CERC Public Seminar: 'The Image of Europe in Contemporary Balkan Drama'

Tuesday 24 April, 1:00-2:00pm
at Room 212, Level 2, 234 Queensberry Street, The University of Melbourne

presented by

Mr Ivan Dodovski

(PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham, UK)

Download audio mp3 (approx 14 MB)

Abstract

Essential to the invention of Europe was the self-affirmation in the face of opposition to Islam or the Orient externally and the ambivalent borderlands internally (Delanty, 1994). The Balkans were one of the border regions. Likewise, however, the self-perceptions within the Balkan cultures were shaped in fundamental relation to projected images of Europe. The presentation explores this issue by looking at different images of Europe in contemporary Balkan drama. One can speak of several variations, which nonetheless follow two conflicting categories. On the one hand, the Balkans are perceived as a ‘cradle of civilizations’. This is an image of a locus of cultural cornucopia from which Europe – through Antiquity – has received a fundamental dimension of its identity (Stoianovich, 1994). On the other hand, in view of the Ottoman legacy, the West has construed the Balkans as an ambiguous borderland, not as an oriental Other but rather as “an incomplete self” (Todorova, 1997) which is denied “an access in the European sphere of modernity” (Norris, 1999). Being superior in terms of cultural legacies or lagging behind in terms of modern development, - these views on the Balkans vis-à-vis Europe are both reflected and refracted in several Balkan plays. The presentation focuses in particular to the following tropes: Europe as a sanctuary, or an escape from Balkan violence and backwardness; Europe as an embodiment of consumerism, rationalisation and alienation; Fortress Europe; and Europe as a dystopia.

Biography

Ivan Dodovski studied general and comparative literature with American studies, and received his MPhil from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. He specialised in narratology and Macedonian and South Slavonic Literatures. Presently he is PhD student at the University of Nottingham, UK. His current research relates to self-representation of Balkan identities in contemporary Balkan drama. He has published the study Narrative Strategies in Psychological Novel (2004), and edited the collection Multiculturalism in Macedonia: an Emerging Model (2005). He is also author of three poetry books, and a collection of short stories. Previously he worked for the Open Society Institute – Macedonia for six years, and as a freelance theatre critic.