Interventions ( IF 0.477 ) Pub Date : 2021-01-25 , DOI: 10.1080/1369801x.2020.1863842 Dušan I. Bjelić 1
The “geography” of the Balkans is “prisoner” to a double discursive “incarceration”: externally, within the field of balkanism and internally, within the national paradigm. “Geography” is a symbolically inscribed region, and the Balkans’ historical legacy defines the region as a specific “geography,” however national paradigm defines historical legacy. If the national paradigm were abolished, this would rupture the chain of top-down signification and leave the geography open to a multitude of intersecting histories. To this end, this essay examines two canons of national paradigms: those of Benedict Anderson and Maria Todorova. Central to each paradigm is the incommensurability thesis of nationalism and racism, race, and nationality. To argue the opposite to their thesis – that modern nations are racial formations, that nation is not imagined but rather racialized communities – this essay strategically uses “race” to show how the national paradigm recycles Eurocentric colonial amnesia and inscribes the Balkans “geography” as raceless.
中文翻译:
废除国家范式
巴尔干的“地理”是双重话语“监禁”的“囚徒”:在外部,在巴尔干主义领域内,在内部,在国家范式内。“地理”是一个象征性地铭刻的区域,巴尔干的历史遗产将该地区定义为特定的“地理”,而国家范式则定义了历史遗产。如果国家范式被废除,这将打破自上而下的意义链,使地理学向众多交叉历史敞开。为此,本文考察了国家范式的两个经典:本尼迪克特·安德森和玛丽亚·托多罗娃的经典。每个范式的核心是民族主义和种族主义、种族和国籍的不可通约性论题。为了反驳他们的论点——现代国家是种族结构,