The birth and development of Balkanistic discourse (from the Enlightenment to the early 20th centaury) 4012-125C

The main aim of the course is to familiarize students with and analyse the evolution of the perception of the Balkan Peninsula in the 18th and 19th centuries. According to such historians as Larry Wolff and Maria Todorova, the geographical location of backward regions in the east and their separation from the modern West occurred in the 18th century. This is why the course will begin by analysing the Enlightenment perception of regions that French literature called the “Orient of Europe”. The following topics will be discussed:
Class 1 - Introduction, the notion of Balkanism and Orientalism
M. Todorova, Bałkany wyobrażone [Imagining the Balkans], Wołowiec 2008.
E. Said, Orientalizm [Orientalism], Poznań 2005.
Class 2 - The map of European civilization in the Enlightenment
1. The old division of Europe into north and south
2. The new border between West and East defined by the Enlightenment philosophers:
- Asian despotism - Montesquieu’s geopolitical philosophy
- the criterion of progress and backwardness vs. the new division of Europe in Voltaire’s Essays on the Manners of Nations
Montesquieu, O duchu praw [The Spirit of the Laws], Kraków 2003.
H. Samsonowicz, Północ – Południe, Wrocław 1999.
L. Wolff, “Voltaire’s Public and the Idea of Eastern Europe: Toward a Literary Sociology of Continental Division”, Slavic Review, vol. 54 No. 4.
L. Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe, The Map of Civilisation on the Mind of the Enlightenment, Stanford 1994.
Classes 3 and 4 - The European territories of Ottoman Turkey in the opinion of European travellers
1. Culture and customs in European Turkey in the reports of Western European travellers:
- Sir Henry Blount’s published in 1636
- Paul Lucas’ from 1707
- Charles Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt’s from 1798
- F. C. Pouqueville’s from 1799-1801
H. Blount, A Voyage into the Levant, London 1636.
P. Lucas, Voyage du sieur Paul Lucas, fait par ordre du roy dans la Grèce, l’Asie mineure, la Macédoine et l’Afrique, Paris 1712.
F. C. Pouqueville, Travels in Greece, and Turkey, comprehending a particular account of the Morea, Albania, etc., London 1820.
C. S. Sonnini, Travels in Greece and Turkey: undertaken by order of Louis XVI, London 1801.
C. S. Sonnini, Voyage en Grèce et en Turquie: fait par ordre de Louis XVI, Paris 1801.
A. Cirakman, From Tyranny to Despotism: The Enlightenment’s Unenlightened Image of the Turks, “International Journal of Middle East Studies”, vol. 33.
Class 5 - Stereotypes regarding Turkey and the development of the Balkanism concept
1. Stereotypes related to Balkanism vs. stereotypes regarding Ottoman Turkey
2. The customs of Balkan peoples in the context of Turkish customs
B. Jezernik, Dzika Europa. Bałkany w oczach zachodnich podróżników [Wild Europe. The Balkans in the Gaze of Western Travellers], Kraków 2007, p. 12-48.
M. Todorova, Bałkany wyobrażone [Imagining the Balkans], Wołowiec 2008.
E. Said, Orientalizm [Orientalism], Poznań 2005.
M. Todorova, The Trap of Backwardness: Modernity, Temporality, and the Study of Eastern European Nationalism, Slavic Review, vol. 64, No. 1.
Class 6 - Knowledge of geography, history, and basic information on the peoples inhabiting the Balkans in scholarly texts from the Enlightenment
1. Names used in the sources, their accuracy, and differences in name usage between sources
2. Familiarity with the geography of the Balkans compared to other countries in Europe
3. Geographical knowledge on the region and the development of the notion of Eastern Europe
L. Wolff, Mapping eastern Europe: Political geography and cultural cartography, [in:] idem, Inventing Eastern Europe, The Map of Civilisation on the Mind of the Enlightenment, Stanford 1994.
Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique, Paris 1954, the entry Géographie.
Voltaire, A philosophical dictionary, London 1843, the entry Geography.
Voltaire, Essai sur les mœurs, Génève 1771.
