Imagining the Balkans"If the Balkans hadn't existed, they would have been invented" was the verdict of Count Hermann Keyserling in his famous 1928 publication, Europe. Over ten years ago, Maria Todorova traced the relationship between the reality and the invention. Based on a rich selection of travelogues, diplomatic accounts, academic surveys, journalism, and belles-lettres in many languages, Imagining the Balkans explored the ontology of the Balkans from the sixteenth century to the present day, uncovering the ways in which an insidious intellectual tradition was constructed, became mythologized, and is still being transmitted as discourse. Maria Todorova, who was raised in the Balkans, is in a unique position to bring both scholarship and sympathy to her subject, and in a new afterword she reflects on recent developments in the study of the Balkans and political developments on the ground since the publication of Imagining the Balkans. The afterword explores the controversy over Todorova's coining of the term Balkanism. With this work, Todorova offers a timely, updated, accessible study of how an innocent geographic appellation was transformed into one of the most powerful and widespread pejorative designations in modern history. |
Contents
3 | |
Nomen | 21 |
2 Balkans as Selfdesignation | 38 |
3 The Discovery of the Balkans | 62 |
4 Patterns of Perception until 1900 | 89 |
5 From Discovery to Invention from Invention to Classification | 116 |
The Balkans and the Myth of Central Europe | 140 |
RealiaQuestce quil y a de horstexte? | 161 |
Conclusion | 184 |
Afterword to the Updated Edition | 190 |
Notes | 203 |
233 | |
267 | |
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Albania American ancient attitude Balkan nations Balkan Peninsula Balkan wars balkanist Balkanite Bay Ganyo Bosnia British Bulgarian Byzantine Central Europe Central European Central European idea Christian civilization Constantinople Croatia cultural Czech decades defined despite diplomatic discourse dominant East European Eastern Europe eighteenth elites English ethnic Europe’s French geographic German Greece Greeks Habsburg Haemus Halecki Hungary Ibid identity imperial intellectual internal Islam Leont’ev literary literature London Macedonia medieval ment modern mountain Muslim nation-state nineteenth century ofBalkan ofCentral Europe ofEurope ofEuropean ofhis ofits ofthe Balkans ofthe Ottoman Empire oftheir ofthis ofWestern Orient Orthodox Ottoman Empire Ottoman legacy Ottoman period peasants perception phanariotes philhellenism political postcolonial region religious Romania Russian Said’s Serbia Serbs Slavic Slavs social society Sofia Southeastern Europe sphere studies Südosteuropa Szücs term tion tradition travel literature travelers Turkey Turkish Turks University Press West Western York Yugoslav Yugoslavia