Velickovic, Vedrana

Kingston University Research Repository

Balkanisms old and new: the discourse of Balkanism and self-othering in Vesna Goldsworthy's Chernobyl Strawberries and Inventing Ruritania

This paper explores the discourse and counter-discourse of Balkanism. After an overview of theoretical debates around the concept of Balkanism, Vesna Goldsworthy’s recent memoir Chernobyl Strawberries is considered and placed in a dialogue with her academic study Inventing Ruritania. A final section examines how the idea of Balkanism has been modified in the decade ensuing Inventing Ruritania, in light of recent migration flows from Eastern Europe to Britain and in light of discourses around the “Eastern European body” as represented in British media and literature. The final section also looks briefly at the representations of Eastern Europe in one of Bernadine Evaristo’s blogs and Dubravka Ugreši’s essays

Balkanisms old and new: the discourse of Balkanism and self-othering in Vesna Goldsworthy's Chernobyl Strawberries and Inventing Ruritania

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