Identity In Anna Porter's Ghosts Of Europe

Anna Porter’s Ghosts of Europe, is far from a typical book one would read within an academic setting. The book explores four countries in an attempt to solidify the unclear identity that is Europe, and expand the notion of a Central Europe. This is a concept based upon a wisp of an idea to create a social and cultural identity. As a testament to Central Europe’s complicated past, Porter goes to great trouble to further develop the complexity of this region’s current presence and to explore the notion that Central Europe will make a future impact in the world. Porter’s writing style is a unique blend of historic fact writing, anecdotes, and personal analyzations of the countries of Poland, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The purpose of the book is to be a messenger to its readers. This book is to make the reader understand Central Europe’s dark history and its struggle to be able to identify itself. Though this book was refreshing after the content dense texts that were previously read, it was quite clear that this book had numerous downfalls. The first, and most apparent defect of this book, was the author’s quite confusing …show more content…
No longer are these simply names and dates that she is typing, but actual memories of what happened. She quotes Jaruzelski in her book “ ‘It’s biology’ he said, ‘Those who remember are dying and the young are brainwashed by black and white versions of history, bitesized, digestive pieces… ‘History,’ says Jaruzelski, ‘is multicoloured, like life’” (53). Because she maintained her writing style of anecdote and history, she was able to create a chapter that was almost magical. It was a blend of memories and history that blended so well together that it caused her readers to recall back to what she had previously wrote. She made them think that every historical fact she said had some little girl watching them. It gave history a new life and a new meaning to the