Constructing a Periphery

Based on the analysis of articles published in theater periodicals Holy Roman Empire, thisstudy explores enlightened cultural and symbolic geographies as reflected late eighteenth-centuryGerman theatrical press. Larry Wolff has shown that western travelers tend to locate borders civilizedEurope Habsburg lands situated east Vienna, namely Galicia Hungary. If periodicalsand travel memoirs by share a common interest frontiers civilized Europe, thespecific geography civilization entails several contradictions two medias. shownthat Europe ofVienna, By contrast, journals based Empire,the seem be concentrated south-eastwards, along Ottoman frontier, inHungary countries St. Stephen’s Crown. The article seeks elucidate variations pointing togeographical political factors, well differences between these literary genres. Unlike traveljournals, Empire had give general overview contemporarytheater life, mobilities itinerant theatrical, especially German, companies, bydocumenting their repertoire. This reveals how specific construction an imagined Europeanperiphery is determined both networks contributors tastefor exotic, Turkish subjects, eighteenth-century dramas operas. Hence, such philosophicgeographies are shaped origin, language, genre major themes suchperiodicals.