{"id":122823,"date":"2026-05-25T13:45:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/domagoj-tomas-o-srednjoj-europi-predstavljanje-nove-knjige-na-panonskom-festivalu-knjige\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T14:14:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T12:14:19","slug":"domagoj-tomas-on-central-europe-presentation-of-a-new-book-at-the-pannonian-book-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/domagoj-tomas-on-central-europe-presentation-of-a-new-book-at-the-pannonian-book-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Domagoj Tomas on Central Europe: Presentation of a New Book at the Pannonian Book Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of this year\u2019s Pannonian Book Festival, the book Central Europe through the Eyes of Croatian Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century<\/em>, edited by Domagoj Tomas and Tomislav Kardum, was presented on 21 May 2026. The presentation was held on the festival\u2019s main stage and, in addition to the editors, featured Damir Agi\u010di\u0107, who moderated the discussion, and Matej Vidakovi\u0107, who offered the perspective of a reader from outside the field of history. The book is a collection of selected texts by Croatian intellectuals who reflected on the concept of Central Europe.<\/p>\n

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Reflecting on the book\u2019s central theme, Vidakovi\u0107 pointed out that throughout history the concept of Central Europe has proved highly fluid and open to different interpretations. According to him, the editors present Central Europe as a region shaped between Russian and Orthodox influence on the one hand and the Germanic cultural and political sphere on the other. He particularly emphasised how interesting it is to trace the process through which the idea of Central Europe became part of intellectual and political discourse over time, especially after the communist period, when aspirations to \u201creturn\u201d to the Central European civilisational sphere were frequently expressed in public. Vidakovi\u0107 also noted that the book provides a strong basis for further reflection on the concept of Central Europe, stressing that its meaning changes depending on social, political and cultural circumstances. Precisely because of this variability, he considers the concept to remain relevant and stimulating for contemporary intellectual debate.<\/p>\n

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Discussing their methodology, Tomas and Kardum explained that one of their main objectives was to define the criteria according to which the intellectuals and texts included in the book would be selected. The key criteria were the intellectual and social relevance of the authors, their belonging to the Croatian national context, the fact that the analysed texts were written during the twentieth century, and their comprehensive focus on Central Europe rather than isolated or fragmentary references to it. During the presentation, they also explained that the book consists of an introductory study and a selection of texts by Croatian intellectuals. The analysed texts can be divided into three historical periods: those written up to the end of the First World War, those written between 1918 and 1945, and those written between 1945 and 1989. They stressed that the selected authors\u2019 understanding of Central Europe was strongly influenced by changing geopolitical circumstances and the social and historical turning points that marked the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

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In conclusion, Professor Tomas emphasised that Central Europe can be viewed from different perspectives: as a geopolitical, cultural and civilisational, and literary space, which is why it remains an important subject of historical and humanities research. The book presentation once again confirmed the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of identity and the intellectual history of Croatia. We extend our sincere congratulations to Professor Tomas.<\/p>\n

Text: Lana Trabak<\/p>\n

Photographs: Danijel Jela\u0161<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of this year\u2019s Pannonian Book Festival, the book Central Europe through the Eyes of Croatian Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century, edited by Domagoj Tomas and Tomislav Kardum, was presented on 21 May 2026. The presentation was held on the festival\u2019s main stage and, in addition to the editors, featured Damir Agi\u010di\u0107, who moderated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":122824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"calendar":[],"class_list":["post-122823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","topics-predstavljanje-knjige","odsjeci-department-of-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122823"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122829,"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122823\/revisions\/122829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122823"},{"taxonomy":"calendar","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ffos.unios.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/calendar?post=122823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}