ANALYSIS BORGES'S LABYRINTHS, KOSOVO'S ENCLAVES, AND URBAN/CIVIC DESIGNING (I) Intimations of Making Sense In Handing One Another Along: Literature and Social Reflection, the Pulitzer Prize winning author and Harvard University professor Robert Coles writes that "through stories, we are given the opportunity to search deeper into an understanding of … this world in which we live every day" believe he is correct; stories (regardless By Rory J. Conces Prior to glancing at a short biographical Iof their fictional content) can stir us to Department of Philosophy and Religion sketch and reading some of his work, reconsider how we perceive and interact University of Nebraska at Omaha including the stories and other writings in with the world around us. They are also a his 1960s work Labyrinths, I was aware of Smith had in mind, they are nonetheless means to view problems and controversial no connection whatsoever. Although I had "eyes" that can stall, even prevent, our issues from a fresh perspective, a new pair read elsewhere that he had at times lived attempt to hide from disturbing revelations of spectacles if you will. And they tell us a and travelled in Europe, some of his biog- about ourselves, others, or the world. Fic- thing or two about historic recurrence. raphers personally assured me that Borges tional prose is often the chosen literary never set foot in Kosovo or any place else device, sometimes with a bit of the fantas- in Yugoslavia. Furthermore, neither the The Power of Stories and tic thrown in, allowing the reader a safe sketch nor Labyrinths gave me reason to Engagement in Kosovo "distance" from which to reflect upon believe there was such a link. Apparently, instead of turning away from life's Jorge Luis Borges was no Rebecca West! The importance of these opportunities unpleasantries. becomes clearer once we realize the extent If we take the newest country in the Balka- to which we are in the grasp of our own ns as our point of departure, reading Serb parochial reasoning, values, and assump- and Albanian writers from Kosovo would tions. Being over convinced by our own be obvious sources from which to get new view, we readily recoil from the disagree- eyes. What better stories than those able and unpleasant, dismissing factual penned by Serb authors the likes of the truths that are unsupportive of our view, novelist Vukasin Filipovic and the short and shunning those who espouse claims story writer Radosav Stojanovic, or and arguments not our own. This obscu- Albanian writers such as the poet and rantism becomes heightened and ever short story writer Eqrem Basha and the Reading Serb and Albanian writers from more harmful when our parochialism novelist and playwright Anton Pashku. Kosovo would be obvious sources from which embodies isms like racism and fatalism, or Reading work written by Kosovars, how- to get new eyes ethnic nationalism and chauvinism as is ever, is not the only way to get different Yet Borges and Yugoslavia did exist "side the case in Kosovo. There is also the liber- eyes. When you get right down to it, by side" in the world. During his adult life al lure of multiculturalism, which in some sometimes authors and their work that are Yugoslavia went from being a Kingdom to ways confronts the many other isms that at first glance starkly disconnected from a a Republic, with Josip Broz Tito dominat- find their way into Kosovar politics. No particular place and time turn out to be ing the political scene of that country dur- matter which ism, they all can take on a remarkably insightful. This holds true for ing most of the last four decades of life of their own, sometimes commandeer- essays as it does novels and plays. A Latin Borges's life. And it was not until the very ing the apparatus of the state to do its work American author, for example, may write end of those years, with the death of Tito for good or for bad. an essay about the Asia of yesteryear, in 1980, that Slobodan Milosevic began Wallowing in prejudices and biases was which is seemingly unrelated to the his swift climb to power. But, again, there the very thing that the 18th-century Scot- Balkan's of today, but upon further exami- is no evidence that Borges was familiar tish philosopher and economist Adam nation may be extraordinarily insightful with Tito or anything Yugoslav. In fact, Borges was spared from witness- Smith was determined to prevent. To take about that region of Europe. It is simply a ing the calamity that befell Yugoslavia care of this he introduced the so-called matter of making the connection between during the 1990s. He created his symbolic impartial spectator (the nonpartisan), a ref- the two more apparent. erence to seeing the world through "the and imaginary worlds much earlier, at a eyes of the