Balcanica
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The Balcanica is an annual, peer-reviewed journal of the interdisciplinary Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA). Their histories have been intertwined since 1934, when King Alexander of Yugoslavia founded the Balkan Institute in Belgrade as the only of its kind in the region. The newly-founded institute started to publish Revue internationale des Etudes balkaniques, a high-profile scholarly outlet that disseminated the findings of the most prominent European experts on the Balkans. This journal was terminated, along with the work of the institute itself, in 1941 by the order of the German occupation authorities. It was not before 1969 that the institute resumed its scholarly activities under its present-day name and within the framework of the SASA. The Balcanica became a principal platform for publishing the results of Serbian (and former Yugoslav) scholars as well as their foreign colleagues interested in different aspects of Balkan studies.
Today, more than ever, Balcanica reflects the original aspirations of its founders: its aim is to publish articles of the highest standard which deal with the Balkans from prehistoric times to modern age and through the prism of a number of disciplines. These encompass archaeology, anthropology, ethnography, history, art history, linguistics, literature, law. Such orientation perfectly fits with the most recent scholarly trends in humanities and it will contribute, along with other sustained efforts to further advance the quality and impact of its issues, to Balcanica’s finding its place among the top internationally-renowned journals of this kind. In order to increase our visibility and reach as wide readership as possible, the Balcanica is published in English language with the exception of a small number of articles written in French or German.
Journal website
Institutional repository
ISSN: 0350-7653
eISSN:2406-0801
Pages
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- Studying the minority groups' identities in the Balkans from the perspective of language ideology
- The study of linguistic ideology, which can be defined as sets of beliefs about language articulated by users and observers as a rationalization or justification of perceived language structure and use, could be a source of valuable information on identity strategies in the Balkans. I will try to determine the relation between linguistic ideologies of "Balkanism" formed by Western scholars and observers and that one formed by scholars coming from the region, as well as to explore the ways how these ideologies are reflected in the linguistic ideology of the members of small ethnic groups in the Balkans. Such an approach can essentially contribute to understanding of the identity strategies of such groups. It makes a researcher aware of broader ideological frames of interpretation to which the "outside" expert discourse of small ethnic groups and their language belongs; on the other hand, an "inner" perspective provided by exploring the linguistic ideology of speakers themselves provides her or him with the first-hand information on the links between macro-processes such as economic and social changes, life of group's members in their micro worlds. Considering the perspective of language ideology would help a researcher to avoid the danger of considering only one side of the story and by that reproducing discourse which is also ideologically loaded.
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- The 'zograph' model of orthodox painting in Southeast Europe 1830-1870
- The "zograph" model of painting from 1830 to 1870 represents a important period of development in sacral Orthodox Christian art in the Ottoman Empire. It was formed as a component part of the church revival from 1830 to 1870 and a unified supra-national cultural model in South East Europe. The "zograph" model of Orthodox Christian painting shows that the region of "European Turkey" did not represent a civilization void, exclusively dominated by an ethnic folkloric culture, but a specific cultural model, conditioned by political, social and religious conditions.
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- The Aspects of French Literature in the Belgrade Journal 'Delo' 1894-1915
- In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the press in Serbia underwent a substantial change and began to reflect cultural trends in society. Delo, defined as a magazine for science, literature and social life, attracted a wide circle of contributors, intellectuals with different outlooks and views. Its editors and contributors, mostly educated and trained in European cultural centres, contributed to the creation of a climate conducive to the modernization of Serbian culture. This paper focuses on the role of French cultural and literary trends launched in the Delo, whose editors and contributors closely followed the leading French journals, translating and publishing the texts they deemed important for Serbia's cultural development. French literature offered guidelines and models to the realist and naturalist movements, subsequently also to modernist and avantgarde tendencies in Serbian literature. The start of the journal in 1894 is associated with the Radical Party, but the Radical ideological influence on the journal was not as strong as might be expected. Choosing science, literature and social life as the journal's areas of interest the founders and editors demonstrated their commitment to modernizing the young Serbian state and society by way of culture.
