Pavlos Hatzopoulos THE BALKANS BEYOND NATIONALISM AND IDENTITY
INTRODUCTION
This book emanated from a reaction against the derogatory representations of the Balkans that have (re-)emerged forcefully since the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s. The Balkans have been rigidly associated with backwardness, with extraordinary violence, with incessant strife. These traits have also been projected back into the history of the region, as if it had nothing substantial to show but them. Nationalism has been posited as the central concept that organises these representations. Nationalism has been considered, in other words, as the quintessential feature of Balkan societies and as the principal explanatory framework through which the past and the present of the Balkans is to be narrated. In this respect, the book challenges the notion of a primary connection between Balkans and nationalism, the depiction of nationalism as a near omnipotent force in modern Balkan history.
To challenge these representations looks to be quite straightforward from an empiricist perspective. The argument that ‘all that there is in the Balkans, is essentially nationalist’ can be accused of reductionism. An obvious way to show it would be to raise other, alternative voices, projects, movements, ideologies which have been active in the Balkan region. Although this may look at first as a relatively easy task, it is not. The study of the Balkans has been overwhelmingly conducted around a consensus on the primacy of the category of nationalism. As a result these alternative directions have either rarely been taken or they have often been interpreted as ultimately succumbing in various ways to the supposedly overarching influence of nationalism. There can be no serious objection, of course, that nationalism has and is still playing a significant role in the Balkans. The book does not in any way deny this fact, but it aims at retrieving dynamics that have been effaced by the prevalence of a nation-centric conception of the Balkans.
In the attempt to move beyond the nationalist horizon, the book discusses three ideologies as they have been articulated in the Balkans during the inter-war period. All three are termed as ‘non-nationalist ideologies’. The analysis of communism, liberal internationalism, and agrarianism in the Balkans is not comprehensive, in the sense that it does not aim to cover their entire breadth, their internal heterogeneity, or their internal variations. The tendency of the scarce secondary literature on the subject has been to pay attention primarily to the nationalist connotations of these ideologies in the Balkan setting. As one writer, characteristically asked in 1961: ‘Will the Communist empire absorb the Balkans, or will the Balkans absorb and “Balkanize” communism’ – both options precluding the coexistence of communism and the Balkans. Although, this type of reading cannot be rejected altogether, I will attempt to show that it is at least limited in scope. The principal argument of the book is that it is not possible to subsume the past and the present of the Balkans under the nationalist umbrella.
This volume intends, along these lines, to detect the moments of conflict between the communist, liberal internationalist, and agrarian ideologies, on the one hand, and nationalism on the other. In this respect, the analysis focuses on the ways in which the communist, liberal internationalist, and agrarian ideologies functioned as alternative possibilities to the nationalist framework. The conflicts between nationalism and these non-nationalisms are placed on the terrain of ideology. Ideology is analysed through concepts introduced in the work of Louis Althusser. Nonnationalist ideologies are accordingly recognised to have a material existence: they are embodied, in other words, in institutions and practices that clashed with the national ones. Ideological conflicts also entail the operation of conflicting interpellations. The non-nationalist ideologies under study form the constitution of subjects that would be disengaged in various degrees from a primary attachment to the national community.
The volume sheds light on other ideologies, and attempts to show how these ideologies have contested nationalism in the Balkans. The discussion aims, however, to move a step further and to draw some additional conclusions from a theoretical perspective. The discussion of non-nationalist ideologies in the inter-war years illustrates how the prevalent view advocating the primacy of nationalism in the Balkans has entrenched a fixed notion of the Balkans themselves. It is therefore considered as a pressing theoretical task to problematise this notion.
In this respect, the book shares the basic premises of what has been called the critical study of Balkanism. Balkanism has been established since the mid-1990s through the work produced mainly in the English speaking world by writers of Balkan origin. It has sought to explain and simultaneously criticise ‘the persistence of such a frozen image’ of the Balkans. Balkanism refers to ‘a system of representation based on the historical perception of the Balkans by colonial rulers’. Maria Todorova, who has coined the term, has contended that the critical task with respect to Balkanism is to ask the question of whether there is a concrete existence of the Balkans beyond this system of representation. Adopting a similar strategy of moving beyond Balkanism, the book treats the Balkans as a political concept. This conception opens up the space for the analysis of the Balkans as a contested term. As shown in the discussion of communism, liberal internationalism, and agrarianism in the inter-war years, the Balkans have been articulated in diverse modes by different conflicting ideologies. In this sense, there is nothing inherent about any particular conception of the Balkans, but they should be analysed by focusing on the ideological struggle for their articulation. Before discussing in more detail how the book develops from this point of departure, it is necessary to situate my approach in the body of knowledge about the Balkans.
