Imagining the Balkans

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Imagining the Balkans Maria Todorova. Imagining the Balkans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. xi + 257 pp. $49.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-19-508750-5. Reviewed by Gale Stokes Published on HABSBURG (September, 1997) It is difficult to imagine a person more quali‐ Orient" is vague and intangible; 2) Orientalism is fied to write a book on how terms related to the a refuge from the alienation of industrialization, a concept "Balkan" have entered common usage metaphor for the forbidden--feminine, sensual, and achieved a certain meaning than Maria even sexual. Balkanism, on the other hand, is not Todorova. Professor Todorova was born and forbidden or sensual. It is male, primitive, crude, brought up in Bulgaria, received a Ph.D. from and disheveled; 3) Balkanism is a transitional con‐ Sofia University, lived in Greece, studied exten‐ cept, something not quite non-European, not a f‐ sively in Moscow, Leningrad, Paris, and Oxford, nal dichotomy; 4) the self-perception of Balkan speaks fuent German, and presently lives in the peoples is not colonial; 5) Orientalism posits Islam United States, where she works in English. In her as the other, whereas Balkanism deals with Chris‐ book she cites sources in English, German, tian peoples; 6) Orientalism is fundamentally French, Bulgarian, Greek, Serbo-Croatian, Turk‐ racist, categorizing non-white people, whereas ish, and Russian, and perhaps some I missed. In Balkanism deals with whites; and 7) Balkan self- other words, here is a person who has not only a identity is itself created against an oriental other. good fnger-tip feel for her native Balkans, but the Having solidly made this point, Todorova goes training, linguistic ability, and intellectual fre‐ on to chronicle the emergence of the idea of power to provide a systematic and enlightening Balkan, both as a concept of outsiders and as a study of how the Balkans are imagined. self-perception of insiders. Her chapters progress Contrary to what someone who had not read in a logical and orderly fashion from the discov‐ her previous work on the subject might initially ery of the Balkans in the early modern period, expect, Todorova argues that Balkanism is not an‐ through varied patterns of perception in the nine‐ other form of Orientalism, as Milica Bakic-Hayden teenth century, to the twentieth century invention has proposed.[1] Her reasons are that 1) the of "Balkan" and "Balkanization" as negative cate‐ Balkans are concrete, whereas the notion of "the gories, schimpfwoerter, as she calls them. Along H-Net Reviews the way she provides numerous insights into the During the Cold War era, Balkanism moderat‐ construction of categories. For example, she pro‐ ed as the terms Eastern Europe and Southeastern poses that the discovery of the Balkan Slavs as an Europe came into vogue. Todorova argues that the oppressed people in the mid to late nineteenth German form of the latter term was discredited century by British travelers was related to the Vic‐ during World War II, but she does not mention torian discovery of the poor. This suggestive ob‐ that in the postwar era it returned to respectabili‐ servation is related to two broad patterns of per‐ ty both in German (Suedost Forschungen, Suedost ception she observes during the nineteenth centu‐ Institut) and in English (the journal Southeastern ry, the aristocratic and the bourgeois. The former, Europe, for example). During the 1980s, a second held early in the nineteenth century, particularly formerly discredited term, Central Europe, by British travelers, sympathized with the Ot‐ reemerged as a discursive competitor. Todorova toman ruling class and the power they represent‐ understands "Central Europe" as a political phrase ed. The bourgeois view tended to sympathize with invented by certain intellectuals seeking a coun‐ the Balkan peoples, who were understood to be terweight to the term Eastern Europe. They con‐ perhaps backwards, but having the potential, at sidered the latter designation pejorative because least, of entering onto the linear highway of they considered "eastern" to refer to Russia and progress. the Soviet Union, which they claimed had its own, Todorova identifies several milestones in the unique historical trajectory that had little to do invention of the Balkans. The most important is with their past. Obviously, this analysis grew, in the early years of the twentieth century, when the significant measure, out of frustration with the term became associated with violence and politi‐ Soviet domination of their countries. Todorova's cal unrest. Events such as the confusing Macedo‐ objection to the term is that whereas it may have nian situation, the assassination of Alexander and been emancipatory for certain countries from Draga, the Bosnian crisis, assassinations in the Russia, it was not emancipatory for the Balkans, Balkans, the Balkan Wars, and Gavrilo Princip which were left entirely out of the discussion. For provided the raw material for a perception of the her "Central Europe" becomes an