Research Group on Slavic Cultures in the Habsburg Monarchy & Centre de civilisation française et d’études francophones
are pleased to invite to the lecture of
Michel Espagne (Université Paris Science et Lettres—École normale supérieure, Paris):
Cultural transfers as historical method. The case of Poland and Germany
Michel Espagne is a French Germanist and translator whose work focuses in particular on the intellectual history of Germany. He coined the term cultural transfer, which he first studied in the context of historical and cultural exchanges between France and Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
▸ Venue: Institute of the Polish Culture, Universoty of Warsaw, room no 5, Thurdsay 15th Jan. 2026, 17:00
Cultural transfer research originally developed in the German-French context. The initial aim was to identify the German contribution to French history and the French presence in German history. The German-French example offered the opportunity to write a European history that is not merely a compilation of individual national histories, but one that could reveal the highly complex intertwinings that form the basis of this shared European history. Against this background, the history of Poland over the last few centuries is particularly exemplary, because Poland, more than other European territories, has had to deal with foreign influences. The reinterpretation of German cultural imports to Poland, the history of Polish or multicultural cities that belong or formerly belonged to Polish territory, demographic movements and even the division or displacement of Poland have triggered cultural transfers that have shaped the entire history of Europe.