Slavic Unity Research Articles

The Stereotypes of Other Slavic Peoples in Contemporary Macedonian Prose

This paper explores the specific relation of ambiguity with the other Slavic peoples, reflected in some concrete works from Macedonian literature. First of all, it gives some details, analyses and thoughts about the enigma of Slavic Unity, or the philological concept, or whatever it is. The paper constitutes an effort to demonstrate that in Macedonian culture there is a controversial attitude towards the concept of Slavism, and that the stereotypes connected with it give material to speak about the tendency of re-evaluation of this idea, from the level of cultural community to the level of absolute diversity. The stereotypes of the other Slavic peoples show two opposite tensions: first, they show the close, familiar and friendly approach, and from the other side, they confirm that there is strong ironical and critical, even phobic position. The topics of the discussion are drawn from The Enigmatic Concept of Slavism,The Image of the Russian and Ukrainian Immigrant in the Macedonian Novel and The Stereotype of the Slavic Woman. Those topics are discussed in the examples drawn from contemporary Macedonian literature, or more precisely in the following works: the drama The Slavic Coffin (1996) by Venko Andonovski, and the novels Aquamarin (2004) by Tanja Urosevik, The Wife of the Whiteguard (2001) by Srbo Ivanovski, and Prostate Juice (1990) by Jovan Pavlovski. The conclusion of the paper is that the Slavism as historical and philological cultural community should be evaluated only with a comprehensive understanding of the diversity of many various national identities.