Borderlands: Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Mediterranean Region and the Arab World 3700-ISSC-24-BEBMA
Aim of the course is reflection on questions revolving the notion of borderlands.
The central problem of the borderlands will be illustrated with case studies of the Polish Borderlands (Kresy), the German Bollewerk, the Balkan borderlands of military (Croatian- Vojna Krajina, German- Militärgrenze, Serbian- Војна Крајина, Hungarian-Katonai határőrvidék, Latin- Confiniaria militaria), religious and cultural character of the concept, and the series of lectures on Israel/Palestine and Lebanon (+ the context of other Arab countries), focused on conceptualizations of these territories as borderlands but with references to critique of the usage of an aforementioned notion. Another illustration of the specificity of the title category will be the cities and towns of the Slovenian-Italian border region, Dalmatia and eastern Poland.
What is the difference between borderlands and kresy? How are borderlands formed? What is the historical background of the contemporary borderlands existence? Is it possible to treat the whole region as a borderland? What is the result of such approach, how does it influence our understanding of a region? How can we identify the boundaries of the borderland? How do cultural traditions and identities form in the borderlands? How are everyday practices influenced by the borderland context? What is the role of materiality and symbolism in borderlands construction? How does the notion of borderlands work in a conflict reality? How to explore and research the complexity of the borderlands?
Outline of the topics:
Prof. dr hab. Jolanta Sujecka:
1. Borderlands: Polish Context
2. Borderlands: German Context
3. The Balkans as Borderland
4. Macedonia – Illustration of Borderlands
5. The Borderlands and Identity. Mediterranean and Balkan Context
Bibliografia:
Bartov Omer and Weitz Eric D. (2013) Shatter zone of Empires. Coexistence and Violence in the German, Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman Borderlands.
Budský Jaromír (1998) Etnická skladba osmanské makedonie v období let 1878 – 1913. Společenský a kulturní rozvoj jednotlivých, předevšim neslovanských národností na makedonském území, [in:] „Slovanské Historické Studie” 24. Praha, pp. 311- 372.
Las fronteras de Macedonia – la konversation de Geortche Petrov (1864/5–1921) kon Teodor Herzl (1860–1904) eskrita in ladino Colloquia Humanistica 1 (2012), pp. 276-285.
Dabek-Wirgowa Teresa (1997), Kresy bułgarsko-macedońskie, [in:] Kresy, pojęcie i rzeczywistość. Ed. by Kwiryna Handke. Instytut Slawistyki PAN (PAS). Warszawa, pp. 239-252.
Ǵorgiev Dragi (2013) The Name Macedonia in the Ottoman period (14th – 19th Century) [in:] Macedonia, Land, Region, Borderland. Conception and academic editing Jolanta Sujecka. Wydawnictwo DiG, pp.: 105-136.
Kamusella Tomasz (2018) Russian: A Monocentric or Pluricentric Language? Coloquia Humanistica 7 https://doi.org/10.11649/ch.2018.010, pp. 153-196.
Mazower Mark (2004) Salonica City of Ghosts. Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1930. Harper Perninal. London, pp: 421-475.
Snyder Timothy (2012) Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin.
Sujecka Jolanta (2003) Tradycja jako wyznacznik tożsamości narodu (na przykładzie Macedończyków i Bułgarów) [in:] Z polskich studiów slawistycznych. Seria X Literaturoznawstwo. Kulturologia. Folklorystyka. Ed. Lucjan Suchanek. Warszawa, pp. 187-192.
Sujecka Jolanta (ed.) (2013) Macedonia: Land, Region, Borderland. Wydawnictwo DiG. Warszawa.
Sujecka Jolanta (2015) Conceptualizations of the Balkans [in:] Tanja Zimmerman, Aleksandar Jakir (eds.), Europe and the Balkans. Decades of Europeanization?, Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg, pp. 47-53.
Sujecka Jolanta (2018) Multilevel Identity in the Balkans. Rafael Moshe Kamhi – Jewish,Macedonian, Bulgarian? [in:] Spain – India – Russia. Centres, Borderlands, and Peripheries of Civilisations. Anniversary Book Dedicated to Professor Jan Kieniewicz on His 80th Birthday. Ed. by Jan Stanisław Ciechanowski, Cristina González Caizán. Faculty of ‘ArtesLiberales’ of the University of Warsaw. Wydawnictwo Naukowe Sub Lupa. Warsaw, pp. 597-606.
