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Незавършените светове на Балканите
The Uncompleted Worlds of the Balkans

Author(s): Magdalena Kostova-Panayotova
Subject(s): Studies of Literature
Published by: ЮГОЗАПАДЕН УНИВЕРСИТЕТ »НЕОФИТ РИЛСКИ«
Keywords: the Balkans; East – West, myth; history; stereotypes; the new Slavic novels

Summary/Abstract: The Balkan world can be found only if we cross our own bounds. It is “outside of us”, something Other, and as the region is frequently seen as a “powder keg”, “melting pot” etc., it suggests uncertainty, indefiniteness and consequently menace. The article discusses how the Balkans create the myth of their history/histories through the experience of subordination and the aspiration to overcome it. One of the common moments in these stories at the beginning of the 21st century is connected to the idea of the adventures of identity with the motive for the memory and seeking foot in their own past, in the national vicissitudes and myths that are transforming. Some key Slavic novels from the beginning of the 21st century reflect the intersections of what civilizational east-west ‘luggage’ the Slav in Europe has at the beginning of the century, how this ‘luggage’ fights the stereotypes of the West and of the East as well, how the collapsing Yugoslavia-world, as well as the world of communist regimes in the region topicalize the issue of memory, history, literature and language as a whole.

  • Issue Year: 2018
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 194-200
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: Bulgarian
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