rest of mankind." He under- time when Kosovo was still a province of stood the value of broadening the discus- Jorge Luis Borges, Serbia, before Kosovar Albanians had sion by including other viewpoints based Labyrinths, and Kosovo mounted their final attempt at secession. on experiences both far and near. Fast for- Borges died in June of 1986, while the ward to current literature on peacebuild- So it is with the work of the Argentinian Kosovo War took place in 1998-99 fol- ing, which includes using storytelling to writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). lowed by the "majority-minority" reinvigorate dialogue, breakdown stereo- Although the following question may province grabbing its independence ten types, and increase opportunities for hos- appear to be odd, I pose it in all serious- years later. pitality and empathy between antagonists, ness: What does Jorge Luis Borges offer So I ask again, what connection, if any, and Smith's impartial spectator comes of us in looking at Kosovo? Is there a exists between Jorge Luis Borges and age. Borges-Kosovo connection? I believe Kosovo? In short, it is not Borges, the Although stories may not have been what there is. man, having never set foot in Kosovo; but Bosnia Daily, August 13, 2013 10 ANALYSIS REGION Borges, the author, having written about a Thought, which included Confucianism. third century BC Chinese emperor that What Shih Huang Ti found so disturbing "Ballots Cannot strangely connects the Argentine to this about Confucian writings, the Great Have Kosovo Logo" Balkan country. My reading of Labyrinths Learning book being a particularly impor- led me to recognize an interesting intersec- tant Confucian text for Chinese politics, Head of the Serbian government Office tion between two worlds: the Middle was that it provided details on how to gov- for Kosovo, Aleksandar Vulin, defies Kingdom (China) in his essay "The Wall ern the state, as well as the qualities that a Pristina's announcement to have Koso- and the Books" and the present-day ruler should possess. Shih Huang Ti found vo logos on ballots. In an interview for enclaves that configure the home-worlds it reprehensible that some would try to Radio Television of Serbia, he said that (homes proper, workplaces, and schools) define and limit his power as a ruler. So Serbia finds it is unacceptable for bal- of people in Kosovo. Confucianism was replaced with legalism, lots in local elections in Kosovo to have which was a philosophy that emphasized Kosovo logos and recalled that OSCE From The Middle Kingdom strict obedience to order and punishment. should maintain a status of neutral in "The Wall and the Books" It was Shih Huang Ti's way or no way! It stand at the local elections scheduled was Shih Huang Ti's story or no story! to Kosovo for November 3. Either OSCE would Interestingly enough, this brief glimpse of be status neutral or the elections would Chinese history alludes to a historic recur- not be held, he said and underscored We find, in "The Wall and the Books," the rence, a repetition of similar events in his- story of Shih Huang Ti, the one credited that Pristina opposes mass turnout of tory. The concern about defenses, political Serbs in the elections because it fears with unifying all of China under one pow- opposition, and circumscribed books con- they would take over all the rights they erful leader. It is no wonder that he nects the Middle Kingdom with Kosovo. won though the Brussels agreement. declared himself to be the First Emperor More than two thousand years later and The agreement reached by Serbian Pri- of China, the progenitor of the first impe- several thousand miles to the West, we rial dynasty-the Qin dynasty. find the fledgling democracy of Kosovo me Minister Ivica Dacic and his Koso- Although instrumental in bringing about composed of peoples living behind vo counterpart Hasim Taci in Brussels many changes in China, Borges highlights "walls," some more physical than others, on April 19 envisages the constitution two of Shih Huang Ti's most well-known but all clearly demarcated by public obje- of the community of Serb municipali- accomplishments. The first was primari- cts that carry different nationalist ideas ties in Kosovo with certain executive ly constructive insofar as it amounted to and passions - objects that are evocative, powers. In order to participate in the the building of defenses. Nomadic peo- objects like flags and statues, that inform elections, Serbs do not have to recog- ples from the Eurasian steppe continuous- in different ways to members of different nise the state of Kosovo and Serbs do ly made incursions into Qin territory, ethnic nationalist groups. These objects not have to become members of the sparking a demand to limit these attacks.