Ossowski Stanisław (1967) Wielogłowy lewiatan a grupa społeczna. O perypetiach w socjologii. [in:] Stanisław Ossowski, Dzieła Volume 4, Warszawa.
Traba Robert (2007) Wschodniopruskość. Tożsamość regionalna i narodowa w kulturze politycznej Niemiec. Stowarzyszenie Wspólnota Kulturowa Borussia - Olsztyn.
Dr Maciej Falski
6. Border cities? The historical background of the formation of contemporary Slovenian-Italian borderland.
7. Biography as a tool to understand borderland community from below.
8. Different kinds of borders: ethnic, political, sociological. Dalmatia as an example
9. Zamojskie region: from borderland to the 'landscape of absence’
10. Between localness and centralising identities: notion of the cultural heritage.
Bibliography:
Falski M. (2021). ‘Architects of a provincial town’ in: Architects and their Societies. Cultural Study on the Habsburg-Slavic Area (1861-1938), red. A. Kobylińska i M. Falski, Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, pp.119—138.
Falski M. (2020). ‘Slovenian Elites in Trieste and their Role in the Formation of Local Communities’, Acta Poloniae Historica 121, pp. 43-64.
Fitta A. (2015), 'The difficult heritage of multiculturalism: Zamość and Lubartow, two examples from the Lublin region', Space & Form 23:1, 183-194’.
Heritage and the City (2019). Eds. J. Purchla & R. Kusek, Kraków: MCK.
Ivetic Egidio. (2021). Adriatyk: morze i jego cywilizacja. Kraków.
Jauković M. (2014). To Share or to Keep: The Afterlife of Yugoslavia’s Heritage and the Contemporary Heritage Management Practices, Politička misao 5, pp. 80-103.
Klusáková L. (2017). ‘Identifications of Small Peripheral Towns at the Turn of the 21st Century. Cultural Heritage, Use of Historical Examples, and Revitalization Strategies in Comparative Perspective’, Новое прошлое/The New Past 3, pp. 65-80.
Leidulf Mydland & Wera Grahn (2012) Identifying heritage values in local communities, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 18:6, 564-587, DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2011.619554
Maciulewicz, M. (2019). ‘Newcomers and locals. Invisible boundaries among inhabitants of the divided city in the Balkans’. Colloquia Humanistica 8, pp. 203–220.
Matvejević Predrag. Mediterranean breviary [wyd. pol. Brewiarz śródziemnomorski, Sejny 2003].
Multiple Biographies, Transcultural Experience. Colloquia Humanistica 3, 2014.
Neighbourhood as a Cultural and Social Problem. Colloquia Humanistica 4, 2015.
Dr hab. Michał Moch, prof. IKŚiO PAN
11. Mapping the contemporary South-Western Asia and Northern Africa. New borders and borderlands. The Decline of Empire(s)
12. Power, land, ethnicity, ethnocracy. Can we talk about modern Israel/Palestine as postcolonial borderlands?
13. Space and separation in conflicted borderlands. Zones of Conflict Daily experience and artistic representations
14. Popular music as a space of conflict and dialogue on the cultural, ethnic and transnational borderlands of Israel/Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt
15. The idea of Lebanon as a borderland of the West and the Arab world. Collective myths and political decline.
Bibliography:
Burkhalter, Thomas (2013). Local Music Scenes and Globalization: Transnational Platforms in Beirut. London: Routledge.
Even-Zohar, Itamar (1981). The emergence of a native Hebrew culture in Palestine: 1882–1948. Studies in Zionism: Politics, Society, Culture, 2(2), 167-184.
Gelbman, Alon & Keinan, Ofra (2007). National and transnational borderlanders’ attitudes towards the security fence between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. GeoJournal, 68(4), 279–291.
Gutkowski, Natalia (2021). Bodies that count: Administering multispecies in Palestine/Israel’s borderlands. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 4(1), 135–157.
