Maria Todorova Research Articles

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage in the Balkans

51 On 19 September 1809, having been away from England for a few months, during which he travelled to Portugal, Spain, and Malta, the twenty-one year-old George Gordon Byron sailed for Greece. His tour of the famous classical sites included a short excursion into Tepelene, Albania, where he was ‘excellently treated by the Chief Ali Pasha’1 and where he found the inspiration for the central section (stanzas 36–72) of the second canto of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. The beginning and the end of the canto, mirroring Byron’s own travelling schedule, focus on Greece. While the poet’s premature death at Missolonghi secured him a place among the champions of philhellenism, his fascination with Turkey, the ruling force in the Balkan peninsula of the time, has brought this traditional conception of Byron as a fi ghter for Greek freedom into question.2 At the same time, Byron’s ‘Eastern’ poetry has earned him a place in Edward Said’s compilation of authors who made ‘a signifi cant contribution to building the Orientalist discourse’,3 a view that has also come under criticism and one which requires further scrutiny. Harold’s adventure in Albania can be read as ‘orientalising’ in as far as it functions to perpetuate such conventional binary opposites as West and East, progress and stasis, experience and innocence, and so forth, but the stanzas on neighbouring Greece, which frame the experience at Ali Pasha’s court in the second canto, muddle the simple East/West opposition. Relying on theoretical models that emerged in response to Said’s seminal study Orientalism, such as Maria Todorova’s concept of ‘Balkanism’ and David Cannadine’s ‘Ornamentalism’, this essay seeks to off er a more nuanced reading of Byron’s encounter with the Ottoman-ruled Balkans. The Self/Other distinction, typical of travel narratives and foundational to the idea of Orientalism, will be re-examined and complicated in light of the contrast that is employed in Byron’s works between Greece as the cradle of Western civilization in decline and Albania as a novel site of discovery. While Said’s groundbreaking work has been criticized for portraying the West too monolithically and for defi ning it too exclusively in terms

BalkanIdentities: Nation andMemory. Edited by Maria Todorova. London: C. Hurst and Co., 2004. 374 pp. GBP45.00 cloth; GBP17.50 paper.

BalkanIdentities: Nation andMemory. Edited by Maria Todorova. London: C. Hurst and Co., 2004. 374 pp. GBP45.00 cloth; GBP17.50 paper.

The Balkans and the West: Constructing the European Other, 1945-2003 by Andrew s> Hammond (review)

