Balkan Identities brings together historians, anthropologists, and literary scholars all working under the shared conviction that the only way to overcome history is to intimately understand it. The contributors of Balkan Identities focus on historical memory, collective national memory, and the political manipulation of national identities. They refine our understanding of memory and identity in general and explore and assess the significance of particular manifestations of Balkan national identities and national memories in the region. The essays in Balkan Identities grapple with three major problems: the construction of historical memory, sites of national memory, and the mobilization of national identities. While most essays focus on a single country (e.g. Croatia, Romania, Turkey, Cyprus, Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia), they are in dialogue with each other and share an opposition to rigid isolationist identities. Illuminating and challenging, Balkan Identities demonstrates the ever-changing nature of a troubled and culturally vibrant region.
Maria Todorova is Professor of History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
The ContributorsIntroduction: Learning Memory, Remembering IdentityMaria Todorova I. CREATING HISTORICAL MEMORY:THE INTERPLAY OF INDIVIDUAL, LOCALAND NATIONAL IDENTITIESNational Memory as Narrative Memory: The Case of KosovoInternal Colonialism: Nation and Region in Nineteenth century GreeceExploring Memory Through Oral History in TurkeyCommunal Memory and Turkish Cypriot National History: Missing LinksTimes Past: References for the Construction of Local Order in Present-day AlbaniaConversions to Islam as a Trope in Bulgarian Historiography, Fiction and FilmII. THE MASONRY OF NATIONAL MEMORY:MONUMENTS, HEROES, ANTI-HEROESEdifices of the Past: War Memorials and Heroes in Twentieth century RomaniaAffections of a Greek Hero: Pavlos Melas and Heroic Representations in GreeceVillains and Symbolic Pollution in the Narratives of Nation: the Case of Boris SarafovA Criminal-National Hero? But who Else?III. NATIONAL IDENTITY: PROBLEMS OFTRANSMISSION AND MOBILISATIONThe Use of Tradition and National Identity in the Development Debates in the BalkansGreek Identity: A Long ViewConstruction of Historical Consciousness: The Case of Serbian History TextbooksMemory in Romanian History: Textbooks in the 1990sBulgarian Textbooks of Literary History and the Construction of National Identity
"Todorova kept her authors engaged with each other and with the current scholarly literature on memory, history and nationalism. Their efforts to create such a rich and diverse volume must be commended." -American HIstorical Review "Although the essays explore different events from various historical periods in individual countries, the authors are animated by a common denominator: opposition to rigid isolationism, preserving space for a creative dialogue, and opposition to political manipulation of national identities." -Multicultural Review