Hartman, Michelle; Olsaretti, Alessandro (2003). ‘The First Boat and The First Oar’: Inventions of Lebanon in the Writings of Michel Chiha. Radical History Review, Issue 86, pp. 37-65.
Karkabi, Nadeem (2013). Staging Particular Difference: Politics of Space in the Palestinian Alternative Music Scene. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 6/2013, pp. 308-328.
Karkabi, Nadeem (2018), Electro-Dabke: Performing Cosmopolitan Nationalism and Borderless Humanity. Public Culture, volume 30 (1), Duke University Press, pp. 173-196.
Koensler, Alexander (2019). Affective Borderlands: Experiences in Practice of the Neo-Zionist Settling Enterprise in the Israeli Periphery. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 48(5), pp. 38–45.
LeVine, Mark (2022). We'll Play till We Die: Journeys across a Decade of Revolutionary Music in the Muslim World, Oakland: University of California Press, pp. 50–169.
Pappe, Ilan (2006). The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. London: Oneworld Publications.
Peteet, Julie (2017). Space and Mobility in Palestine. Bloomington-
Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Saada-Ophir, Galit (2006). Borderland Pop: Arab Jewish Musicians and the Politics of Performance. Cultural Anthropology, 21(2), pp. 205–233.
Said, Edward W. (1978), Orientalism. Western Conceptions of the Orient, New York: Pantheon Books.
Said, Edward W. (1994). Culture and Imperialism. 2nd edition, New York: Vintage Books.
Salibi, Kamal (1988). A House of Many Mansions. History of Lebanon Reconsidered. Berkeley: University of California.
Sand, Shlomo (2009). The Invention of the Jewish People. London–New York: Verso Books (translated from Hebrew, original version: 2008).
Selwyn, Tom (2001). “Landscapes of Separation: Reflections on the Symbolism of By-pass Roads in Palestine”, in: Bender, Barbara and Winer, Margot (eds). Contested Landscapes: Movement, Exile and Place. Oxford: Berg.
Smooha, Sammy (2022). The Arab-Jewish Divide and Arab Politics
in Israel, in: P. R. Kumaraswamy (ed.), The Palgrave International Handbook of Israel, Singapore: Springer, pp. 1–23, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2717-0_49-1
Tzfadia, Erez, Yacobi, Haim (2011). Rethinking Israeli Space: Periphery and Identity. London: Taylor & Francis.
Woźniak-Bobińska, Marta (2024). Druzification From Below: The Case of Arameans in the North Israel. Nations and Nationalism. Volume 30, Issue 2, April 2024, pp. 1–15, DOI: 10.1111/nana.13019.
Zerubavel, Yael (2019). Desert in the Promised Land. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Type of course
Prerequisites (description)
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
The seminar carries out humanistic, social and natural module of education.
Knowledge: the graduate
Understands the relationships between the various dimensions of social change (especially with regard to various aspects of mobility and "crises") and knows the approaches to this process related to many scientific fields and disciplines. (K_W02). Understands the historical and cultural context between the Eastern – Central Europe, Mediterranean region and the Balkans.
Abilities: the graduate is able to
Is able to select and make a critical assessment of information coming from various scientific, popular science, journalistic and other sources (K_U01). At the same time, adhere to all ethical principles, including those related to copyrights. Knows the rules of using data sources, including digital sources (K_U06). Is able to prepare the results of individual work in the form of a structured and argued oral presentation, but should find the topic from the scope of the lecture which was presented as a marginal topic or to present the presented (during the lecture) topic from the other point of view.
Social competences: the graduate is ready to
Is ready to show respect for partners in the discussion and uses substantive arguments; understands the principles of tolerance and cultural differences (K_K05). Understands the issues of multiethnicity and multiculturalism.
Assessment criteria
Positive grade is conditioned by regular active participation in classes.
The permissible maximum number of absences is 1. Second, third and fourth absence require obtaining credit. In the case of 5 absences credit for the course shall not be awarded.
Bibliography
Introductory literature, for general use:
Anderson Benedict (1985), Imagined Communities, London.