Classes 7 and 8 - The customs of the Balkan peoples in the eyes of the enlightened observer - Alberto Fortis and his travels in Dalmatia
1. Political background - the history of Venetian expansion in Dalmatia
2. Presentation of the Slavs’ customs and the stereotype of the “noble savage”
3. How the work was received and its popularity in Europe
A. Fortis, Travels Into Dalmatia, Ayer Publishing 1971.
T. J. Ellingson, The Myth of the Noble Savage, Berkeley 2001.
B. Jezernik, Dzika Europa [Wild Europe], the chapter on A. Fortis
P. Topping, “Venice’s Last Imperial Venture”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 120, No. 3.
L. Wolff, Venice and the Slavs: The Discovery of Dalmatia in the Age of Enlightenment, Stanford 2001.
Classes 9 and 10 - The barbarian customs of wild Europe in 19th-century travel accounts
1. The Balkan coast of the Adriatic Sea - land of robbers and troublemakers (the popularity of the story of Sočivica the outlaw and Stephen the Small)
2. Customs of Montenegro in the travel account of Vialla de Sommières
3. Customs of Balkan peoples in the account of Edmund Spencer
4. Serbia in the first half of the 19th century as described by Andrew Paton
V. de Sommières, Travels in Montenegro: containing a topographical, picturesque, and statistical account of that hitherto undescribed country; illustrated by a map and plates, London 1820.
A. Paton, Servia: The Youngest Member of the European Family: Or, a Residence in Belgrade, and Travels in the Highlands and Woodlands of the Interior, During the Years 1843-1844, London 1845.
E. Spencer, Travels in European Turkey in 1850, London 1851.
B. Jezernik, Dzika Europa [Wild Europe], p. 123-150.
A. Pippidi, Naisscance, renaisscance et mort du “bon sauvage”. A propos de Morlaques et de Valaques, [in:] idem, Hommes et idées du sud-ouest européen, Éditions du C.N.R.S, Paris 1980.
Classes 11 and 12 - The Balkans’ ancient heritage and backward present
1. History of degeneration? - the issue of the region belonging to Roman civilization in antiquity vs. the region’s subsequent history and the evolution of the communities living there
2. The Philhellenic movement - Western European ideas and disappointments:
- the travel account of Edward Daniel Clarke
- John Murray’s guide for travellers in Greece
E. D. Clarke, Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa, London 1817, vol. 2.
J. Murray, Handbook for travellers in Greece, London 1854.
V. Penn, “Philhellenism in Europe, 1821-1828”, The Slavonic and East European Review, vol. 16, No. 48.
M. Todorova, Bałkany wyobrażone [Imagining the Balkans], p. 195-250.
Class 13 - The Romantic fascination with the Balkans
1. The allure of Balkan’s wild environment in the analysed accounts
2. Montenegro - romantic land of freedom
3. Western Europe’s discovery of the folk epic poetry of the southern Slavs: La Guzla, ou choix de poésies illyriques
4. The popularity of Balkan themes in 19th-century European literature
V. de Sommières, Travels in Montenegro: containing a topographical, picturesque, and statistical account of that hitherto undescribed country; illustrated by a map and plates, London 1820.
P. Mérimée, La Guzla, ou choix de poésies illyriques, Paris 1927.
A. Lord, “History and Tradition in Balkan Oral Epic and Ballad”, Western Folklore, vol. 31, No. 1.
Class 13 and 14 - The benefits of Western civilization in the Balkans in the second half of the 19th century
1. “Europeanization” in the late 19th and early 20th century in the Balkans
2. Europeazation of the Balkans in the travel accounts of Harry de Windt and Humphry Sandwith
- the travellers’ attitude towards visible Western influences on customs in the Balkans
- evaluating the imperial administration’s actions in the Habsburg estates in the Balkans vs. colonial discourse
- between East and West - contrasts noticed by travellers
H. Sandwith, Notes on the South Slavonic countries in Austria and Turkey in Europe, London 1865.
H. de Windt, Through savage Europe, London 1907.
S. Pavlowitch, “Early Nineteenth-Century Serbia in the Eyes of British Travelers”, Slavic Review, vol. 21, No. 2.
P. Sugar, “The Nature of the Non-Germanic Societies under Habsburg Rule”, Slavic Review, vol. 22, No. 1.
B. Jezernik, Dzika Europa [Wild Europe], p. 236-247.
Class 15 - Summary
1. The main elements of Western European discourse on the Balkans
2. Which elements of the Western perception of the Balkans have survived to our times? A discussion based on excerpts from Robert Kaplan’s Balkan Ghosts
M. Todorova, The Balkans: From Discovery to Invention, “Slavic Review”, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Summer, 1994), p. 453-482.
M. Todorova, Bałkany wyobrażone [Imagining the Balkans], p. 251-300.
R. Kaplan, Bałkańskie upiory [Balkan Ghosts], Wołowiec 2009.