With much of our focus this week on identity (actually a key word for September 21), I found the trip to the French Embassy in contrast with our identity to be fascinating. When the French diplomat came and spoke to us, what I find most interesting was the idea that European identity is "catching up quickly" with French identity, although he doesn't believe the latter will be surpassed. It almost made me think of how here, we have the people identify themselves as members of a state and also an American. Although he said European identities are a compliment to the country’s identity, the fact that people in Europe are beginning to see themselves as part of the whole continent as oppose to their states shows something about the future. We don’t refer to ourselves as North Americans commonly, although we don’t have a unifying force like the EU in Europe. Still, prior to World War II 60 years ago, people in Europe were fiercely loyal to their countries and wouldn’t have even thought of referring to themselves as European up there with their native country. It’s interesting to think about how much Europe will continue to unify and if there will be more of a melding of culture, which is what gives the countries so much of their separate identities. Although day to day life hasn’t really been affected by this continued unification, how much longer will this last for? Culture is essential to this identity distinction for countries (especially language and art in France) and I think will be what keeps the various European countries holding onto their identities even with the EU, etc.
It's interesting to think of the identity of European countries merging into one, but haven't we, as Americans, already formed an identity for "Europe" as a whole already? One that comes to mind (I really hate myself for not being able to think of another right now...) is "is he gay, or is he European?"
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, if we compare the United States to Europe with the states similar to the individual countries, you can see a different side to the story. As Americans, we define ourselves by our states very much. However, from the outside, most people just see us as "Americans" and lump all stereotypes into one. From the inside, we have many identities. To the outside, it's more or less one identity. Even if the European Union becomes stronger and more of an identity to the outsiders looking in, I don't think the French, British, or Italian will ever be satisfied with an overall European identity.
And i just noticed this completely conflicts with my reflection. HAHA
I think we define the people of Europe more by their individual countries than by their overall identity. For example, I hear more comments about Polish people being incompetent, French people surrendering/giving up, etc. than I hear comments grouping all of Europe together. So to Americans, the identity of the country is still more prevalent. We think of Europe as separated, not as one united area we can group together.
ReplyDeleteIt makes more sense to lump Americans together as a stereotype though because we are one country and have more in common as a nation than all of the states of the European Union.