Balkan as Metaphor: Between Globalization and Fragmentation

Abstract

Balkan. Somewhere between a tragedy and a myth, a place and a condition, term is perhaps best understood as a metaphor. It has been used and abused in academia by proponents of opposing political views. Multiculturalism has appropriated it, as have postmodernism and postcommunism. It is used pejoratively to refer to excessive specialization and nostalgically to refer to Europe's lost people -- its wild warriors and passionate geniuses. This book explores idea of Balkan as metaphor and meaning of Balkan identity in context of contemporary culture. Focusing on Balkanism both as a body of knowledge and as critical study of that discourse, this book does for Balkans what Edward Said's Orientalism did for the Orient. The sixteen authors, most of whom were born and educated in Balkans, apply Western academic tools of postmodernism, poststructuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, and critical multiculturalism to topics as varied as rhetoric of Balkanization, war in Kosovo, Western demonization and erotization of Serbs, Balkan film, human rights legislation, Byzantinism, vampire as an image of Balkan violence, envy of political and moral capital of victimhood, tendency of Balkan psyche toward depression, Serbian machismo and homosexuality, and wartime rape. The book both lays groundwork for a new field of study and serves as an act of resistance against many forms of representation that break Balkans into fragments such as NATO army bases and digital maps in order to wire them into global market.