Sat1 Apr09:30am(15 mins)
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Where:
Main Building Room 466
Presenter:
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Eastern Europe was for the majority of the British in the 19th-century terra incognita. The early tourists did not go there - neither aristocrats doing Grand Tour nor those of more humble origin led by Thomas Cook - all of them preferred France, Germany, or Italy.
What was the level of knowledge among the educated classes of British society? The press was an important source of information for a large part of the population in 19th-century Britain.
John Henry Newman spoke about „the extreme influence of periodical publications of this day quarterly, monthly or daily; they teach the multitude of men what to say and what to think”. What did they think about Poland and Ukraine?
"The Scotsman" published as a daily from 1855 was an influential paper published in Edinburgh.
What was the understanding of the terms: "Poland" and "Ukraine" on the pages of the daily? What was the political and geographical sense in which it was used?
There was neither a Polish nor Ukrainian state on the political stage. Yet both terms were used in the press texts. Did Poland or/and Ukraine exist at least as a semi/independent unity in the semantic layer?
It is also interesting whether "The Scotsman's" attitude to Poland/Ukraine reflected anti-Russian sentiments as both entities were partly included in the tsar's empire.