The Other Nearby. Experiences of Strangeness in Southeast Europe
The Other Nearby. Experiences of Strangeness in Southeast Europe

Summary/Abstract: The paper’s aim is to present experiences of strangeness in Southeast Europe. The starting point for the analysis is an anthology entitled Die andere nebenan (The Other Next Door), which has been published in eight editions and countries. The Swedish editor Richard Swartz invited twenty-one authors from various Balkan countries to write essays about their relationship to “the Others.” The experience of strangeness on the Balkans was strongly traumatized during the Yugoslav wars in the nineties, so the writings in the examined treasury can be read as trauma texts. The determination and construction of identity has a very important role in them. The paper deals with self-identification of Aleksandar Hemon, Dragan Velikić, Miljenko Jergović, Nenad Veličković and László Végel. The two notions which can accurately determine these experiences of strangeness are internal strangeness and the familiar stranger.

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