front cover of Anti-Atlas
Anti-Atlas
Critical Area Studies from the East of the West
Edited by Tim Beasley-Murray, Wendy Bracewell, and Michal Murawski
University College London, 2025
Where is "the East of the West"? This provocative collection confronts the assumptions behind how we divide the world into knowable regions.

Anti-Atlas uses the upheavals of Eastern Europe as a lens through which to rethink the politics of area studies. This collection unsettles traditional hierarchies, questioning how knowledge is produced, who controls it, and how we divide the world into “areas.”

Consisting of an eclectic mix of scholars from Europe, the UK, and North America, the book experiments with diverse genres—from academic essays and autobiographical reflections to travel guides and data visualizations. Through this innovative approach, the editors propose a manifesto for area studies to be more critical and reflexive; to be undisciplined and deeply engaged with local perspectives.

By dismantling the assumptions embedded in atlases and disciplinary boundaries, Anti-Atlas invites readers to think differently about how we construct and categorize the world. Of particular interest to scholars of area studies and critical theory, this work reassesses what it means to study places in an era of geopolitical rupture.
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front cover of Orientations
Orientations
An Anthology of European Travel Writing on Europe
Wendy Bracewell
Central European University Press, 2009
Excerpts from over 100 travel writings of Europe, from 16th c. pilgrimage diaries thru early specimens of modern tourism accounts to 20th c. impressions from the other side of the Iron Curtain By focusing on east European travel writings, this work enlarges both the documentary base and the terms of the debate over a rich source for discussions of identities and mentalities; knowledge and power; gender; and cultural change. The texts – chosen for their relevance, but literary criteria have also been taken into account – illustrate the variety of ways in which east Europeans have written about the West. Most of the material is presented in English for the first time or, in a few cases, rescued from dusty oblivion in long out-of-print volumes. Each text is introduced with a short passage placing it in context. This is the first volume of the three-part set East Looks West. Vol. 2. Under Eastern Eyes. A Comparative Introduction to East European Travel Writing on Europe, 1550–2000; Vol. 3. A Bibliography of East European Travel Writing on Europe.
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front cover of Under Eastern Eyes
Under Eastern Eyes
A Comparative History of East European Travel Writing on Europe
Alex Drace-Francis
Central European University Press, 2008
Twelve studies explicitly developed to elaborate on travel writing published in book form by east Europeans travelling in Europe from ca. 1550 to 2000. How did east Europeans have positioned themselves with relation to the notion of Europe, and how has the genre of travel writing served as a means of exploring and disseminating these ideas?
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