REVIEWS 751 Grotowski.Lisa Di Bartolomeo arguesthat in his adaptation of Mickiewicz's PanTadeusz Wajdarecreatesremarkablythe writer'ssensibility,particularlyin his evocation of nature and his treatment of the concepts of nationhood and exile. Tadeusz Lubelski, on the other hand, writes about Wajda's selffictionalization , focusing on three examples, including Pan Tadeusz.An extremely ambitious form of inter-textuality and adaptation is covered by Tomasz Klys, who looks at the television series 'Asthe yearspass, as the days pass'. This is based on a play staged two years earlier,using the same actors, which in turn was based on nine literaryworks by several Polish Modernist writers,makingit well and trulyinter-textual. Quite a number of the contributorshere focus on the narrativecontent of the films,ratherthan makingformalanalyses.Izabela Kalinowskais amongst the minority who takes a refreshingly cinematic approach. Kalinowska discusses camera movement, the concept of the gaze and looking or being looked at. Kalinowska also investigates the meanings of home and exile in Wajda'sfilms, an idea which is continued in Michael Stevenson's contention that 'Home remains distant, a Polish dream almost mythically unattainable' (p. 79). Maureen Turim discussesthe forms of the ManofMarbleand Man of Iron,and poses the question: 'Can the pair of filmsfocus their deconstructive energieson the workof images as illusions,and stillhold to the cleansingvalue of new image production and reception?' (p. I02). The most personal contribution comes from Bjorn Sorenssen, who recalls his experience of watching Man ofMarblein Nowa Huta in I977. He discussesthe style of the film in terms of documentary,in a way which differsfrom, yet complements, Turim'schapter. This book worksbestwhen readin parts,ratherthan from cover to cover in order, but however it is approached it has a great deal to offer anyone with even a passinginterestin Wajda. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies MILENA MICHALSKI University College London Hammond, Andrew (ed.). TheBalkansandthe West.Constructing theEuropean Other,1945-2003. Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, VT, 2004. xxiii + 236 pp. Notes. Bibliography.Index. ?45.00. DESPITE the European Union's enlargement, European identities are still largely defined through national and regional discourses rather through collective, 'continental' values. Critically informed examinations of the cultural-symbolic and geopolitical parameters of historically determined regionsarethereforeofparamountimportance.The collection of essaysunder consideration focuses attention upon one of Europe's historically and politicallycontroversialareasand undertakesthe dauntingtaskof 'locat[ing], investigat[ing] and challeng[ing] the manner in which the Balkans and the Westhave constructedthemselvessince I945' (backcover). Militaryconflictsin formerYugoslaviain the I990S fuelleda new interestin what has ironicallybeen termed 'Europe'swild east'. This interestmanifested itselfinjournalism and travelwritingas well as in a number of criticalstudies 752 SEER, 83, 4, 2005 which addressed significant aspects of the Balkans'ideological construction and the complex processesresultingfrom the region'slove/hate relationships with the former 'greatpowers' and their latter-daysuccessors.The volume's Introductionand most of the essaysincluded in it buildupon some of the ideas and explore the implications of the most influential of those studies, Maria Todorova's Imagining theBalkans(New York and Oxford, 1997). Todorova's seminal book critically engages with select areas of postcolonial theory in order to historicizethe imaginative engendering of the Balkans,alert readers to blind spotswithinWesternrepresentationsof the region and drawattention to the complexity of Balkan self-images. Most contributors to the volume continue this tendency and their skillin identifying relevant critical insights within the postcolonial context and adapting them to the ambiguous terrain of the Balkans is among the collection's strong points. The editor likewise deservespraisefor endeavouringto sustaina dialogue between 'Western'and 'Balkan'voices throughoutthe volume. However, despite Hammond's good intentions and most contributors' competence and critical acumen, the book presents a number of problems that are, to my mind, also characteristic of other works on South-Eastern Europeproduced by academicswho are eitherworkingwithin the Britishand North American contexts or are heavily influenced by them. Thus the 'West' of the title is largelyAnglo-American in characterand few contributorsreferto any of the other cultures that are usually assumed to comprise 'Western civilization'.This tendsto circumscribethe scope of analysis.Besides,with the significantexception of Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers,most authorsrely on theoretical texts produced within le mondeanglophone and do not take into account studies of the Balkansproduced in other national and/or regional contexts. Curiously, no attempt is made in the Introduction...

Reviews of Books:Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory Maria Todorova

Reviews of Books:Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory Maria Todorova

Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory by Maria s> Todorova (review)

