Balkan Beauty, Balkan Blood

Balkan Beauty, Balkan Blood PDF Author: Robert Elsie
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810123371
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
In these stories representing the last three decades of Albanian writing--especially the burst of creativity in the newfound freedom of the 1990s--readers will encounter work that reflects the literary paradox of Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century: the startling originality of the new uneasily coupled with the strains of history; the sophistication and self-consciousness of late (or post-) modernity married to the simplicity of a literature first finding its voice; a refusal of political influence and pressure expressed through frankly political subject matter.

Balkan Beauty, Balkan Blood

Balkan Beauty, Balkan Blood PDF Author: Robert Elsie
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810123371
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
In these stories representing the last three decades of Albanian writing--especially the burst of creativity in the newfound freedom of the 1990s--readers will encounter work that reflects the literary paradox of Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century: the startling originality of the new uneasily coupled with the strains of history; the sophistication and self-consciousness of late (or post-) modernity married to the simplicity of a literature first finding its voice; a refusal of political influence and pressure expressed through frankly political subject matter.

Balkan Blues

Balkan Blues PDF Author: Joanna Labon
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 9780810113251
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Essays, stories and a play set in Yugoslavia. The title piece, written by Dubravka Ugresic, is a satire on murderous folklore, while Bogdan Bogdanovic's The City of Death is on Belgrade.

The Balkans in World History

The Balkans in World History PDF Author: Andrew Baruch Wachtel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199882738
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
In the historical and literary imagination, the Balkans loom large as a somewhat frightening and ill-defined space, often seen negatively as a region of small and spiteful peoples, racked by racial and ethnic hatred, always ready to burst into violent conflict. The Balkans in World History re-defines this space in positive terms, taking as a starting point the cultural, historical, and social threads that allow us to see this region as a coherent if complex whole. Eminent historian Andrew Wachtel here depicts the Balkans as that borderland geographical space in which four of the world's greatest civilizations have overlapped in a sustained and meaningful way to produce a complex, dynamic, sometimes combustible, multi-layered local civilization. It is the space in which the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, of Byzantium, of Ottoman Turkey, and of Roman Catholic Europe met, clashed and sometimes combined. The history of the Balkans is thus a history of creative borrowing by local people of the various civilizations that have nominally conquered the region. Encompassing Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey, the Balkans have absorbed many voices and traditions, resulting in one of the most complex and interesting regions on earth.

Historical Dictionary of Kosovo

Historical Dictionary of Kosovo PDF Author: Robert Elsie
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810874830
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 453

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Book Description
As the seventh and probably last state to arise from the ruins of the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo is the newest country in Europe. For centuries, Kosovo, also known as Kosova, was part of the Ottoman Empire, and for most of the 20th century, it was a province of what was once Yugoslavia. After the military conflict in 1998-1999 and a period of administration by the United Nations, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008. Focusing not only on Kosovo's turbulent recent years, the second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Kosovo also relates the country's rich culture and long history. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, places, and events; institutions and organizations; and political, economic, social, cultural, and religious facets. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Kosovo.

Blood Ties

Blood Ties PDF Author: İpek Yosmaoğlu
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801469791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The region that is today the Republic of Macedonia was long the heart of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. It was home to a complex mix of peoples and faiths who had for hundreds of years lived together in relative peace. To be sure, these people were no strangers to coercive violence and various forms of depredations visited upon them by bandits and state agents. In the final decades of the nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, however, the region was periodically racked by bitter conflict that was qualitatively different from previous outbreaks of violence. In Blood Ties, İpek K. Yosmaoğlu explains the origins of this shift from sporadic to systemic and pervasive violence through a social history of the "Macedonian Question." Yosmaoğlu’s account begins in the aftermath of the Congress of Berlin (1878), when a potent combination of zero-sum imperialism, nascent nationalism, and modernizing states set in motion the events that directly contributed to the outbreak of World War I and had consequences that reverberate to this day. Focusing on the experience of the inhabitants of Ottoman Macedonia during this period, Yosmaoğlu shows how communal solidarities broke down, time and space were rationalized, and the immutable form of the nation and national identity replaced polyglot, fluid associations that had formerly defined people’s sense of collective belonging. The region was remapped; populations were counted and relocated. An escalation in symbolic and physical violence followed, and it was through this process that nationalism became an ideology of mass mobilization among the common folk. Yosmaoğlu argues that national differentiation was a consequence, and not the cause, of violent conflict in Ottoman Macedonia.

