IDENTITY OF THE BALKANS CREATED THROUGH PERSPECTIVES OF THE OTHERS (INTERSUBJECTIVITY: IDENTITIES BETWEEN SELF AND OTHERS)

Abstract

The cultures of the Mediterranean countries have a long and rich tradition; therefore, the practice of image studies of the aesthetic, ethnic, and specific cultural features and the multilateral reception of the individual bodies of literature are very important for the promotion of different anthropological entities of the Balkans within the global cultural systems. Through a balanced confrontation of the various discourse practices, I will look at the text as a hierarchical structure, specific cultural form of representation with an emphatic ideological and sociological import. In addition, it will stimulate the discussion of the potential subversives of the Other, its marginality and decent ring. By encompassing the fields of Balkans literatures, mythology, religion, philosophy, history, etc., I will analyze its significance within a wider and contemporary social and cultural context of Europe. Intercultural and intertexual Dialogue (M.Bakhtin/ concept of “dialogism”) proposes to address the issue and representation of the Balkans identities within a wider body of the culture from the point of view that is created by the Western European discourse of culture. By means of the application of comparative and intertextual methods, I will point out that inter-cultural dialogue is one of the key elements of the “co-habitation”. My researches would, in the long run, stimulate the questions and the problems of identity and alterities. The importance of the encouragement of the intercultural dialogue between civilizations, cultures, religions and various bodies of literatures that exists on the Balkan, as well as the cultural development of the Balkan and Mediterranean countries imposes the need for the establishing of cultural links between different cultural backgrounds. It is undoubted that my researches would promote a better understanding of the cultural differences that these various backgrounds embody. The understanding depends, not on the reconstruction of the past, but on recognition and critique of the past actually presence in the contemporary works of the culture. That is also a problem of the Other in the discourse of nowadays. The main goal of my research will be the decentering of the categories of identity or subject by including the category of “otherness”. Also, I would like to draw attention to the manner in which the Balkans are represented in the different genres and areas of the Western European culture accepted as the central point of view. Through the application of relevant literary, theoretical, critical and cultural approaches (Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of “the speech of the Other”), this study hopes to raise the awareness of the Balkans and the ways in which the image of them is created/ represented through the perspectives of the European cultures. The objectives also include the promotion of the cultural achievements of the authors from this region who deal with the theory of subject, criticism, sociology, history, philosophy etc. Bearing in mind that inter-cultural and inter-literary projects represent an outstanding opportunity for the development of social and cultural exchange in multi-ethnic regions, I will focus on the field of contemporary literary output at the beginning of the 21st century from the aspect of the study of the image of the Balkans. The objective of my interest is essentially interdisciplinary, and the area it covers includes the ties between European national literature on the one hand, and Balkans literature and other spheres (mythology, religion, philosophy, art, etc.) on the other. In this respect, my research encompasses segments that focus on the European literary and cultural awareness; by combining the methods of the history of literature and contemporary critical theories, it also focuses on the mechanisms of their bringing together and intertwining with various cultural and scholarly paradigms.