The Hidden Handshake: National Identity and Europe in the Post-communist WorldRowman & Littlefield, 2004 - 123 pages The Hidden Handshake uses four distinct, yet intertwined essays to address the questions surrounding our notions of citizenship, national identity, and cosmopolitan belonging. The violent disintegration of Yugoslavia and the undercurrent of EU enlargement stand out as two contrasting movements that highlight the importance of having a national identification while also defying it to avoid both the rigidity of nationalist exclusivism and the blithe nonsense of "global citizenship." Through the exploration of sociohistorical material and artistic visions as well as the author's layered identity as a Slovene, a Yugoslav, a Central European, and a European, Ale? Debeljak tries to show that it is possible to remain faithful to geography, history, and community even as one fosters links to global cultural movements. Not surprisingly, the book itself shares some of this hybrid identity. It uses not only theoretical concepts and empirical data, but also historical sketches on art, national life, and society, along with poetic autobiographical reminiscences and personal anecdotes. Ultimately, the book calls for an adoption of liberal nationalism, which is commensurate with democratic order, and for a more ecumenical understanding of artistic visions that does not discriminate on the grounds of one's place of origin. |
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Other editions - View all
The Hidden Handshake: National Identity and Europe in the Post-communist World Aleš Debeljak No preview available - 2004 |
The Hidden Handshake: National Identity and Europe in the Post-communist World Aleš Debeljak No preview available - 2004 |
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aesthetic aestheticism aestheticist African American Aleš Debeljak anthologies artistic avant-garde Balkan bilingual Budapest Central European civic identity collective communist contemporary Slovene context cosmopolitan countries creative critical cultural tradition Czesław Miłosz democratic economic Edvard Kocbek emotional English essay Europe's European Union existential experience fact foreign France Prešeren German global human Hungarian idea images imagination individual integration intellectual Ivan Cankar Jančar's kind language liberal linguistic live Ljubljana lyric McWorld meaning memory mental modern moral mother tongue narrative nation-state national cultural national identity nationalist neoliberal Neue Slowenische Kunst novel one's poems poetic poetry political post-communist postmodern Prešeren published reader Rožanc Šalamun sense Serbian Slovene cultural Slovene literary Slovene literature Slovene national Slovene poets Slovene writers Slovenia social story symbolic things tion Tomaž Tomaž Šalamun translated Trieste twentieth century understand universal Velvet Revolutions Vienna vision Western Europe York Yugoslav Yugoslavia