EMPATHY, SYMPATHY AND DEMONIZATION OF THE OTHER IN THE BALKAN LITERATURES
EMPATHY, SYMPATHY AND DEMONIZATION OF THE OTHER IN THE BALKAN LITERATURES

Summary/Abstract: The profile of the other in the Balkans literatures is as special and complex as its projection onto real life has been through the region’s history. Since the Balkans itself has been a bridge between East and West, being ‘the other’ in relation to Europe and part of it simultaneously, the concepts of self and the other reveal as specific in the Balkans literatures.In these literatures, the other has been the alien, the invader, who came either from a powerful empire or from ‘beyond the fence’—the neighbour, the similar but also the different one all at once. In most cases, this ‘other’ exerted all its influence to spread their culture and, either when being part of an empire or merely a neighbour, cohabited with them for such long periods as to strive to undo the features of their identity. The present paper aims to highlight some features of ‘the other’ in the Balkans literature that make it essentially unique and (considering the work of albanian and serbian prose writers) which, in relation to self, appears in diverse and often opposite positions: it has been demonized at times, but empathised or even sympathised at pthers, and, as everything else of the Balkans, is depicted in strong colours and contrasts, yet essentially similar.

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