Albanians, albanianism and the strategic subversion of stereotypes

Pages: 110-126

DOI: 10.4324/9781315241166-16

Abstract:

It has been suggested that Albania serves the ‘ideal Balkan type - violent, independent, and at times untrustworthy’, one which, ahistorically, ‘both touched Lord Byron’s creative fantasies and haunts Robert Kaplan’s recent travels’.3 In tackling ‘Albanianism’, this contribution aims to go beyond the classic focus of the balkanist debate, which has paid particular attention to the global politics of representation and the impact of Western imageries of the Balkans on diplomatic and military policy. Rather, the chapter aims to explore the discursive field of mutual perceptions between Albanians and the outside world as it has developed in new situations of contact, the historical trajectories of this field in the Albanian, English and German contexts, and the ways in which mutual perceptions inform the everyday practices and survival strategies of those Albanians identified by them. Assuming that images may have an impact on real lives, Albanians will be discussed as actors who, in changing historical contexts, react to, subvert, produce and reproduce, and sometimes manipulate the stereotypes projected onto them by outsiders. In rejecting the idea that balkanist constructions are passively received, both implicit ideological alliances and antagonisms between the Albanian and Western essentialisation of ‘Albanianness’ can be sought, and those who benefit or suffer from such generalisations can be identified.

Source: Scopus

Albanians, Albanianism and the Strategic Subversion of Stereotypes

Authors: Schwandner-Sievers, S.

Editors: Hammond, A.

Pages: 110-126

Publisher: Ashgate Pub Limited

Place of Publication: Aldershot

ISBN: 9780754632344

Abstract:

Book abstract: this collection of essays locates, investigates and challenges the manner in which the Balkans and the West have constructed each other since 1945.

Source: Manual

Preferred by: Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers