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This book focuses on issues concerning identity in terms of Balkan and non-Balkan cultures, and examines questions of modernity and the ever-present dread of primitivism which is highlighted in certain types of narratives. David A. Norris examines the emergence and development of the term 'Balkan' itself, textual representations of the region, and negative imagery from the perspective of Balkan authors and in Western literature.
List of contents
List of Maps and Photographs Preface Acknowledgements Pronunciation Guide Constructing the Balkans Textual Representations The Balkans Talk Back Modernity: Urban Culture and the Balkans Representations of City Life Discourses of Identity and Modernity in Times of Crisis Notes Index
About the author
DAVID NORRIS has been lecturer in Serbian and Croatian Studies at the Department of Slavonic Studies, University of Nottingham, since 1980. He has published widely in the field of literary, language and cultural studies including the books
The Novels of Milos Crnjanski: An Approach through Time and
Teach Yourself Serbo-Croat.
Summary
This book focuses on issues concerning identity in terms of Balkan and non-Balkan cultures, and examines questions of modernity and the ever-present dread of primitivism which is highlighted in certain types of narratives.
Report
'Norris is an acute observer of the cultural relationships between the Balkans and the rest of Europe.' - James Pettifer, International Affairs
'This book is extremely valuable as an insight into the ways in which Western observers conceptualise the Balkans and how such conceptualisations become part of local identities. ' - Helen Kambouri, Millennium
'...a valuable contribution to the same set of issues, all the more so for reversing widely-held perspectives and shedding light on the Balkan's 'writing back' with much original interpretation, careful and convincing analyses and a sensitivity for textual details.' Zoran Milutinovic, Seer
