AT THE EDGE OD EUROPE: BALKAN AS A EUROPEAN PERIPHERY
AT THE EDGE OD EUROPE: BALKAN AS A EUROPEAN PERIPHERY

Summary/Abstract: The goal of this article is to describe and explain the ways how Balkan is constructed and perceived as a metageographical and metaphorical concept. Author discusses the flexibility of demarcation of the Balkan borders in the mental maps and the flexibility of the category of the Balkan as well. In this article it is assumed that the relation between ‘Europe’ and ‘Balkan’ is in fact the relation between the power centre and the periphery. Thus Balkan is Orientalised and quasi-colonialised by the ‘Europe’ through the mechanisms related to the power discourses, ways of reporting, thinking and perceiving the Balkan. Moreover, the author suggests that the final consequence of such discourses is manifested in the policy of European institutions towards some Balkan countries. The author’s argumentation is based on the comparison of orientalist and balkanist discourses and on the reactions to postcolonial studies that come from the Balkan researchers themselves.

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