REVIEWS 36I curiously unprepared for the re-emergence of social interests and partisan politics at local level. Both aredepictedprimarilyaspathologicalimpediments to community modernization. Here, a more critical view of the culturallyembedded Czech and Slovak views of the obecas an autonomous organic community beyond politics might have yielded furtherinsights. Overall, however, LocalCommunities andPost-Communist Transformation represents a set of solid empirical research findings, enlivened by Simon Smith's more wide-ranging ideas, which will be of interestto specialistson the Czech Republic and Slovakia,local politics and micro-economic transformation. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies SEAN HANLEY University College London Todorova, Maria (ed.).Balkan Identities: NationandMemoy.Hurst&Company, London, 2004. x + 374 pp. Notes. Index. [45.00; [17.50. WHEN he looks towardsthe past, WalterBenjamin'sangel of historysees only 'a single catastrophe',not a 'chain of events'. Few metaphors, one is tempted to argue, epitomize more forcefullythe dominant perceptions of the Balkan past. In fact, views of an unchanging past of unremittinghorrorhave become so entrenched, that even the name 'Balkan' is being forced out, as Balkan states (and scholars)increasinglyseek refuge under the more convenient roof of 'Central'or 'SoutheasternEurope'. It would appear that even the Balkans wish to escape from themselves. In her introduction to this impressive collection of studies, Maria Todorova acknowledges that 'the guiding principle'behind this volume is an 'attemptto normalisethe Balkans ... .] in the scholarlyfield' (p. 17). She is eminently qualified to preside over such an undertaking, for her own seminal work Imagining theBalkans(Oxford, I997) has gone a long way in analysing the construction of the Balkans by the Western imagination. The task itself is daunting enough, and encounters serious obstacles: Balkan studies are largely fragmented, and locked into ethnocentric narratives that leave little room for comparative approaches, while few specialistswould masterthe necessarylanguagesand vast secondary literaturesof adjacentfieldsthatwould allow for an interdisciplinaryanalysis. BalkanIdentities is a highly competent attempt to redress many of these imbalances. Its main aim is to explore the local and national politics of memory and the mechanismsthat construct,celebrate, internalizeand diffuse it. This is an important subject for, although all nations dream, the Balkans have mostly nightmares.The book, product of a conference sponsoredby the Centre for Democracy and Reconciliation in (predictably?)South-Eastern Europe,bringstogethersixteen contributionsfromhistorians,anthropologists and literary scholars, structuredaround three parts. The firstdeals with the social production of memories and national identities, and includes perceptions of the past by individualsand diasporiccommunities (LeylaNeyzi on an Alevi-Kurdish girl from eastern Turkey, and Nergis Canefe on TurkishCypriot 'sperception of their past);the central role of the Kosovo epic in the moulding of Serbian nationalism (sensitively discussed by Milica BakicHayden ); the 'ambivalence' which Shannan Peckham detects in the attitude 362 SEER, 83, 2, 2005 of the modernGreekstatetowardsits regions:considering them'authentic spaces'but at the sametime requiring'taming'(p. 57);an anthropological analysisof theroleof narratives inAlbania(Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers), andasubtlediscussion ofthewayinwhichBulgarian literature, historiography and film engagewith the sensitiveissueof Bulgarianconversionsto Islam duringthe periodof Ottomanrule (MariaTodorova).The secondpartis tightlyorganizedaroundthe subjectof heroesandtheirmonuments. Many Balkanheroes,likediamonds,areforever,buttheirglittervariesovertime, andtheiruseschangeasnationalnarratives stepin to fashionandre-fashion them, to claim them as 'nationalheroes',or to vilifythem as despicable 'traitors'. Inthisfascinating sectionJosipJelacic% (DunjaRihtman-Augustin), PavlosMelas (AnastasiaKarakasidou) and Boris Sarafov(Keith Brown) receivemulti-layered andtheoretically alerttreatment. IvanColovicdiscusses the transformation of criminalsinto national heroes during the recent Yugoslav wars,andMariaBucuroffersa perceptive analysis of thepoliticsof remembrance intwentieth-century Romania.Thefinalpartofthebookdeals withthemechanisms oftransmission ofnationalidentity bycloselyexamining an importantconveyor-belt:history textbooksin Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria (byDubravka Stojanovic, Mirela-Luminita Murgescu andAlexander Kiossev).This section includesa wide-rangingexplorationof an elusive animal(GreekidentitybyCostaCarras), anda genuinelycomparative study byDianaMishkova, on howtheSerbianandRomanianpoliticalelitesofthe nineteenthcenturypositionedthemselvesbetweenthe discreet(andnot so discreet)charmof Westernization and an attachmentto theirown "'inner contents" '(p. 287). Manyeditedbooksofferlessthanthesumoftheirparts.Happily,thisisnot the case here. Most of the chaptersare firmlyclusteredaroundconcrete subjects, allowing forthemainthreadsofthebooktoemergeclearly,withthe addedbenefitof not beingdisfigured byjargon.The carpingreviewermay have askedfor cross-references linkingthe individualchapters,and would regret some omissions.Scanderbeg,the fifteenth-century Christianhero claimedbybothAlbanians andGreeksastheirkinin thenineteenth century, adornsthecoverofthebook,butnotitscontents.Bothhe,andGoceDelchev, whosebonesweretransferred fromSofiato Skopjein the 1940Sbutwhose allegiancesmay had travelledthe oppositeway, offer good examplesof contestedmemoriesandidentities. Thebreathandgeographical scopeofthe book,however,whichcoverstheentireregion,morethancompensate forthe inevitable omissions. Thatsaid,theinclusion ofTurkey meritssomediscussion. Obviously, theOttomanlegacyisofparamount importance, butwhetherthe modernTurkishrepublicis partof the Balkansremainsdebatable.On the whole,thissolidandtheoretically informed volumeisanimportant contributiontoafieldthatsorelylacksapproaches thatstraddle borders anddisciplines. Histogy Department D. LIVANIOS Brown University, Providence, RI ...

