The emergence of a nation: writers and fighters as agents (original) (raw)
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In this article, we argue that the nineteenth-century Serbian scholars had a pivotal role in establishing Kosovo as the crucial subject of Serbian literature, culture, and politics. By revisiting the formation of the Kosovo epic in the collections of Vuk Karadžić, the founder of modern Serbian culture, we trace his role in making Kosovo the foundational myth of the whole Serbian nation from the nineteenth-century surge in Romantic nationalism onwards. In particular, we scrutinize Karadžić's editorial procedures as parts of a process of cultural inscription representing a cultural transformation that made the Kosovo epic an instance of the invention of national tradition in Eric Hobsbawm's terms.
Albanian Personal Narratives of the Kosovo War and the Struggle for a National Narrative
Култура/Culture, 2014
This paper looks at the "war of memories" taking place in postwar Kosovo through a close reading of diaries and memoirs written by the protagonists of the war-both fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army and civilians. It argues that the two narratives emerging from this literature correspond to gendered variants of the Albanian national self-identification fixated in the early nineteenth century.
Leiden Journal of International Law, 2009
This article uses the contested independence of Kosovo as an opportunity to re-examine the theoretical imagery behind the concept of self-determination, and then confront those findings with the more recent approaches to polity formation from other theoretical genres: normative theories of secession, on the one hand, and the global governance approach to self-determination, on the other. What emerges from the encounter between these bodies of thought is not a new interpretation, or a theory of self-determination and its relationship to uti possidetis, but rather a plea for an approach to polity formation which is simultaneously critical and prudential. That is, an approach which would accept the role of external actors as inevitable, but goes further and unmasks them as complicit in labelling certain projects as 'civic' and 'multicultural' on the one hand and 'ethno-nationalist' on the other. Equally, the proposed approach reveals the ever-present aspiration to unanimity as a concealed ideal of polity formation, shared by both the 'civic' and the 'ethnic' variants of self-determination. Finally, this approach to polity formation sketches the contours of an alternative, thin vision of a political community -one not wearing the badge of peoplehood -one glued together not by normative imperatives of participation and solidarity, but rather by the acknowledgement of geopolitical fiat.
"Dilemmas of nation-building in Albanian political thought (1920-1928)", East Central Europe (2012)
East Central Europe, 2012
The purpose of this article is to explore the tension between the celebration and critique of the nation in Albanian political thought through an analysis of key texts produced during the critical years 1920–1928. The discussion is placed in the context of a distinctive nationbuilding project, one which sought to consolidate the Rilindje kombëtare (National Renaissance) whilst also having to critically interrogate it. These intellectual efforts can be understood as an attempt to shift from an ethnic form of nationalism to a political one, seeking to replace or integrate the kin-based categories on which the previous nation-building discourse had relied with an emphasis on civic allegiances based on shared social and political interests. This involved a revised analysis of issues that had been central to the Rilindje narrative, including new arguments on the status of a shared ethos within modern state structures and integrating the question of religious diversity through an analysis of faith in the public sphere. It progressively developed into a collective effort to reinvent more abstract moral categories under which to conceptualize emerging political allegiances, with important repercussions for the way the newly shaped, allegedly liberal, political institutions figured in the nation-building discourse.
Kosovo: An Identity between Local and Global
This paper presents a cross-disciplinary point of view about the study of culture and memory in the contemporary world, considering as case study the process of nation building in Kosovo, the newest nation in Europe. To do so, this paper critically blends suggestions from contemporary globalization studies and the semiotic model of the semiosphere. The processes of nation building acting in Kosovo represent an attractive object of analysis, especially after the independence declared by the Albanian majority. An independence that must be considered not only the consequence of the exacerbation of social relations between ethnic Serbs and Albanians, but has much more to do with the broader geopolitical frame in which it took place. This paper will then focus on tracking the glocal relations, which emerge through different areas of the society (economy, politics, media) in order to show how memory can become a tool to manipulate cultures and a weapon for great powers to achieve specific strategic targets. The final aim is to provide analysis increasingly concerned with the global relationship between the micro-realities of everyday life and the macro-dynamics of the contemporary world, to shed some light on the role of nations in the globalization era.
ALBANIAN NATIONALIST MOVEMENTS IN CONTEMPORARY KOSOVAR POLITICS.pdf
2017
The issue of Albanian nationalism is among the most contentious topics which was studied by local and foreign researchers for years.In its discourse, the Albanian nationalism is traced back to the Illyrians as the predecessors of current living Albanians in the Balkans. It is a diversified topic with many myths and legends, likewise glorious wars and outstanding national heroes. Given the fact that the Albanian territories had been ruled by various invasions during the centuries such as the Roman-Byzantine, Ottoman and Slavic, refers us to understand that the socio-political characters differ from each other based on circumstances and time. Moreover, Albanian nationalism in Kosovo almost has no difference from that of the Albanians living in Albania, Macedonia and beyond, because all of these fights and struggles has been for no purpose but for the unification of Albanian territories and the liberation of the country.In addition, the article argues about the Kosovar Albanian nationalist movements during former Yugoslavia emphasizing the period of Josip Broz Tito rule and the harsh regime of Slobodan Milosevic until the end of the war in 1999.
The War of the Myths: Creating the Founding Myth of Kosovo Albanians
2011
A distinctive Albanian character is present in shaping of Kosovo’s statehood. The official politics of history and identity diminish the importance of other ethnic communities and focuses on Albanian mythology, represented by mixture of contemporary and historical personalities, events, places and memories. Integrative and European-leaning from outside, Kosovo is more and more particular and Albanian from inside, leaving many doubts and uncertainties about the intercultural future of Europe’s newest state.Poseban albanski karakter prisutan je u oblikovanju kosovske državnosti. Službena politika povijesti i identiteta umanjuju važnost ostalih etnničkih zajednica i usredotočuje se na albansku mitologiju, predstavljenu kroz mješavinu sadašnjih i povijesnih ličnosti, događaja, mjesta i sjećanja. Integrativno i usmjereno Europi, Kosovo je sve više partikularno i albansko iznutra, ostavljajući mnoge dvojbe i neizvjesnosti o interkulturalnoj budućnosti najnovije države Europe