Sanja Lazarević Radak

Prikaz knjige: Vukasović, Dejana. 2020. Constructing a (EU)ropean Identity. The Balkans and the Western Balkans as the Other. Beograd: Institut za političke studije, str. 194.

The literature that explores the representations of the Balkans is based on the assumption that the Balkans were constructed, imagined or invented. This claim is usually accompanied by the attempts to highlight the discrepancy between physical and imaginary geography and to point out the gap in semantics between the Balkan Peninsula and the Balkans. While the first one functions as physical geography, the other one refers to a place populated by representations, rather than people. Following the trend of linguistic and spatial turn, they hold the binary logic that insists upon the duality of the spatial. Some of the most important studies in this field can be read and interpreted as another in a series of texts about the Balkans. Thus, the aim of this paper is to: 1. Point out the places and passages where academic discourse on the Balkans separate physical and symbolic geography; 2. Highlight the political implications of this approach; 3. Suggest a geocritical aim that provides a sort of ballance between the material geography („real“) and imaginary spaces.

Povratak na modernističke teorije, obogaćene postmodernim iskustvom i metodologijom, omogućio je Darenu Kelsiju (Darren Kelsey), sintezu kritičke analize diskursa, teorija reprezentacije i teorije o afektivnom kvalitetu mitologije. Iz ove sinteze proizašli su inovativni zaključci u vezi sa načinima na koje u sferi političkog funkcionišu mitske matrice. Na osnovama pretpostavke o međuzavisnosti jezika, reprezentacije, afekta i političkog mita, u radu se analiziraju upotrebe reprezentacija o mladosti od 19. veka do danas, na (Zapadnom) Balkanu. Cilj rada je izdvajanje elemenata diskursa koji, uključeni u sferu ideološkog, postaju konstanta u okvirima istorije sećanja, legitimizacija prošlosti i konstruisanja/imaginiranja budućnosti. Reč je o afektivnoj mitologiji puer/puella aethernus koja se s obzirom na svoju sadržajnost prilagođava, kako istorijskom tako političkom kontekstu.

Over the past thirty years the analysis of the Balkan discourse have been raised issues on spatial and symbolic distribution of the affects. Today, the subdiscipline of emotional spatiality provides a new insights into the link between the political, economic and social status of Southeastern Europe and representations that imply affects. Taking into account the knowledge which comes from imagology and postcolonial critics, new question arise: “What is the role of representation in the creation of emotional geography and vice versa.?“ Namely, these seemingly different and somewhat opposed approaches which are resistant to essentialism, outline a number of key issues which are present in the text on the Balkans. These approaches were exposed and analyzed to indicate the silent presence of emotional geography in earlier studies of the Balkans, and to point out the possibility of their comprehensive application in the future.

Postavljajući Srbiju u referentni okvir Balkana, dajem naporedni prikaz teorija u koje je ovaj deo sveta bio postavljan i ukazujem na specifičnosti pozicije koju Srbija, u ovom kontekstu, zauzima. Prikaz teorija prati promišljanje propuštenih i iskorišćenih prilika za smeštanje Srbije i Balkana u okvire postkolonijalne kritike i teorije poluperiferije.