Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture

Eastern Europeans, while not 'other' as much as Asians or Africans, are also 'not quite' European; rather, they are semi- European, semi- developed, with semi- functioning states and semi- civilized manners" concludes Nataésa Kovaéceviâc, in an attemptto summarize the main differences between Eastern and Western Europe, in her introduction to Narrating Post/ Communism. The simple fact that Central European countries, with the exception of Germany and Austria, are at the same time also grouped under the term Eastern Europe due to their post- communist past, already hints at the complexity of this region's historical and cultural heritage"--