“Imagined territory” and community: the construction and uses of the nation in 14th-century Bohemia and Brabant

Second session of the CEFRES 2023 Francophone Interdisciplinary Seminar. The map and the border
In 2023, we would like to start by questionning the very act of bordering and representing (a territory, a period, a trajectory), in short, thanks to the interdisciplinarity of our respective disciplines, to question the map and the border.

Location: CEFRES Library, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1
Dates: Friday, May 12th, 10 am – 11.30 am.
Language: french

Eloïse ADDE (CEU), discussant Jan ZDICHYNEC (Charles University)

Territory is one of the fundamental markers defining a nation; it is even an essential support of it, alongside the State and the population to which it is attached. Often corresponding to natural phenomena that can be identified spatially, such as mountain ridges or river lines, the territory is generally taken for granted and is therefore rarely questioned. Nevertheless, like the nation it materialises, it is a construction, a production that is fluid and changing depending on the uses that are made of it, and its display is much more contingent than it seems. Territory is closely linked to political practice; it is what unifies a “political community”, but the latter also gives it its shape. In this communication, Eloïse Adde will decipher the function of territory and the way it was perceived and constructed within two projects aimed at founding and consolidating the nation in Bohemia and Brabant in the early 14th century.

 

See the complete program of the seminar here.