GREGOR TOMC (Institute of Social Sciences, Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Representations of the Balkans

The generation of young Slovenes grew up in the 80's, a period of increasing confederalisation of the Yugoslav administrative context as well as of the contraction of social networks to the existing ethnic borders. They internalised a Central European regional identity, but through exposure to Balkan popular culture in mass media also became superficially familiar with the Balkan regional identity. The superficial nature of this identity implies a somewhat idealised picture of the Balkans (as the context of creativity, hedonism, authenticity etc.) and much less of the less pleasant aspects of Balkanism (patriarchalism, submisivness, conflict etc.). Our main thesis is that they never actively belonged to the Balkans. Their belonging was a passive cultural identification, not an integral part of their everyday existence. Somewhat paradoxicaly we can conclude that the young Slovenes did not interpret the disintegration of the Yugoslav administrative context as a radical contingent event: as they never really belonged, they also never had to leave it behind.