Assman Aleida (2013), Między historią a pamięcią. Antologia, red. M. Saryusz-Wolska, Warszawa.
Ben-Ari, Eyal & Bilu, Yoram (eds) (1997). Grasping Land: Space and Place in Contemporary Israeli Discourse and Experience. New York: State University of New York.
Bhabha, Homi K. (1994). The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.
Burszta Józef (1973), Kultura ludowa – kultura narodowa, Warszawa.
Chałasiński Józef (1968), Kultura i naród, Warszawa.
Chlebowczyk Józef (1975), Procesy narodotwórcze we wschodniej Europie środkowej w dobie kapitalizmu od schyłku XVII w. do początków XX w., Warszawa-Kraków.
Gellner Ernest, (1984), Nations and nationalism, Oxford.
Handke Kwiryna (1993), Region, regionalizm – pojęcia i rzeczywistość, Instytut Slawistyki PAN, Warszawa.
Handke Kwiryna (ed.) (1997) Kresy – pojęcie i rzeczywistość, Warszawa.
Jaffe-Schagen, Judy (2016). Having and Belonging. Homes and Museums in Israel. New York: Berghahn Books.
Khalidi, Rashid (2010). Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness. New York: Columbia University Press.
Kłoskowska Antonina (1990), Narodowe i uniwersalne tendencje w kulturze symbolicznej, “Kultura I Społeczeństwo”, nr 1.
Kłoskowska Antonina (2000), National Cultures at Grass-root Level, University of Washington Continuing Education; 1st Edition (February 1.
Moch Michał (2011), Michał Rőmer – „Polak litewski”, „krajowiec”, spadkobierca tradycji Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego [in:] Językowe i kulturowe dziedzictwo Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego. Księga jubileuszowa na 1000-lecie Litwy, ed. by Jolanta Mędelska & Zofia Sawaniewska-Mochowa, Bydgoszcz: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego, pp. 83-96.
Ossowski Stanisław (1948), Więź społeczna i dziedzictwo krwi, Warszawa.
Pedani Maria Pia (2017), The Ottoman – Venetian Border (15th – 18th Centuries), Hilâl Studi turchi e ottoman 5, ed. by Maria Pia Pedani & Elisabetta Ragagnin, translated by Mariateresa Sala, Venezia: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing.
Phillips, Christopher (2013). Everyday Arab Identity: The Daily Reproduction of the Arab World, London: Routledge.
Praczyk, Małgorzata (2018). Pamięć środowiskowa we wspomnieniach osadników na “Ziemiach Odzyskanych”. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Historii UAM.
Redfield Robert (1961), The little Community and Peasant Society and Culture, Chicago.
Reif-Hülser, Monika (ed.) (2021). Borderlands: negotiating boundaries in post-colonial writing. Leiden: Brill.
Said, Edward (1978). Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books.
Said, Edward (1993). Culture and Imperialism. London: Chatto & Windus, 1st ed.
Smith Anthony (1979), Nationalism in the Twentieth Century, New York.
Smith Anthony (2004), The Antiquity of Nations, Cambridge.
Smolicz Jerzy (1987), Wartości rdzenne i tożsamość kulturowa, “Kultura I Społeczeństwo” nr 1, s. 59-75.
Sternhell, Zeev (1998). The Founding Myths of Israel. Nationalism, Socialism, and the Making of the Jewish State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Straczuk Justyna (2006), Cmentarz i stół. Pogranicze prawosławno-katolickie w Polsce i na Białorusi, Monografie FNP Seria Humanistyczna, Wrocław.
Tazbir Janusz (1986), Szlaki kultury polskiej, Warszawa.
Tomaszewski Jerzy (1985), Rzeczpospolita wielu narodów, Warszawa.
Traba Robert (1999), Konstrukcja i proces dekonstrukcji narodowego mitu. Rozważania na podstawie analizy semantycznej polskich obchodów rocznic grunwaldzkich w XX wieku, „Komunikaty Mazursko-Warmińskie” nr 4.
Yiftachel, Oren (2006). Ethnocracy: Land and Identity Politics in Israel/Palestine. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Weizman, Eyal (2012). Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation. New York: Verso.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: