Identitetske zamke - Kulturološke refleksije o bosanskohercegovačkim narativima u evropskom kontekstu
IDENTITY TRAPS - CULTURAL REFLECTIONS ON BOSNIAN-HERZEGOVINIAN NARRATIVES IN EUROPEAN CONTEXT

Summary/Abstract: Taking the modern culturology view, identity is not and can not be some signifier sewed for good. The process of fixed identities creation that does not have sufficient breadth is often connected with totalitarian political practices. History shows that such “monological” identities, if they are not already doomed to failure, vegetate at a very low level of civilization development. This seems particularly important in the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its identities, even the Bosniaks one. Striving of special features that distinguish any practice of preserving or stabilizing identity boundaries, and without it there is no identity indeed, always threatens to turn into exalted exclusivity. In such case, it continually narrows the space to prospective members. In a sense, it becomes “fatal” (A. Sen), nailed to impenetrable frames, so it turns into a kind of “identity trap” and refuge in a fear of (post)modernity challenge. In this paper, from the cultural perspective, the author will observe such strategies of identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, using the cultural- historical parallels in Europe, particularly in German-speaking areas.

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