From Postcommunist “Transition” to the “Doorstep of Europe”?: Euroorientalisms in Southern Albania
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2013420102Keywords:
evropeizacija, evroorientalizmi, relativna lokacija, južna Albanija // Europeanization, Eurorientalisms, relative location, southern AlbaniaAbstract
Prispevek pojasnjuje, kako sta termin tranzicija, ki je bil še do nedavnega pogost v političnem in medijskem diskurzu kot tudi v vsakdanjih pogovorih ljudi v Albaniji, nadomestila izraza Evropa in/ali EU. V številnih pogovorih in diskurzih sta pogosto sinonimna, njun pomen pa implicira modernost, družbeni in ekonomski razvoj ter splošno blaginjo. Prek diskurzivnega mehanizma »evroorientalizmov« članek prikaže, kako posamezniki z vizijami in podobami o Evropi in EU pogosto nadomeščajo negotovo in nepredvidljivo sedanjost ter nenehno opredeljujejo zgodovinski in politični položaj Albanije na simbolnem zemljevidu Evrope. Njen položaj kot tudi položaj Evrope sta tako pomnožena in se redefinirata. Pomenska vrzel »Evrope« se polni z dvoumji, ki na eni strani izražajo »željo po Evropi«, na drugi pa »obrambo pred ne-Evropo«. Drsenje med Evropo in ne-Evropo oz. med središčem in obrobjem ustvarja Albanijo kot »relativno lokacijo«, ki v simbolni geografiji nikoli ni trdna in določena, temveč prej spremenljiva.
***
Nowadays, the term transition that was seldom used in the political and media discourse as well as in the daily talk of people living in Albania is substituted with the term Europe or EU. According to peoples' conversations and discourses both terms are often used as synonyms and their meanings pertain to modernity, social and economic development and general well being. With the reference to the discursive mechanism of »euroorientalisms« this paper illustrates and explains how peoples' feelings of uncertain and unsure present are replaced with their imaginaries and visions of Europe and EU and how these imaginaries are continuously shifting the historical and political location of Albania on the symbolic map of Europe. The location of Albania as well as Europe multiplies as it is redefined. The meaning of Europe is filled with ambiguities pertaining to the wish of »accession to Europe« on the one hand and the »defence against non- Europe« on the other. Continuous shifting between Europe and non-Europe or between centre and periphery constitutes Albania as a »relative location«, which is never fixed and static but rather changing.
Downloads
References
Adrey, Jean Bernard. 2009. Discourse and Struggle in Minority Language Policy Formation: Corsican Language Policy in the EU Context of Governance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bakić-Hayden, Milica. 1995. Nesting Orientalisms: The Case of Former Yugoslavia. Slavic Review 54 (4): 917–931.
Baskar, Bojan. 2003. Within or Without?: Changing Attitudes towards the Balkans in Slovenia. Ethnologia Balkanica 7: 195–206.
Burawoy, Michael and Katherine Verdery (ur.). 1999. Uncertain Transition: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Buyandelgeriyn, Maduhai. 2008. Post-Post-Transition Theories: Walking on Multiple Paths. Annual Review of Anthropology 37: 235–250. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.37.081407.085214
Fikfak, Jurij. 2009. Europe: Imagination and Practices. Introduction I. Traditiones 38 (2): 7–20. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2009380201
Garton Ash, Timothy. 2007. Europe's True Stories. Prospect Magazine 131, February.
Green, Sarah F. 2005. Notes from the Balkans: Locating Marginality and Ambiguity on the Greek-Albanian Border. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Green, Sarah F. 2009. Reciting the Future: Everyday Speculations about what might Happen Next on Two Greek Borders. COST Action IS0803 Working Paper, presented at the COST IS0803 meeting at the University of Aegean, Mytilene, Greece.
Green, Sarah F. 2012. Reciting the Future: Border Relocations and Everyday Speculations in Two Greek Border Regions. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 2 (1): 111–129.
Gregorič Bon, Nataša. 2008a. Prostori neskladij. Etnografija prostora in kraja v vasi Dhërmi/Drimades, Južna Albanija. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC.
Gregorič Bon, Nataša. 2008b. Negotiating Rubbish in Dhërmi/Drimades of Southern Albania. Tourism Culture and Communication 8 (2): 123–134.
Gregorič Bon, Nataša. 2008c. “Where are we? Europe or Albania”: Regionalism as seen by the Local People of Dhërmi/Drimades in Southern Albania. Dve domovini 27: 83–106.
Henig, David. 2010. Intimacies from the Margins of Europe. Durham Anthropology Journal 17 (1): 1–10.
Herzfeld, Michael. 1987. Anthropology Through a Looking Glass: Critical Ethnography in the Margins of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Herzfeld, Michael. 1997. Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State. London: Routledge.
Humphrey, Caroline. 2002. The Unmaking of Soviet Life: Everyday Economies after Socialism. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
Jaffe, Alexandra. 1993. Corsican Identity and a Europe of Peoples and Regions. V: Wilson, Thomas M. in M. Estellie Smith (ur.), Cultural Change and the New Europe: Perspectives on the European Community. Boulder, Co: Westview, 61–80.
Jansen, Stef. 2009. After the Red Passport: Towards an Anthropology of the Everyday Geopolitics of Entrapment in the EU’s “Immediate Outside”. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 15: 815–832. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2009.01586.x
Južnič, Stane. 1993. Albanci in Albanija. Teorija in praksa 30 (7/8): 739–758.
Kadare, Ismail. 2006. Identiteti Evropian i Shqiptareve. Tiranë: Onufri.