insidious con‐ Balkans as turbulent. Less clearly stated is the cept propagated by "secular zealots" who "have enormous role played in this perception by the ar‐ excellently internalized the cultural code of politi‐ rogant and condescending temper of the imperial‐ cally correct liberalism" (p. 152), but in the ist times. Just at the time of these Balkan events, process have posited the Balkans yet again as a the imperial powers were at the height of their peripheral other. feeling of superiority to the colonial peoples. In Todorova also argues, incorrectly I think, that this way there does seem to be a generic relation‐ the concept of Central Europe was not a region- ship between Balkanism and Orientalism, the cre‐ building notion, and that "concrete cooperation ation of a stereotypical other. Todorova knows failed to materialize" (p. 154). I think what she is well that Orientalism and Balkanism are not sim‐ referring to is the difficulty of getting intellectuals ply "banal ethnocentrisms," as she puts it, but in various capital cities to interact with one anoth‐ structural elements of expansionist capitalism as er in a fruitful way, which may well be true. But it exploded through the world. Nevertheless, she the creation of the Central European Free Trade misses an opportunity to reinforce that point just Association, the Central European University, and at this crucial milestone in the development of the many bi- and multilateral organizations show that Balkan idea. more cooperation is going on now at the political and economic levels in Central Europe than ever before. This is not to say that Todorova is wrong 2 H-Net Reviews about the dichotomizing function of the idea of disorder, not a desirable richness of tradition and Central Europe. The success of Slovenia's strategy cultures. of redefining itself as Central European rather In the end, the prevalence of essentializing than Balkan demonstrates the community build‐ concepts like Balkanism come down to a question ing power of the idea of Central Europe, but at the of power. People living in strong states sneer, as same time it validates Todorova's point that the Todorova puts it, at those living in weak ones. At idea has formed itself in part against a Balkan the same time, however, I think Todorova over‐ other. does it when she argues that the "very existence One of Todorova's most powerful points con‐ of the different Balkan states was almost exclu‐ cerns the Wars of Yugoslav Succession. These sively regulated by great power considerations" wars brought back Balkanism with a vengeance. (p. 109). No one would deny the fundamental im‐ Even though it was only the Yugoslavs who were portance of the great powers both in regulating involved in the war, journalists called them the international position of the small Balkan Balkan wars and restored the term "Balkaniza‐ states, nor in the enormous impact their political, tion" to its unfortunate preeminence. But Todoro‐ cultural, and intellectual lives had on the region. va persuasively argues that these wars, rather But to completely deny any agency to these states than invoking processes that are unique to the is almost surely wrong. They came into existence Balkans--"these people have been fghting each by the exertions, sacrifices, and follies of many other for hundreds of years"--constitute instead people who believed that they were doing some‐ the ultimate Europeanization of the peninsula. thing grand and important, and who in many Homogenization has been a basic theme of Euro‐ ways were, whatever the disabilities under which pean history, not just in post-French Revolution‐ they operated and the disappointments one might ary times, but from the crusades, the reconquista, feel at some of the outcomes. the expulsion of Jews from England, and so forth. Actually, I doubt Todorova would disagree In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the with that point, but the question illuminates one turning of peasants into Frenchmen, the unifica‐ of the problems with her otherwise quite magnifi‐ tion of Germany and Italy, the Holocaust, the cent book--its tendency to overstate, especially repositioning of Poland, and the recent hostility to when she disagrees with an analysis. Todorova is immigrants suggest that the drive to create ethni‐ harshly critical of Samuel Huntington, for exam‐ cally homogeneous states is not exclusively a ple, and his division of the world into competing Balkan phenomenon. Furthermore, as Todorova cultural elements. For Todorova, the difference points out, consolidation and homogenization between a general Western Christianity and a pu‐ took place in Europe before democratization. The tative Eastern Orthodoxy is not long-standing or notion of a multi-cultural state, such as the Day‐ theological but a recent construct of political sci‐ ton accords are attempting to restore to Bosnia, is ence. This will surprise scholars who have dealt a very new idea, emblematic of American domi‐ with the flioque question or the Council of Flo‐ nation of the international arena and of tenden‐ rence.
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