English » 70043 Nation-Building in the Balkans

70043 Nation-Building in the Balkans

Efthymia Kanner

Lecturer

canner[at]turkmas.uoa[dot]gr

3 hours per week

Course Objectives

Students completing the course should be able to:

Understand the building of nations in these societies as an outcome of the conflict with the imperial model and as an aspect of the worldwide transformations connected with the prevalence of the middle-class value system.
Identify and assess the various features of national ideologies.
Critically analyse the cultural, economic and political developments in the power relationships between the West and Balkans.

Course Structure

In this course we examine the process of the construction of national identities and nation-states in South-Eastern Europe from the 18th century, until World War II. We focus on:

National movements: social groups involved in these movements, national ideologies, European diplomacy and the creation of national states in this region.
National cohesion, disintegration mechanisms: socio-economic structures, political institutions, minority treatment, historiography as a tool of national ideology building in the new Balkan nation-states.
Theories on nationalism and nation emergence.

These topics are approached through historical sources and are theoretically contextualised. The course takes the form of a dialogue based on sources and bibliography available on the e-class platform.

Assessment

(a) A written assignment of 2.000 words (30% of the overall grade) on topics related to the course. A list of recommended titles is provided. Students are encouraged to present a draft of their assignment during the last session for comments by the teacher and the students;

(b) By participating in the final written examination (70% of the overall grade).

Required readings

Anderson, Benedict, 1983, Imagined Communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of Nationalism, Verso ed., London [Greek Edition, 1997, Nefeli Publishers, Athens].

Jelavich, Barbara, 1999, History of the Balkans, Vol. I 18th -19th Centuries/ Vol. II, 20th Century, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge-New York-Melbourne [Greek Edition, 2006, Polytropon Publishers, Athens].

Mazower, Mark, 2000, The Balkans, Weidenfend and Nicolson ed., London [Greek edition, 2008, Patakis Publishers, Athens].

Stavrianos, L.S., The Balkans since 1453, Dryden Press ed. 1958, [Greek edition, 2007, Vanias Publishers, Thessaloniki].

Todorova, Maria, “The Balkans: From Discovery to Invention”, Slavic Review 53/2 (1994), 453-482/ Hroch, Miroslav, “From National Movement to the Fully formed Nation, New Left Review 198 (1993), 3-20, [Greek edition, Todorova, Maria, Hroch, Miroslav, (1996), Εθνικό κίνημα και Βαλκάνια (National Movement and the Balkans), Themelio Publishers, Athens].

Bibliography

Anderson, Benedict, Φαντασιακές κοινότητες. Στοχασμοί για τις απαρχές και τη διάδοση του εθνικισμού, μτφρ., Ποθητή Χαντζαρούλα, Νεφέλη, Αθήνα 1997.

Jelavich, Barbara, Ιστορία των Βαλκανίων, Α΄ τόμος 18ος-19ος αι., μτφρ., Σταυρούλα Γιαννοπούλου, επιστ. επιμέλεια, Βάσιας Τσοκόπουλος, Πολύτροπον, Αθήνα, 2006.

–– Ιστορία των Βαλκανίων, Β΄ τόμος 20ός αι., μτφρ., Σταυρούλα Γιαννοπούλου, επιστ. επιμέλεια, Βάσιας Τσοκόπουλος, Πολύτροπον, Αθήνα, 2006.

Mazower, Mark, Τα Βαλκάνια, μτφρ. Κώστας Κουρεμένος, Πατάκης, Αθήνα 2002.

Σταυριανός, Λ.Σ., Τα Βαλκάνια από το 1453 και μετά, μτφρ., Ελένη Δελιβάνη, ιστορική επιμέλεια Βασίλης Κ. Γούναρης, Εκδ. Βάνιας, Θεσσαλονίκη 2007.