King, Russell in Julie Vullnetari. 2003. Migration and Development in Albania. Sussex: Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty.
Kockel, Ullrich. 2009. Coming Home to Europe: Ravels and Travails in a Lost Continent. Traditiones 38 (2): 41–58. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2009380204
Komel, Mirt in Blaž Ilc. 2009. Evroorientalizem. V: Beznec, Barbara (ur.), Evroorientalizem. (Z)nova medicina = Časopis za kritiko znanosti 37 (235/236). Ljubljana: Študentska založba, 13–15.
Korrieri. 2006. Shqipëria më një këmbë në BE, 12. 6.
Kuus, Merje. 2004. Europe's Eastern Expansion and the Reinscription of Otherness in East-Central Europe. Progress in Human Geography 28 (4): 472–489. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/0309132504ph498oa
Lubonja, Fatos. 2002. Between the Glory of a Virtual World and the Misery of a Real World. V: Schwandner-Sievers, S. in B. J. Fischer (ur.), Albanian Identities: Myth and History. London: Hurst & Company, 91–103.
Lubonja, Fatos. 2010. Tranzicion apo kalbëzim. Express, 28. 4. http://www.gazetaexpress.com/index.php?cid=1,90,29619
Majstorović, Danijela. 2009. Zapuščeno dvorišče Evrope. Srečevanja diskurzov mednarodne skupnosti in lokalnih politikov v Bosni in Hercegovini. V: Beznec, Barbara (ur.), Evroorientalizem. (Z)nova medicina = Časopis za kritiko znanosti 37 (235/236). Ljubljana: Študentska založba, 127–139.
Malcom, Noel. 2002. Myths of Albanian National Identity: Some Key Elements, as Expressed in the Works of Albanian Writers in America in the Early Twentieth Century. V: Schwandner-Sievers, S. in B. J. Fischer (ur.), Albanian Identities: Myth and History. London: Hurst & Company, 70-87.
Mastnak, Tomaž. 1998. Evropa. Med evolucijo in evtanazijo. Ljubljana: Studia Humanitatis (Apes).
Mitchell, Jon P. 2002. Ambivalent Europeans: Ritual, Memory and the Public Sphere in Mala. London: Routledge.
Musha, Julija. 2009. The Other Europe: Locating Albania in Contemporary European Discourse. http://udini.proquest.com/view/the-other-europe-locating-albania-pqid:1872578171/
Nic Craith, Máiréad. 2005. Europe and the Politics of Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Obad, Orlanda. 2010. The Importance of Being Central European: Traces of Imperial Border(s) in Croatian Accession to the EU. COST Action IS0803 Working Paper presented at the COST IS0803 WS4 meeting in Herzlia (Israel).
Petrović, Tanja. 2009. Gnezdenje kolonializmov. Novi in stari obrazci izključevanja na obrobju Evrope. V: Beznec, Barbara (ur.), Evroorientalizem. (Z)nova medicina = Časopis za kritiko znanosti 37 (235/236). Ljubljana: Študentska založba, 68–77.
Puntscher Reikmann, Sonja. 1997. The Myth of European Union. V: Hosking, G. in G. Schopflin (ur.), Myths and Nationhood. London: Hurts & Co and SEES, UCL, 60–71.
Qosja, Rexep. 2006. Realiteti i shpërfillur. Vështrim kritik mbi pikëpamjet e Ismael Kadaresë pë Identitetin Shqiptar. Tiranë: Toena.
Rilindja Demokratike. 2006. Berisha nënshkruan për Shqipërinë Evropiane, 12. 6.
Said, Edward W. 1995 (1978). Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient (With a New Afterword). London and New York: Penguin Books.
Standard. 2006. Evropa hap dyert për Shqiptarët, 12. 6.
Sulstarova, Enis. 2006. Provincializimi i Evropës’ dhe Debati Publik Mbi Integrimin Evropian. http://revistapolis.com/polis/index.php/polis-2--drejt-njurodyshimi-othermenu-50/41-provincializimi-i-evrop-dhe-debati-publik-mbi-integrimin-evropian
Todorova, Maria. 2005. Spacing Europe: What is a Historical Region? East Central Europe/ECE 32 (1–2): 59–78.
Todorova, Maria. 2009 (1997). Imagining the Balkans. New York: Oxford University Press.
Velikonja, Mitja. 2005. Euroza. Kritika novega evrocentrizma. Ljubljana: Mirovni Inštitut. http://www.mirovni-institut.si
Vidmar Horvat, Ksenija. 2012. Memory, citizenship, and Consumer Culture in Postsocialist Europe. V: Kockel, U., M. Nic Craith and J. Frykman (ur.), A Companion to the Anthropology of Europe. Malden, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 145–163.
Vullnetari, Julie. 2007. Albanian Migration and Development: State of the Art Review. IMISCOE Working Paper; 18, September.
Wilken, Lisanne. 2008. The Development of Minority Rights in Europe. V: Feyter, K. in G. Pavlakos (ur.), The Tension between Group Rights and Human Rights: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Oxfort: Hart, 89–104.
Wilken, Lisanne. 2012. Anthropological Studies of European Identity Construction. V: Kockel, U., M. Nic Craith and J. Frykman (ur.), A Companion to the Anthropology of Europe. Malden, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 125–144.
Winnifrith, T. J. 2002. Badlands – Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania. London: Duckworth.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors guarantee that the work is their own original creation and does not infringe any statutory or common-law copyright or any proprietary right of any third party. In case of claims by third parties, authors commit their self to defend the interests of the publisher, and shall cover any potential costs.
More in: Submission chapter
