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Nationalism and religion play important roles in the ongoing armed conflicts, thus the investigation of this topic is crucial both today and for the future. The paper focuses on Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where there’s a special connection between nationalism and religion, which are key factors in shaping the history, the present and the future of this region with traumas, conflicts and tensions. According to my hypothesis, mimetic rivalry, scapegoating, and victimization are core elements of the wounded collective identity and the nationalisms of the CEE societies – thus, Girard’s mimetic theory provides a unique understanding. I attempt to outline a new possible pathway for applying mimetic theory concerning the wounded collective identity of CEE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Writing Program was created in 1967 by Paul Engle to host writers from around the globe in a literary residency in Iowa City. According to the rhetoric of its founder, the Program was meant to become the home of an international community, yet institutionally and financially, it was embedded within the framework of Cold War U.S. cultural diplomacy. The examination of the IWP, and a focus on participants from Eastern Europe and the Global South, shows how a particular implementation of "world community" was experienced and interpreted by its members. By analyzing their travelogues or diaries, the article explores the negotiated reception of the residency program. It shows that the meeting of individuals and the encounter of "worlds" in such rhetorically charged cultural sites was different from what the designers of the IWP envisioned. The writers subverted the superficial globalizing narrative of their American hosts and reflected on the inherent hierarchies within U.S. cultural diplomacy projects. Moreover, through discovery and communication, they produced a lived and personal solidarity: a deep and thorough knowledge between East and South [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]