Source:
https://www.academia.edu/10385760/The_Balkans_beyond_Nationalism?email_work_card=view-paper
INTRODUCTION
This book emanated from a reaction against the derogatory representations of the Balkans that have (re-)emerged forcefully since the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s. The Balkans have been rigidly associated with backwardness, with extraordinary violence, with incessant strife. These traits have also been projected back into the history of the region, as if it had nothing substantial to show but them. Nationalism has been posited as the central concept that organises these representations. Nationalism has been considered, in other words, as the quintessential feature of Balkan societies and as the principal explanatory framework through which the past and the present of the Balkans is to be narrated. In this respect, the book challenges the notion of a primary connection between Balkans and nationalism, the depiction of nationalism as a near omnipotent force in modern Balkan history.
To challenge these representations looks to be quite straightforward from an empiricist perspective. The argument that ‘all that there is in the Balkans, is essentially nationalist’ can be accused of reductionism. An obvious way to show it would be to raise other, alternative voices, projects, movements, ideologies which have been active in the Balkan region. Although this may look at first as a relatively easy task, it is not. The study of the Balkans has been overwhelmingly conducted around a consensus on the primacy of the category of nationalism. As a result these alternative directions have either rarely been taken or they have often been interpreted as ultimately succumbing in various ways to the supposedly overarching influence of nationalism. There can be no serious objection, of course, that nationalism has and is still playing a significant role in the Balkans. The book does not in any way deny this fact, but it aims at retrieving dynamics that have been effaced by the prevalence of a nation-centric conception of the Balkans.
In the attempt to move beyond the nationalist horizon, the book discusses three ideologies as they have been articulated in the Balkans during the inter-war period. All three are termed as ‘non-nationalist ideologies’. The analysis of communism, liberal internationalism, and agrarianism in the Balkans is not comprehensive, in the sense that it does not aim to cover their entire breadth, their internal heterogeneity, or their internal variations. The tendency of the scarce secondary literature on the subject has been to pay attention primarily to the nationalist connotations of these ideologies in the Balkan setting. As one writer, characteristically asked in 1961: ‘Will the Communist empire absorb the Balkans, or will the Balkans absorb and “Balkanize” communism’ – both options precluding the coexistence of communism and the Balkans. Although, this type of reading cannot be rejected altogether, I will attempt to show that it is at least limited in scope. The principal argument of the book is that it is not possible to subsume the past and the present of the Balkans under the nationalist umbrella.
This volume intends, along these lines, to detect the moments of conflict between the communist, liberal internationalist, and agrarian ideologies, on the one hand, and nationalism on the other. In this respect, the analysis focuses on the ways in which the communist, liberal internationalist, and agrarian ideologies functioned as alternative possibilities to the nationalist framework. The conflicts between nationalism and these non-nationalisms are placed on the terrain of ideology. Ideology is analysed through concepts introduced in the work of Louis Althusser. Nonnationalist ideologies are accordingly recognised to have a material existence: they are embodied, in other words, in institutions and practices that clashed with the national ones. Ideological conflicts also entail the operation of conflicting interpellations. The non-nationalist ideologies under study form the constitution of subjects that would be disengaged in various degrees from a primary attachment to the national community.
The volume sheds light on other ideologies, and attempts to show how these ideologies have contested nationalism in the Balkans. The discussion aims, however, to move a step further and to draw some additional conclusions from a theoretical perspective. The discussion of non- nationalist ideologies in the inter-war years illustrates how the prevalent view advocating the primacy of nationalism in the Balkans has entrenched a fixed notion of the Balkans themselves. It is therefore considered as a pressing theoretical task to problematise this notion.
In this respect, the book shares the basic premises of what has been called the critical study of Balkanism. Balkanism has been established since the mid-1990s through the work produced mainly in the English speaking world by writers of Balkan origin. It has sought to explain and simultaneously criticise ‘the persistence of such a frozen image’ of the Balkans. Balkanism refers to ‘a system of representation based on the historical perception of the Balkans by colonial rulers’. Maria Todorova, who has coined the term, has contended that the critical task with respect to Balkanism is to ask the question of whether there is a concrete existence of the Balkans beyond this system of representation. Adopting a similar strategy of moving beyond Balkanism, the book treats the Balkans as a political concept. This conception opens up the space for the analysis of the Balkans as a contested term. As shown in the discussion of communism, liberal internationalism, and agrarianism in the inter-war years, the Balkans have been articulated in diverse modes by different conflicting ideologies. In this sense, there is nothing inherent about any particular conception of the Balkans, but they should be analysed by focusing on the ideological struggle for their articulation. Before discussing in more detail how the book develops from this point of departure, it is necessary to situate my approach in the body of knowledge about the Balkans.
