Albanci i srpsko-albanski odnosi u srpskim udžbenicima (1887-1987)
Albanians and Serbian-Albanian Relations in Serbian Textbooks (1878-1989)

Author(s): Aleksandra Ilić Rajković
Subject(s): Recent History (1900 till today), School education, History of Education, State/Government and Education, Nationalism Studies, 19th Century, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, Sociology of Literature
Published by: KPZ Beton
Keywords: Serbian-Albanian relations; Serbs; Albanians; textbooks; history; us-others;
Summary/Abstract: The paper represents an attempt to overview the dynamics of the development of ideas about the Albanians and Serbian-Albanian relations in Serbian textbooks since the 1880s to the 1980s. The subjects of analysis were history and geography textbooks for both elementary and high school. Several topics were taken into consideration: Slovenian migrations to Balkans, Stara Srbija, First Balkan war, Second World War and The Resolution of the Communist Information Bureau (Informbiro). The paper shows that the data framed by these topics was insufficient for students to build up clear reflections based on a critique of the presentation of neighbors and to understand the relations between the two countries. The contents of the textbooks were in the function of the ruling political discourse, and the topics which surpassed their areas of interest were not considered valuable. For this reason contents which would enable better understanding of the other side, its contexts and their circumstances, were put aside. The paper thus points to the multiple questions which were elaborated incompletely, or were thematically neglected. This leads to a conclusion that the ignorance about the “other” has been “accumulated” over the generations, which presents itself as the fertile ground for embedded prejudices and all forms of manipulation.

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