AT THE EDGE OD EUROPE: BALKAN AS A EUROPEAN PERIPHERY

• Authors: Matej Karásek
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The goal of this article is to describe and explain the ways how Balkan is constructed and perceived as a meta-geographical and metaphorical concept. The author discusses the flexibility of demarcation of the Balkan borders in the mental maps and the flexibility of the category of the Balkan as well. In this article it is assumed that the relation between “Europe” and “Balkan” is in fact the relation between the power centre and the periphery. Thus Balkan is orientalised and quasi-colonialized by the “Europe” through the mechanisms related to the power discourses, ways of reporting, thinking and perceiving the Balkan. Moreover, the author suggests that the final consequence of such discourses is manifested in the policy of the European institutions towards some Balkan countries. The author ́s argumentation is based on the comparison of orientalist and balkanist discourses and on the reactions to postcolonial studies that come from the Balkan researchers themselves.

Keywords

EN

BALKAN; EUROPE; BALKANISM; ORIENTALISM; POSTCOLONIALISM

• Publisher: Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovenský národopis (Slovak Ethnology)
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 539 – 555

Contributors

author

Matej Karásek

• Katedra etnológie a etnomuzikológie FF UKF v Nitre, Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa, Hodžova 1, 949 74, Nitra, Slovak Republic