Source: https://www.academia.edu/10385760/The_Balkans_beyond_Nationalism?email_work_card=view-paper
INTRODUCTION
This book emanated from a reaction against the derogatory representations of the Balkans that have (re-)emerged forcefully since the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s. The Balkans have been rigidly associated with backwardness, with extraordinary violence, with incessant strife. These traits have also been projected back into the history of the region, as if it had nothing substantial to show but them. Nationalism has been posited as the central concept that organises these representations. Nationalism has been considered, in other words, as the quintessential feature of Balkan societies and as the principal explanatory framework through which the past and the present of the Balkans is to be narrated. In this respect, the book challenges the notion of a primary connection between Balkans and nationalism, the depiction of nationalism as a near omnipotent force in modern Balkan history.
To challenge these representations looks to be quite straightforward from an empiricist perspective. The argument that ‘all that there is in the Balkans, is essentially nationalist’ can be accused of reductionism. An obvious way to show it would be to raise other, alternative voices, projects, movements, ideologies which have been active in the Balkan region. Although this may look at first as a relatively easy task, it is not. The study of the Balkans has been overwhelmingly conducted around a consensus on the primacy of the category of nationalism. As a result these alternative directions have either rarely been taken or they have often been interpreted as ultimately succumbing in various ways to the supposedly overarching influence of nationalism. There can be no serious objection, of course, that nationalism has and is still playing a significant role in the Balkans. The book does not in any way deny this fact, but it aims at retrieving dynamics that have been effaced by the prevalence of a nation-centric conception of the Balkans.
In the attempt to move beyond the nationalist horizon, the book discusses three ideologies as they have been articulated in the Balkans during the inter-war period. All three are termed as ‘non-nationalist ideologies’. The analysis of communism, liberal internationalism, and agrarianism in the Balkans is not comprehensive, in the sense that it does not aim to cover their entire breadth, their internal heterogeneity, or their internal variations. The tendency of the scarce secondary literature on the subject has been to pay attention primarily to the nationalist connotations of these ideologies in the Balkan setting. As one writer, characteristically asked in 1961: ‘Will the Communist empire absorb the Balkans, or will the Balkans absorb and “Balkanize” communism’ – both options precluding the coexistence of communism and the Balkans. Although, this type of reading cannot be rejected altogether, I will attempt to show that it is at least limited in scope. The principal argument of the book is that it is not possible to subsume the past and the present of the Balkans under the nationalist umbrella.
This volume intends, along these lines, to detect the moments of conflict between the communist, liberal internationalist, and agrarian ideologies, on the one hand, and nationalism on the other. In this respect, the analysis focuses on the ways in which the communist, liberal internationalist, and agrarian ideologies functioned as alternative possibilities to the nationalist framework. The conflicts between nationalism and these non-nationalisms are placed on the terrain of ideology. Ideology is analysed through concepts introduced in the work of Louis Althusser. Nonnationalist ideologies are accordingly recognised to have a material existence: they are embodied, in other words, in institutions and practices that clashed with the national ones. Ideological conflicts also entail the operation of conflicting interpellations. The non-nationalist ideologies under study form the constitution of subjects that would be disengaged in various degrees from a primary attachment to the national community.
The volume sheds light on other ideologies, and attempts to show how these ideologies have contested nationalism in the Balkans. The discussion aims, however, to move a step further and to draw some additional conclusions from a theoretical perspective. The discussion of non-nationalist ideologies in the inter-war years illustrates how the prevalent view advocating the primacy of nationalism in the Balkans has entrenched a fixed notion of the Balkans themselves. It is therefore considered as a pressing theoretical task to problematise this notion.
In this respect, the book shares the basic premises of what has been called the critical study of Balkanism. Balkanism has been established since the mid-1990s through the work produced mainly in the English speaking world by writers of Balkan origin. It has sought to explain and simultaneously criticise ‘the persistence of such a frozen image’ of the Balkans. Balkanism refers to ‘a system of representation based on the historical perception of the Balkans by colonial rulers’. Maria Todorova, who has coined the term, has contended that the critical task with respect to Balkanism is to ask the question of whether there is a concrete existence of the Balkans beyond this system of representation. Adopting a similar strategy of moving beyond Balkanism, the book treats the Balkans as a political concept. This conception opens up the space for the analysis of the Balkans as a contested term. As shown in the discussion of communism, liberal internationalism, and agrarianism in the inter-war years, the Balkans have been articulated in diverse modes by different conflicting ideologies. In this sense, there is nothing inherent about any particular conception of the Balkans, but they should be analysed by focusing on the ideological struggle for their articulation. Before discussing in more detail how the book develops from this point of departure, it is necessary to situate my approach in the body of knowledge about the Balkans.
