Fluid Identities in Central European Borderlands

Abstract

This article examines transitional identities in pre-1945 Central European borderlands on both an individual and a collective level. These territories traditionally contained a zone of ethnic contact and passage. Numerous nerve lines linked different cultural groups, and ethnicity often became a matter of personal choice. The renewed strength of ethnicity and nationalism in Eastern Europe during the late twentieth century has rekindled interpretations that focus on the persistence and resiliency of these social sentiments. By drawing attention to malleability and fluidity, the examination of transitional populations balances this view.