ABSTRACT
Three strands of discussion about Europe have dominated the period since the 1970s: the first centres on the concrete procedure of the unification of Europe, the second on the different ideas and ideologies regarding a united Europe, and the third on European identity. This chapter discusses two kinds of detachment: in the first place, to the kind that is necessary in order to recognize the aporiae, nemesis, and tricks which the fate of Europe has played on the identities linked with it; in the second, to the kind that is indispensable to capturing the tension within the self and between the self and the other. It suggests that acting one or more parts on a stage composed of concentric circles – the city, the country, Europe, the world – cannot be separated from an attitude which is ironic at least in part towards the performance and one's role.
