| Abstract [eng] |
European Union (EU) has been increasingly concerned about a lack of legitimacy in recent years and therefore engaged in memory politics in order to enhance European identity. In the process of identity formation schools play an important role, so the focus of this master thesis is social representations of European integration in Lithuanian history textbooks. By analysing the history textbooks of major Lithuanian publishers, the study aims to explore the main narratives of the European integration process as well as to show how the integration is understood, made familiar and concretized in the eight school textbooks in Lithuania. The results suggest that the representation of European integration is quite diverse in the textbooks of different publishing years. It is narrated both as a political community and a community based on utilitarian interests, though the national perspective is vivid. The textbooks draw upon memories that are important for group and national identity. While the older textbooks make European integration meaningful in reference to post-war collective memory and relationships between France, Germany and United Kingdom, economical superpower and the leaders of the countries mentioned, the newest textbooks anchor European integration to economical cooperation, security and peace. The core of the social representation related to European integration in Lithuanian history textbooks is “guarantor of peace and prosperity”. |
