Imagining the Balkans

Imagining the Balkans
AuthorMaria Todorova
LanguageEnglish
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication date
1997
Publication placeUnited States
ISBN0-19-508751-8
WebsiteImagining the Balkans; Updated Edition

Imagining the Balkans is a book by the Bulgarian academic Maria Todorova. The book was published by Oxford University Press in United States on May 22, 1997 (ISBN 0-19-508751-8), with the second and enlarged edition being published in 2009. It was described as author's magnum opus.[1]

Privileging the study of texts and intertextuality, the author developed the concept of Balkanism inspired by Edward Said’s Orientalism, yet the author also underlines how scholars of Orientalism essentialize the West as a homogeneous system.[2][1] Todorova describes Balkanism not as a form of Orientalism but as an independent construction having to do with the representation of the Balkans.[2][3] Her distinction is partially based on the "crucial" formal distinction between European colonialism abroad and subordination within.[4] In her view, contrary to the Orient which serves as Europe's polar opposite, Balkan is Europe's "Other within" in an interstitial position of being neither here nor there.[5] Also, she describes the Balkans as an actual place and space while Said's Orient is not defined in such a way.[6]

The book was written during the Yugoslav Wars as a response to stigmatization of the region, stigmatization initiated from an Eurocentric position, that attributed to the Balkans a fatality of incomprehensible conflicts and barbarism, and therefore a non-European position.[7]

The book was translated into languages of the region with Serbian and Bulgarian translation in 1999, Greek and Romanian in 2000, Slovenian and Macedonian in 2001, Turkish in 2003 and Albanian in 2006.[7] German and Italian translations were published in 1999 and 2002.[7] The French language translation was published in 2011 by the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.[1][7]

  1. ^ a b c Anastassiadis, Tassos (2013). "Maria Todorova, L'imaginaire des Balkans, Paris, Éditions de l'EHESS, 2011, 351 p., ISBN 978-2-7132-2281-8". Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine. 60 (2): 197–182.
  2. ^ a b Jusdanis, Gregory (1998). "Imagining the Balkans (review)". Journal of Modern Greek Studies. 16 (2): 375–377. doi:10.1353/mgs.1998.0034. S2CID 142155660.
  3. ^ Augustinos, Gerasimos (1998). "Reviews : Maria Todorova, Imagining the Balkans, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1997; ISBN 0-19-508750-X; xi + 257 pp.; £35 (hbk), £17.99". European History Quarterly. 28 (4): 561–564. doi:10.1177/026569149802800409. S2CID 144276606.
  4. ^ Ballinger, Pamela (2000). "Review: [Untitled] Reviewed Work: Imagining the Balkans by Maria Todorova". American Ethnologist. 27 (2): 492–494. doi:10.1525/ae.2000.27.2.492. JSTOR 647183. S2CID 144181231.
  5. ^ Verdery, Katherine (1999). "Review: [Untitled] Reviewed Work: Imagining the Balkans by Maria Todorova". Slavic Review. 58 (2): 472–473. doi:10.2307/2673101. JSTOR 2673101. S2CID 165118832.
  6. ^ Miller, Nicholas J. (1998). "Review: [Untitled] Reviewed Work: Imagining the Balkans by Maria Todorova". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 29 (1): 127–128. doi:10.1162/jinh.1998.29.1.127. JSTOR 206001. S2CID 143786749.
  7. ^ a b c d Madelain, Anne (2013). "Maria Todorova, Imaginaire des Balkans". Revue d'études comparatives Est-Ouest (44): 168–174.