The Balkans: Identities, Wars, Memories

Neven Andjelić, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The End of a Tragedy (London: Frank Cass, 2003), 228 pp., $34.95 (pb), ISBN 0-7146-8431-7.Tom Gallagher, The Balkans after the Cold War. From Tyranny to Tragedy (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), 256 pp., $114.95 (hb), ISBN 0-415-27763-9.John Lampe and Mark Mazower, eds., Ideologies and National Identities. The Case of Twentieth-Century Southeastern Europe (Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2004), 309 pp., $23.95 (pb), ISBN 9639241822.James Pettifer, ed., The New Macedonian Question (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave and St. Martin's Press, 1999), 311 pp., $24.95 (pb), ISBN 0-333-92066-X.Michael Parenti, To Kill a Nation. The Attack on Yugoslavia (London and New York: Verso, 2000), 246 pp., $10.00 (pb), ISBN 1-85984-366-2.Maria Todorova, ed., Balkan Identities: Nation and Memory (London: Hurst & Co., 2004), 374 pp., £17.50 (pb), ISBN 1-850-65715-7.Emerging from the obscurity of old-fashioned, specialised ‘area studies’, since 1989 the Balkans have attracted much attention from historians. The primary reason for that has been, tragically, the war in Yugoslavia and the emergence of a postwar order. Even the post-communist transitions (in Romania, Bulgaria and Albania) attracted less attention. Nevertheless, the field benefited substantially from the increased interest in the area, and lively debates took place on contested issues, sparked not least by hasty initial schemata (and stigmata) used by outside observers, such as ‘ancient hatreds’ and the like. Parallel to the attention paid to what was going on in Yugoslavia, and perhaps more productively in the long run, was the postmodern, postcolonial approach to Balkan history, inspired by Maria Todorova's Imagining the Balkans, which followed Edward Said's monumental Orientalism and appeared parallel to Larry Wolff's Inventing Eastern Europe. Such refreshing studies of Western representations of the region were later complemented by the internal perspective of how such representations were received, and coped with, in the region. A profusion of ‘cultural studies’ in the broadest sense followed, reflecting both the ongoing reshaping of Balkan identities and outside demand for such studies.

The Uses of Balkanism: Representation and Power in British Travel Writing, 1850-1914

