Imagining the Balkans

Made by: Boris Simonovski

Course name: Postcolonial Literature Professor: Dr Kalina Maleska

 Before we continue with the presentation, let’s make this atmosphere more stress-
free and entertaining…
 Title: “Imagining the Balkans”
Author: Maria Todorova
Publisher/Publication date: Oxford University
Press, 1997/ 2009 (Updated Edition)
Interesting facts:
•Research field: History of the Balkans in the modern period
•Her most celebrated work is “Imagining the Balkans”
•Current research revolves around problems of nationalism, especially the symbolism of
nationalism, national memory and national heroes in Bulgaria and the Balkans
•Job positions: Professor of History (University of Sofia), Sabanci University (Istanbul),
University of Florida, University of Graz (Austria), University of Illinois (full-time)
•Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship (2000) and Doctor Honoris Causa of the European
University Institute (Florence, Italy, 2006)
Maria Todorova (1949 - )
•“To my parents, from whom I learned to love the Balkans without the need to be proud or Birthplace: Sofia, Bulgaria
ashamed of them” (“Imagining the Balkans”) Occupation: Professor of
History
Alma Mater: University of
Sofia (“St. Kliment Ohridski”)
  Historical references from various diplomats, travelers (their travel essays and
accounts of their visits in the Balkans (different accounts, similar notions/ Reports
by “The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace”,1st and 2nd Balkan Wars)

 Edward Said’s Orientalism as a main influence and building block for her
definition of the Balkans and Balkanism (The Balkans, as Western Europe’s Imago
Mundi1 of a mirrored Other with barbarity, backwardness, instability, (constant)
geo-political conflicts)

 “This book argues that Balkanism is not merely a subspecies of Orientalism”

(Todorova, 8)

 Comparison between Said’s Orientalism and Balkanism

1 Imago Mundi lat. Image of the World

  “Balkanism” had first appeared around the Balkan Wars and WW1. (Kulavkova makes similar claims to
Todorova’s statement; ,,Терминот се формира по конфликтите на Балканите во XX век. Прваата
балканизација е изведена во тек на Балканските војни, а терминот повторно се актуализира во
Југословенските Војни” (Kulavkova, 47)
 “Balkanization” not only had come to denote the parcelization of large and viable political units but also had
become a synonym for a reversion to the tribal, the backward, the primitive, the barbarian” (Todorova, 3)
 Kulavkova: parcelisation is also responsible for the division of “us” and “other”/”sth foreign”, aversion towards
the “other”, xenophobia, violation of legal norms that had once been recognised in the region, failure (for the
units) to cooperate (Kulavkova, 47)

A, što zna' ja, a da znam podijelio bih

Ovu moju državu na šest republika
Ali tako da Podgorica bude glavni grad
I da svaki dan bude neradni
Osim petka kad bi radili
Na pripremi odmora za vikend

A spoof of parcelisation/balkanization
(Kulavkova also connects it w/ “Divide et
impera” / ,,Раздели па владеј”
 ,,Туѓинецот, виден низ призмата на варварството или инојазичноста, е карактеристична балканска
митема” (Kulavkova, 50)

 The “civilized world” (the term is introduced not ironically but as a self-proclaimed label) was first seriously
upset with the Balkans at the time of the Balkan wars (1912–1913) (Todorova, 3)

 Differences between Orientalism and Balkanism:

 1. “Historical and geographic concreteness of the Balkans as opposed to the intangible nature of the Orient.”
(Todorova, 11) / Said disapproves of the Orient’s existence, but at the same time acknowledges its existence
by attacking it
2. The Orient (East) as Escapism for Western Europeans, symbol of exoticism and
fantasies.
3. Orient = Discourse focused on the feminine;
Balkan = Male-oriented

 “The Balkans, on the other hand, with their unimaginative concreteness, and almost total lack of wealth,
induced a straightforward attitude, usually negative, but rarely nuanced. There was some exception at the time
of romantic nationalism in the words and deeds of philhellenes or slavophiles, but these efforts were
extremely short-lived and usually touched on the freedom component, totally devoid of the mystery of
exoticism” (Todorova, 14).
 Can anyone think of such example (of overly romanticised Balkan nationalism) ?

 Hint: We studied him in English Poetry, a famous writer and patriot/Philhellen, died young?
 George Gordon Byron (d. 1824, Missolonghi)
 Died during the Greek War
of Independence (1821-1832); National hero
 “It is, thus, not an innate characteristic of the Balkans that bestows on it the air of mystery but the reflected
light of the Orient” (Todorova, 15)

 4. “The Balkans, on the other hand, have always evoked the image of a bridge or a crossroad”… “Balkans
have been compared to a bridge between East and West, between Europe and Asia” (Todorova, 15,16)
Examples:
 (5) “The Balkans are also a bridge between stages of growth, and this invokes labels such as semideveloped, semicolonial, semicivilized, semioriental”
(Todorova, 16) <- Ambiguity; Developing countries (in-between, incomplete Other, incomplete Self)

 5. “Unlike orientalism, which is a discourse about an imputed opposition, balkanism is a discourse about an imputed ambiguity” (Todorova, 17)

 ..Се разбира, Марија Тодорова не сака со тоа да каже дека балканизмот е ,,некаква поткатегорија” на ориентализмот опишан кај Саид, туку
настојува да го дефинира како дискурзивна стратегија со посебен режим на доминација и удвоен претставувачки механизам: од една страна како
репрезентација (Балканот како источно-европска периферија) а од друга страна како авторепрезентација (Балканот во его-дискурсите на
националните самоидентификации)” (Бановиќ-Марковска, 103)

 6. t is my thesis that while orientalism is dealing with a difference between (imputed) types, balkanism treats the differences within one type. (Todorova, 18)

 In the realm of ideas, balkanism evolved partly as a reaction to the disappointment of the West Europeans’ “classical” expectations in the Balkans, but it was a
disappointment within a paradigm that had already been set as separate from the oriental (Todorova, 20)
Discussion Q: Are you satisfied with the portrayal of the Balkans in popular
media ((music) videos, movies, TV Shows, books, paintings, video games…)?
Taken from: Things Not To Say To Eastern European People (YouTube)
 Bibliography:

Latin:

 Todorova, M. Imagining the Balkans, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Cyrilic:

 Бановиќ-Марковска, А. Дискурс и Екскурс (За книжевноста и културата), Скопје: Матица Македонска,

2017.

 Ќулавкова, К. Балкански Наративи, Скопје: ИЦ Три, 2018.

Thank you for your participation and attention, you were all great!