Nr 1 (2012): The Continuity and Discontinuity as a Research Problem
Editors-in-Charge of the issue [Redaktorzy Prowadzący] 1/2012: Jolanta Sujecka i Maciej Falski
Complete list of reviewers for the issue 1 [Lista recenzentów numeru 1]
This first installment defining the future profile of the annual publication as a whole focuses on the theme of continuity and dis-continuity as a specific norm in culture, language, literature, and finally, history; because the importance of the theme reaches beyond the area of Polish culture, it was designed as a distinct volume, presented in English. The choice of Macedonia and the Balkans as an exemplification of the theme of continuity and dis-continuity, as well as the European context signaled in the title, are not coincidences. Macedonia, representing a relatively young identity, is shown from a double perspective, as an integral part of the Balkan cultural spectrum and as part of Europe. Thus, the Macedonian distinctiveness allows a reflection of a more profound nature, a consideration of the viability of the European model of cultural continuity.
Both concepts, that of the Balkans and that of Europe, date from the same time; the divide drawn by the Ottoman conquest defined for centuries two distinct developmental paths, on one hand, the Balkan-Oriental, tangled with the Greek-Byzantine and the Slavia Byzantina, shaped as a common cultural time-space, and on the other, the European, becoming more remote.
The new 'European' scenario required corrections to the local history or an admission to a 'lack' identified with the sense of cultural inferiority, with living on the periphery clearly called the Balkans, seen not as a value in itself but as a periphery of Europe. The awareness of inferiority, or possibly of being at an earlier stage of civilizational development, was so pronounced among the Ottoman, Greek and Slavonic elites that in periodicals published as late as mid 19th c., the preferred term was 'Turkish Europe,' rather than the Balkans; the latter carried an unequivocally negative connotation.
Balkan political evolution brought the Ottoman Empire to a collapse and resulted in a gradual withdrawal of Turkey from South-Eastern Europe; during the entire 19th century, when the new national states were emerging, they caused an ideological break of continuity and the rearranging of their own history without the Balkans but through individual aspirations to become European. These tendencies were more or less justified but they never provided arguments that would support the belief in a full cultural parallelism; at most, they opened the way to 'noble' falsifications committed within particular national traditions. For that reason, papers produced by anthropologists, literary historians, cultural scholars and sociologists reveal a lack of parallel processes in comparison with Europe and highlight the distinctiveness of the Macedonian, and by the same token, Balkan course of development.
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This is an archived issue. It contains the metadata and abstracts of all articles and the full version only of those articles whose authors have approved publication in an electronic Open Access version under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 PL License. All articles are available via CEEOL (http://www.ceeol.com).[Numer archiwalny. Zawiera metadane oraz abstrakty wszystkich artykułów, natomiast pełne teksty tylko tych, których autorzy wyrazili zgodę na publikację tekstu w wersji elektronicznej, w wolnym dostępie, na licencji CC BY 3.0 PL. Pełny numer jest dostępny w bazie CEEOL (http://www.ceeol.com).]
Opublikowane:
2015-07-22