THE SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW Volume82, Number3 July 2004 The Uses of Balkanism: Representation and Power in British Travel Writing, I 850- 9 I4 ANDREW HAMMOND IN the scholarship on balkanism that has emerged over the last ten yearsthereisinsufficientanalysisof the relationbetween representation andpower. On theactualformthatbalkanismhastakenthescholarship is detailedand largelyunanimous,with MariaTodorova,Milica BakicHayden , Vesna Goldsworthyand otherslocating a conceptual framework composed of violence, discordand backwardnesswhich delimits the antitype of the enlightened West. Yet the functions and material effectsof balkanistrepresentationare rarelyanalysedin depth, and are at times omitted altogether.' The oddity of the omission is clear when one recalls that the roots of this branch of critical inquiry lie in the poststructuralistfield of colonial discourseanalysisinspiredby Edward Said's Orientalism (I979). As Said'sworkexemplified,herewas a critical school dedicated to exposing the ways in which the West'sunderstanding of other cultures vindicates and advances forms of power, particularlycolonialism.2For balkanism, it is as if the general lack of directWesterncolonization of the region has crippleddiscussionof the power relationsunderlyingrepresentation.This is illustratedby K. E. Fleming's 'Orientalism, the Balkans, and Balkan Historiography', in which the commonalities and contrasts between orientalism and Andrew Hammond is a Lecturer in Twentieth-Century Literature at the Swansea Institute, University of Wales. ' See Goldsworthy's thesis in her Inventing Ruritania:7he Imperialism oftheImagination, New Haven, CT and London, I998. 2 Said defined orientalism, for example, as the 'Western style for dominating, restructuring , and having authority over the Orient': Said, Orientalism, new edn, London, 1995, p. 3. 602 THE USES OF BALKANISM balkanism are explored. Despite some insightful points, the article markedlyfails to analyseWesterninterestsin South-EastEurope, and consequently undermines Fleming's stated belief that this kind of Balkan scholarship can 'expand ...] and elucidate the theoretical categories of inquiry first developed by [postcolonialism]'.3 In this essay I will contend not only that very strong systemsof political and economic domination are facilitated by balkanist writings, and are thereforein urgentneed of analysis,but thatsuchpower systemsreveal similaritiesin styleand effectto those of classiccolonialism. The point can be seen in the context of Britishtravelwriting of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was in this period that South-EastEurope fullyemerged in the Britishgeographicalimagination as a peripheralzone of barbarismand conflict,particularlyvia the journals of travellers,4and also that such imagining began to interact with a rapidly burgeoning political engagement on the part of the Britishstate. This is not to suggest,of course, thatVictorian balkanism was ever systematized as a discourse, or had its aims singularly determined. In contrast to the territorialacquisition and rule legitimized by colonialist writing, the forms of political power achieving vindication through balkanist paradigms were ambiguous, shifting patterns of diplomatic and economic strategy that differed between political party and political party and from one administrationto the next. Indeed, the geostrategicconcern thatBritaincame to know asthe EasternQuestion was, by itsvery appellation,definedless by historical events than by their provocation of controversy and debate.5 The Victorian travelwriters'mindfulnessof that debate, and characteristic determination to participate, produced a constant source of relevant information, but hardly clarified the issue. The bewildering political stances a contemporaryreadercould find in the travelliteratureof the era included supportforDisraeli, supportfor Gladstone,pro-Austrianism , anti-Austrianism, Turkophilia, Turkophobia, and a particularly rabid anti-Russianism. A number of memoirs even found their way towards heartfelt censure of British diplomatic policy (though this never went so far as to question Britain's right to intervene in the 'Near East'). In the light of such apparent confusion, one might well ask how the 3 Fleming, 'Orientalism, the Balkans, and Balkan Historiography', American Historical Review, 105, 2000, 4, pp. 12I8-234 (hereafter, Fleming, 'Orientalism') (p. 1220). 4 Maria Todorova captures the flavour of this writing well: see Todorova, Imaginingthe Balkans,Oxford and New York, 1997, pp. 89-I 15. I E. F. G. Law even wrote on the 'Near Eastern Question' that 'absolute impartiality is hardly to be looked for in a matter so replete with controversial issues, so pre-eminently calculated to excite passion and prejudice' (Law, 'Preface' to Allen Upward, TheEastEndof Europe. The Reportof an Unofficial Mission to theEuropeanProvincesof Turke)on theEve of the Revolution, London, I908 [hereafter, Upward, EastEnd],p. vii). ANDREW HAMMOND 603 will-to-knowledgein such writingscould have possibly translatedinto supportfor any specificmanifestationof power. The...

Southeastern Europe as a Historical Meso-region: Constructing Space in Twentieth-Century German Historiography

This essay gives an overview on the notion ‘Southeastern Europe’ as the underlying space concept for political projects in interwar Germany as well as for the German historiography on this area since 1918. More extensively covered are the first steps of institutionalised research on Southeastern Europe in the early 1930s, pointing out the tension between a Germano-centric vision of Southeastern Europe as German ‘Kulturboden’ or as part of an informal economic Empire and a region in its own right. Second, the paper discusses a controversy between Maria Todorova and Holm Sundhaussen on the process of space construction itself and on how to define best the Balkans resp. Southeastern Europe. The author argues for further on using concepts of historical meso-regions (Geschichtsregionen) such as Southeastern Europe, at the same time being aware of their constructive nature.