Source:
https://www.academia.edu/10385760/The_Balkans_beyond_Nationalism?email_work_card=view-paper
INTRODUCTION
This book emanated from a reaction against the derogatory representations of the Balkans that have (re-)emerged forcefully since the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s. The Balkans have been rigidly associated with backwardness, with extraordinary violence, with incessant strife. These traits have also been projected back into the history of the region, as if it had nothing substantial to show but them. Nationalism has been posited as the central concept that organises these representations. Nationalism has been considered, in other words, as the quintessential feature of Balkan societies and as the principal explanatory framework through which the past and the present of the Balkans is to be narrated. In this respect, the book challenges the notion of a primary connection between Balkans and nationalism, the depiction of nationalism as a near omnipotent force in modern Balkan history.
To challenge these representations looks to be quite straightforward from an empiricist perspective. The argument that ‘all that there is in the Balkans, is essentially nationalist’ can be accused of reductionism. An obvious way to show it would be to raise other, alternative voices, projects, movements, ideologies which have been active in the Balkan region. Although this may look at first as a relatively easy task, it is not. The study of the Balkans has been overwhelmingly conducted around a consensus on the primacy of the category of nationalism. As a result these alternative directions have either rarely been taken or they have often been interpreted as ultimately succumbing in various ways to the supposedly overarching influence of nationalism. There can be no serious objection, of course, that nationalism has and is still playing a significant role in the Balkans. The book does not in any way deny this fact, but it aims at retrieving dynamics that have been effaced by the prevalence of a nation-centric conception of the Balkans.
In the attempt to move beyond the nationalist horizon, the book discusses three ideologies as they have been articulated in the Balkans during the inter-war period. All three are termed as ‘non-nationalist ideologies’. The analysis of communism, liberal internationalism, and agrarianism in the Balkans is not comprehensive, in the sense that it does not aim to cover their entire breadth, their internal heterogeneity, or their internal variations. The tendency of the scarce secondary literature on the subject has been to pay attention primarily to the nationalist connotations of these ideologies in the Balkan setting. As one writer, characteristically asked in 1961: ‘Will the Communist empire absorb the Balkans, or will the Balkans absorb and “Balkanize” communism’ – both options precluding the coexistence of communism and the Balkans. Although, this type of reading cannot be rejected altogether, I will attempt to show that it is at least limited in scope. The principal argument of the book is that it is not possible to subsume the past and the present of the Balkans under the nationalist umbrella.
This volume intends, along these lines, to detect the moments of conflict between the communist, liberal internationalist, and agrarian ideologies, on the one hand, and nationalism on the other. In this respect, the analysis focuses on the ways in which the communist, liberal internationalist, and agrarian ideologies functioned as alternative possibilities to the nationalist framework. The conflicts between nationalism and these non-nationalisms are placed on the terrain of ideology. Ideology is analysed through concepts introduced in the work of Louis Althusser. Nonnationalist ideologies are accordingly recognised to have a material existence: they are embodied, in other words, in institutions and practices that clashed with the national ones. Ideological conflicts also entail the operation of conflicting interpellations. The non-nationalist ideologies under study form the constitution of subjects that would be disengaged in various degrees from a primary attachment to the national community.
The volume sheds light on other ideologies, and attempts to show how these ideologies have contested nationalism in the Balkans. The discussion aims, however, to move a step further and to draw some additional conclusions from a theoretical perspective. The discussion of non- nationalist ideologies in the inter-war years illustrates how the prevalent view advocating the primacy of nationalism in the Balkans has entrenched a fixed notion of the Balkans themselves. It is therefore considered as a pressing theoretical task to problematise this notion.
In this respect, the book shares the basic premises of what has been called the critical study of Balkanism. Balkanism has been established since the mid-1990s through the work produced mainly in the English speaking world by writers of Balkan origin. It has sought to explain and simultaneously criticise ‘the persistence of such a frozen image’ of the Balkans. Balkanism refers to ‘a system of representation based on the historical perception of the Balkans by colonial rulers’. Maria Todorova, who has coined the term, has contended that the critical task with respect to Balkanism is to ask the question of whether there is a concrete existence of the Balkans beyond this system of representation. Adopting a similar strategy of moving beyond Balkanism, the book treats the Balkans as a political concept. This conception opens up the space for the analysis of the Balkans as a contested term. As shown in the discussion of communism, liberal internationalism, and agrarianism in the inter-war years, the Balkans have been articulated in diverse modes by different conflicting ideologies. In this sense, there is nothing inherent about any particular conception of the Balkans, but they should be analysed by focusing on the ideological struggle for their articulation. Before discussing in more detail how the book develops from this point of departure, it is necessary to situate my approach in the body of knowledge about the Balkans.
Source: https://www.academia.edu/10385760/The_Balkans_beyond_Nationalism?email_work_card=view-paper