Balkans

Abstract

For more than a decade the Balkans were a bloody arena of monstrosities, the memory of which has still not subsided. Many heated discussions have been devoted to understanding the underlying logic and causes of the Balkan conflicts. Those futile “attempts,” however, have given rise to “balkanization”— a discourse that capitalized on the “Balkan essence” and diagnosed that the region is caught up in a vortex of ancient hatreds. Presenting a frozen image of the Balkans, such a discourse gradually gained autonomy that allows no dynamism and has the potential to turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. With this paper I will examine four theories explaining the emergence of the Balkan discourse. By utilizing a post-modernist approach to look into the specifics of Balkanism, I will investigate the signifier “Balkan” which has come to designate the geographical region as a cultural entity and inspect if such usage is justified. Providing a historical study, I will compare nationalisms in the Balkans with nationalisms elsewhere in Europe and investigate what, if anything makes Balkan nationalism qualitatively different.