Images of Europe in Lithuania and Latvia

As one of the research projects of the Doctoral College for “European Historical Dictatorship and Transformation Research” at the University of Vienna, this dissertation deals with images of Europe (ideas, images and political concepts of Europe) in two post-authoritarian Baltic States – Lithuania and Latvia. Since in recent history the two countries have taken similar political paths, one might suppose that both countries possess similar views about Europe. However, the investigation shows how the structural and historical differences of Lithuania and Latvia have their impact on the specific views on Europe in each country.

The aim of the PhD thesis is to compare the issue of the “image of Europe” in Lithuania and Latvia. In this respect, my research traces questions concerning the period of the attainment of independence from the Soviet Union in 1990 until the present: How was Europe reflected and represented in Lithuania and Latvia in the context of democratization and rapprochement of those two countries to the EU? What was the nature of Europe in the eyes of the Lithuanians and the Latvians? What countries were seen as “European”, and what countries were excluded from caring the attribute “Europeanness”? How was the image of Europe presented by the political leaders before the accession to the EU and after it? What was the visual and narrative material used by the (re)creation of the image of Europe?

The research material includes schoolbooks and lexicons, products of the Lithuanian Institute (Vilnius) and the Latvian Institute (Riga) branch for tourism (booklets, slogans and logos), the application programmes of Vilnius and Riga for becoming an European Capital of Culture, newspaper articles and comments in Lithuanian, Latvian and Russian languages, and icons used for official representation of Lithuania and Latvia.