Anna's Dance: A Balkan Odyssey

Anna's Dance: A Balkan Odyssey PDF Author: Michele Levy
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
ISBN: 1684334861
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
It’s 1968. The world is in turmoil. So is twenty-three-year-old Anna Rossi, who questions everything about her life, from her mostly Jewish heritage to her fear of intimacy. Summer in Europe with a childhood friend offers a perfect way to escape her demons. When her friend abandons her in Italy, Anna makes the rash decision to travel on with strangers. Her journey takes a perilous turn, leading her into conflict in Eastern Europe and into the heart of the Balkans. Love, Intrigue, Betrayal—Anna must find the strength to survive.

Kosovo

Kosovo PDF Author: James Ker-Lindsay
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857714120
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
In 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Was this the final chapter in the break-up of Yugoslavia and the successful conclusion to the Balkan Wars of the 1990s? Or was it just one more wrong turn in the path to stability in the Balkans which has set a dangerous precedent for regional conflict throughout the world? When the UN Security Council authorised negotiations to determine the final status of Kosovo in October 2005, most observers confidently expected the Serbian province to become an independent state by the end of the following year. However, the process did not go as planned. After two years of discussions, conducted by two different sets of mediators, the two sides had still not reached an agreement. With the risk of violence in Kosovo increasing, Western leaders appeared to be left with no choice but to accept a unilateral declaration of independence - despite the destabilising effects that this might have on regional and international security. James Ker-Lindsay here charts the course of Kosovo's path to independence. He points out the serious flaws in the way the talks were conducted and shows how the discussions became caught up in renewed East-West tensions. This clear and perceptive account will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in the recent history of the Balkans or in international conflict resolution.

Travels in Blood and Honey

Travels in Blood and Honey PDF Author: Elizabeth Gowing
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781904955900
Category : Bee culture
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Kosovo: the name conjures up blood: ethnic cleansing and war. This book reveals another side to the newest country in the world a land of generous families, strong tastes and lush landscapes: a land of honey. Elizabeth Gowing is rushed to Kosovo, on a blind date with the place, when her partner is suddenly offered the position of adviser to Prime Minister Agim ?eku. Knowing nothing of the language or politics, she is thrown into a world of unpronounceable nouns, unfamiliar foods and bewilderingly hospitable people. On her first birthday in Kosovo she is given a beehive as a gift, and starts on a beekeeping apprenticeship with an unknown family; through their friendship and history she begins to understand her new home. Her apprenticeship leads her to other beekeepers too: retired guerrilla fighters, victims of human trafficking, political activists, a women's beekeeping group who teach her how to dance, and the Prime Minister himself. She dons a beekeeper's veil, sees the bees safely through winter, manages to use a smoker, learns about wicker skeps, gets stung, harvests her honey and drizzles it over everything. In between, she starts working at Pristina s forgotten Ethnological Museum, runs a project in a restored stone house below the Accursed Mountains and falls in love with a country she had known only as a war.

The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction

The Complete Review Guide to Contemporary World Fiction PDF Author: M.A. Orthofer
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231518501
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description
A user-friendly reference for English-language readers who are eager to explore contemporary fiction from around the world. Profiling hundreds of titles and authors from 1945 to today, with an emphasis on fiction published in the past two decades, this guide introduces the styles, trends, and genres of the world's literatures, from Scandinavian crime thrillers and cutting-edge Chinese works to Latin American narco-fiction and award-winning French novels. The book's critical selection of titles defines the arc of a country's literary development. Entries illuminate the fiction of individual nations, cultures, and peoples, while concise biographies sketch the careers of noteworthy authors. Compiled by M. A. Orthofer, an avid book reviewer and the founder of the literary review site the Complete Review, this reference is perfect for readers who wish to expand their reading choices and knowledge of contemporary world fiction. “A bird's-eye view of titles and authors from everywhere―a book overfull with reminders of why we love to read international fiction. Keep it close by.”—Robert Con Davis-Udiano, executive director, World Literature Today “M. A. Orthofer has done more to bring literature in translation to America than perhaps any other individual. [This book] will introduce more new worlds to you than any other book on the market.”—Tyler Cowen, George Mason University “A relaxed, riverine guide through the main currents of international writing, with sections for more than a hundred countries on six continents.”—Karan Mahajan, Page-Turner blog, The New Yorker

Historical Dictionary of Albania

Historical Dictionary of Albania PDF Author: Robert Elsie
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0810861887
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 663

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Book Description
Albania is not well known by outsiders; it was deliberately closed to the outside world during the communist era. Now it has thankfully become free again, its borders are open and it can be visited, and it is increasingly integrating with the rest of Europe and beyond. Unfortunately, Albania has had its share of problems in the post-communist era; it's a land of destitution and despair, thanks in part to the Albanian mafia, which has turned the country into one of blood-feuds, kalashnikovs, and eternal crises. Yet, Albania is, in essence, a European nation like any other ...