COMPARATIVE CULTURAL STUDIES AND THE STUDY OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN CULTURE Theory and Application

In this paper, I first introduce some principles of comparative cultural studies, followed by a brief description of methodology, systemic and empirical approach, and contextual framework. This introduction of theory and method will be followed by a brief discussion of the notion of Central European culture – real or imagined – defined as an ›in-between peripheral‹ and ›(post)colonial space‹. Next, with the objective to exemplify Central European culture as represented in literature, the framework and method are applied to samples of second-generation North American Jewish memoirs about Central Europe and to samples of contemporary Eastern German and Hungarian prose.