegory, European civilization, gender stereotypes, urban axes of masculinity, queer Europe, Belgrade

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT / ПРОЈЕКАТ:

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