On the Edge of Reason: The Boundaries of Balkanism in Slovenian, Austrian, and Italian Discourse

In this article Patrick Patterson offers new perspectives on the critique of Balkanist discourse elaborated recently by Maria Todorova and others. Examining Slovenian, Austrian, and Italian commentary on contemporary southeastern Europe, Patterson concludes that Slovenia's “western” neighbors did not wholeheartedly embrace the campaign by some influential Slovenes to distance their society from other, purportedly “Balkan,” Yugoslavs. Although Balkanism marked the discourse of all three countries, Italian and Austrian opinion often rejected important implications of the Slovenes' exceptionalist rhetoric. Ultimately, the internal dynamics of Austrian and Italian identity and political culture trumped the Balkan - ist logic behind Slovenes' claims to a uniquely “central European” character. Moreover, even in Slovenian sources, Balkanist rhetoric proved less dominant and consistent than the prevailing critique admits. Accordingly, that critique, which treats Balkanism as a rigid, uniform, pervasive, and virtually inescapable “power discourse” of hegemony, should be revised to account for forces that may limit or subvert its power.

The Burden of the Balkans

At outbreak of First Balkan War in 1912, a young political correspondent left Vienna on 25th of April, traveling by train to Belgrade. Although he had visited Balkans before, he was still impressed with natural beauty of landscape, and still intrigued with what he called this multicultural, motley, culturally and politically confused East. Aboard train, he observed, first and second class carriages were occupied by middle-class passengers, clean-shaven and rather homogenous in appearance. Third class carriages, by contrast, were filled with a mix of peoples communicating in an incredible language made up of Bulgarian, German, Serbian, and French words. Throughout his writings on Balkan War, this journalist-and activist-- consistently referred to Balkans as the East. This imagery seems to have been provoked by spectacle of violence, and a pervasive injurious sense of lack expressed among populace, set in a context of unresolved conflict. The correspondent repeatedly comments on lack of industry in countries he visits. His commentaries on backwardness of peasantry are reminiscent of Marx's now infamous analogy to a sack of potatoes. The autocratic character of Balkan monarchies (installed by European monarchs), and behavior of their armies, compelled him to conclude that mere departure of Ottoman rule did not make Balkans European. While some cities, such as Belgrade, show him signs of modernization, possessed with vitality of political and cultural life, his impression of countryside is that it remains so distant from modernity, inhabited by ignorant peasants whom also comprised bulk of army recruits. Such descriptions, I'm afraid, are all too familiar on Balkan scene even today. During last decade or so, many of us have read accounts by Western journalists and travelers, diplomats and politicians, or scholars and humanitarian aid workers, that give similar impressions of Balkans: a multicultural Babel that just might be chaotic enough to make peaceful co-existence an impossibility. Maria Todorova has crafted an excellent historical analysis of ways Europeans have imagined Balkans over past two centuries. And there has been some lively discussion of how discourses of Balkanism have been employed in Western gaze over this troubled region. There are a great number of arenas in which such discourses are expressed and performed. Today, I would like to turn our critical gaze to one such arena, that of international The Roots of Neo-Diplomatic Dependency Contemporary observers of Balkans may also find familiarity in, or perhaps even sympathy with, this early twentieth-century correspondent's acerbic commentary on bankruptcy of European diplomacy. The First Balkan War became inevitable, he claimed, as efforts of Great European Powers to create new political states went awry. He charged that there was never any genuine effort to address economic needs and cultural development of Balkan peoples. Europeans, he argued, have an abstract and moralistic humanitarian view of Balkans, and a rather paternalistic hope to find a way to help a few different tribes live together peacefully. Such characterizations will be familiar to those who study history of European colonial empires. The product of this approach, he suggested, would be a hereditary object of European This is not a comforting prediction, yet in a sense it is precisely what we have witnessed. European history regards many of Balkan states as officially created in 1878, at Congress of Berlin, following Russo-Turkish War. They scratched lines with their fingernails to their heart's content, political correspondent reflected sarcastically, thus setting fate of nations. To him, world was heading with evolutionary inevitability toward creation of petty states within a grander universalizing system, and doing so at expense of cultural, social, and economic diversity. …

