Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book outlines an approach that would be capable of inquiring into people's experience as a source of political practice, identity formation and historical shift. It focuses on the topic of transition and identity formation in the post-Soviet Eastern and Central Europe, in order to expound the a-rational, pre-reflective and associative side of politics. The book also focuses on the cases of Lithuania and elaborates upon the analytical framework by discussing other cases in the region, including Russia and Ukraine. It argues that there are complex ontological links between politics, ethics and aesthetics, between shape and meaning as well as between worth and action. The book relates the issue of identity formation in post-Soviet transition to wider political and philosophical questions of being, truth and authenticity. In doing so, it addresses several problematic questions.