CASE STUDY

How are Eastern Europeans perceived by the West?

Since the collapse of communism in 1989 in Eastern European countries (such as Bosnia, Bulgaria, Romania,

Serbia, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, etc.), there have been heated debates in the public

spheres about issues such as how Eastern Europeans are perceived by the West. After the fall of the Roman

Empire, the Western European regions became more economically and politically powerful, whereas much of The Influence of Culture on Perception

Eastern Europe was subordinated to the rule of the imperial powers and relegated to inferior social positions.

As is often the case, the dominant population developed explanations in the form of stereotypesto explain and

justify the power imbalance and the subjugation of Eastern Europeans. Eastern Europe tends to be associated

with being backward, lazy, poor, or inferior. Findings from one survey revealed that respondents from Western

Europe associated their Eastern neighbours with attributes like greyness, coldness, alcohol, poverty, unhappi

ness, melancholy, sadness, crime, corruption, and chaos (Hall, 1991).

On the other hand, Eastern European countries see Western Europeans as heartless, efficiency-driven, and

soulless. In Slovenia, a popular saying illustrates their assumptions about the West: ‘In heaven, the police are

British, the cooks are French, the engineers are German, the administrators are Swiss, and the lovers are Italian’.

However, ‘in hell, the police are German, the cooks are British, the engineers are Italian, the administrators

are French, and the lovers are Swiss.’ This popular saying also reveals our commonly held stereotypes: Britons

are perceived as logical and systematic; French people are seen as having a delicious cuisine; the Germans are

often portrayed as efficient and hardworking; the Swiss are seen as well organized; and the Italians are believed

to be warm and emotional.

Maria Todorova (1997), a Bulgarian scholar, argues that Western Europeans have historically created the

image of Eastern Europe and the regions of the Balkans, including countries such as Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania,

Albania, Montenegro, and so forth, as the land of violence, primitiveness, bloodshed, and lawlessness. She

believes that such negative stereotypes of Eastern Europeans, specifically, of people from the Balkans, are

influenced by the media, popular culture, and especially literature. Those cultural products contribute to

creating an image of the Balkans as mystical but dangerous and traditional. Most mainstream cultural texts

tend to rely on stereotypes and clichés in their representations of ‘us’ (the civilized West) and ‘them’ (the

uncivilized East). For example, the famous novel Dracula, written by an English/Irish writer Bram Stoker in

1897, displays British perceptions and stereotypes of eastern Europeans, depicting them as uncivilized and

barbaric – a potential threat to the civilized British culture.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, 28 countries have emerged out of the eight

former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Different research projects in the last couple

of years indeed show that Eastern Europeans are still predominantly perceived by their Western counterparts

through stereotypes, such as laziness, backwardness, and violence. Despite the expansion of the European Union

towards eastern regions, including countries like Poland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Romania, Western European you need read the first file’s case, then follow the second file’s instruction. Please, Use APA format for fonts and citations. The Title page and Reference page is not counted against the maximum 2 page case analysis rule. Follow the case analysis template, but write this assignment in complete paragraphs for each section – this is not to be in outline form.