Between Europe and the Balkans: Mapping Slovenia and Croatia's ``Return to Europe'' in the 1990s

This essay traces the ongoing discursive processes through which two former Yugoslav states — Croatia and Slovenia — framed their so-called “exit from the Balkans” and “return to Europe” throughout the 1990s. Applying Maria Todorova's framework of “Balkanism” to these two cases, the essay examines how leaders sought recognition as belonging to Europe, or Central Europe, by defining their respective national identities in opposition to Balkan or Yugoslav ones. What distinguishes Balkanism from other critical traditions such as Orientalism is that the Balkans are located in a distinctively liminal position: at the same time part of Europe as well as its antithetical periphery, the “other” within. This in-between position can often lead to contradictory identity constructions, whereby an insistence on concretizing one's Europeanness coincides with a certain awareness that this European status is never ontologically secure. The essay concludes by considering ways in which the Balkans can be re-imagined, reassembling diverse fragments of Balkan identity into a site for positive engagement and critique.

Book Reviews

Nations and NationalismVolume 6, Issue 3 p. 461-487 Book Reviews First published: 16 April 2004 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1354-5078.2000.00461.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract Books reviewed in this article: Mehta Uday Singh, Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought. Patricia M. E. Lorcin, Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria. Ghassan Hage, White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society. B. G. Verghese, India's Northeast Resurgent: Ethnicity, Insurgency, Governance, Development. Roderick Stackelberg, Hitler's Germany: Origins, Interpretations, Legacies. Maria Todorova, Imagining the Balkans. Yitzhak M. Brudny, Reinventing Russia: Russian Nationalism and the Soviet State, 1953–1991. Bohdan Nahaylo, The Ukrainian Resurgence. Alfons Cucó, El Valencianisme Politic: 1874–1939. Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.), The Armenian People: From Ancient to Modern Times, vol. I, The Dynastic Periods: From Antiquity to the Fourteenth Century; vol. II, Foreign Domination to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century. Hugh Poulton, Top Hat, Grey Wolf and Crescent: Turkish Nationalism and the Turkish Republic. Robert K. Schaeffer, Severed States: Dilemmas of Democracy in a Divided World. New York, Thomas D. Musgrave, Self-Determination and National Minorities. Volume6, Issue3July 2000Pages 461-487 RelatedInformation

Imperial Legacy: The Ottoman Imprint on the Balkans and the Middle East.

1. The Background: An Introduction, by L. Carl Brown Part 1: Perceptions and Parallels 2. The Meaning of Legacy: The Ottoman Case, by Halil Inalcik 3. The Problem of Perceptions, by Norman Itzkowitz Part 2: The Arab World and the Balkans 4. The Ottoman Legacy in the Balkans, by Maria Todorova 5. Yougoslavia's Disintegration and the Ottoman Past, by Dennison Rusinow 6. Memory, Heritage, and History: The Ottomans and the Arabs, by Karl K. Barbir 7. The Ottoman Legacy in Arab Political Boundaries, by Andre Raymond Part 3: The Political Dimension 8. The Ottoman Legacy and the Middle East State Tradition, by Ergun Ozbudun 9. The Ottoman Administrative Legacy and the Modern Middle East, by Carter Vaughn Findley 10. Ottoman Diplomacy and its Legacy, by Roderic H. Davison Part 4: The Imperial Language 11. The Ottoman Legacy to Contemporary Political Arabic, by Bernard Lewis 12. The Ottoman Legacy in Language, by Geoffrey Lewis Part 5: Europe, Economics and War 13. The Economic Legacy, by Charles Issaw 14. The Military Legacy, by Dankwart A. Rustow Part 6: Religion and Culture 15. Islam and the Ottoman Legacy in the Modern Middle East, by William Ochsenwald 16. The Ottoman Educational Legacy: Myth or Reality?, by Joseph Szyliowicz 17 Epilogue, by L. Carl Brown