Writing (Across) Europe: On Writing Spaces and Writing Practices

Abstract

In this paper we explore how existing, loosely geographical, English-language journals constitute Europe within their writing/publishing spaces. Focusing on two sets of journals - British/British-North American and those which are explicitly (pro) European in their orientation/content - we show how some of these journals appear to write contemporary Europe out of their spaces, casting Europe instead through the homogenizing lens of 19th-century colonialism. By contrast, others make more or less space for contemporary Europe but construe this as a transparent space; to be written about and framed by distant, dislocated commentator-viewers, whose power to comment and frame is regulated by their location within specific European geographical communities. Correspondingly, we argue that these journal spaces are both constituted through a centre-margin imaginary and constitutive of this power-geometry. This situation is argued to reflect academic working practices that are largely national or within-culture rather than cross-culture, and to reproduce dominant (Northern/Western) representations of Europe. In the final section of the paper, drawing on some of our own experiences, we consider how cross-cultural writing practices have the potential to disrupt this power geometry.