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- The Beginning of the 1875 Serbian Uprising in Herzegovina. The British Perspective
- The main goal of this article is to scrutinize the contemporary British sources, in order to establish what they say about the causes of the insurrection in Herzegovina which marked the beginning of the Eastern Crisis of 1875-1878. The official reports of British diplomats, the observations of newspaper correspondents, and the instructions of London policy makers support the conclusion that the immediate cause of the insurrection was agrarian discontent, especially tithe collecting. In considering the 'external influences' on the outbreak of the insurrection, the British emphasized the role of Austria-Hungary and Montenegro. Behind these countries, they saw the shadow of the Three Emperors' League, which was perceived as the main threat to the Ottoman Empire and, consequently, to the balance of power in Europe. Serbia was not seen as directly involved in the events in Herzegovina. Later on, at the time of Prince Milan's visit to Vienna, and as volunteers from Serbia began to be despatched to Herzegovina, the British diplomats increasingly perceived Serbia, in addition to Montenegro, as another tool of the Three Emperors' League.
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- The Bulgarian-Yugoslav Dispute over the Macedonian Question as a Reflection of the Soviet-Yugoslav Controversy (1968–1980)
- During the Cold War, relations between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia were marred by the Macedonian Question. Bulgaria challenged the historical roots of the Macedonian nation, whereas Yugoslavia insisted that Bulgaria should recognize the rights of the Macedonian minority within her borders. The Soviet Union capitalized on its influence over Bulgaria to impair Yugoslavia's international position. Bulgaria launched an anti-Yugoslav campaign questioning not only the Yugoslav approach to Socialism, but also the Yugoslav solution of the Macedonian Question. This antipathy became evident in 1968, in the wake of the events in Czechoslovakia. In the years 1978/9 the developments in Indochina gave a new impetus to the old Bulgarian-Yugoslav conflict.
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- The Byzantine Apocalyptic Tradition a Fourteenth-century Serbian Version of the Apocalypse of Anastasia
- Early translations of the Apocalypse of Anastasia into Old Church Slavonic appear in several versions incorporated into miscellanies of the zbornik (collection) type. These texts belong to various genres of religious prose and are usually assembled in apocryphal collections about journeys to the other world. The earliest known Serbian version of the Apocalypse of Anastasia is the fourteenth-century manuscript dated to about 1380 (MS 29). The present paper gives an analysis of this narrative.
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- The Ideal of Balkan Unity from a European Perspective (1789-1945)
- The federal movement in the Balkans is especially interesting, not because it was an ideological trend based on distinctive local characteristics, but precisely because it emerged concurrently with similar political and ideological trends on the rest of the continent, thus reflecting the close connection and mutual dependence between the various regions of Europe. The article approaches the different attempts for Balkan cooperation between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the Cold War in reference to the corresponding movements for the European reconciliation and unification, using comparatively the relevant bibliography. .
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- The Image of Persephone on the Upper Moesian Limes. A Contribution to the Study of Ancient Cults
- The ways in which Persephone was depicted in the Roman province of Upper Moesia may help understand the significance the goddess had for the inhabitants of the Upper Moesian limes, notably Viminacium and Ratiaria, where the discussed archaeological material was discovered.
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- The Medieval Cemetery outside the Eastern Gate of Gamizgrad (Felix Romuliana)
- The medieval cemetery was archaeologically investigated between 1981 and 1992. It consisted of 91 graves containing 95 anthropologically identified skeletons. Further anthropological analysis has established 31 reliably or highly likely adult males, 31 reliably or highly likely adult females, 3 poorly preserved and therefore unsexed adult skeletons, and 30 children most of whom died within the first ten years after birth. From the paleodemographic viewpoint, this would be the necropolis of a single medieval community showing a dearth of children of all age groups, which may be interpreted in several ways, ranging from reduced procreation to inadequate archaeological excavation.
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- The Port of Salonica in Yugoslav Foreign Policy 1919–1941
- This paper explores the importance of the Greek port of Salonica (Thessaloniki) for Yugoslav foreign policy-makers during the interwar period. It suggests that, apart from economic interests, namely securing trade facilities in the port and transport facilities offered by the Ghevgheli-Salonica railway connecting the Yugoslav territory with Salonica, there were security considerations which accounted for Belgrade's special interest in this matter. These stemmed from two reasons - Serbia's painful experience from the Great War on which occasion the cutting off of the route for Salonica had had dire consequences for the Serbian Army and the post-war strategic situation whereby Yugoslavia was nearly ringed by hostile and potentially hostile neighbours which was a constant reminder of the immediate past and made both political and military leadership envisage a potential renewed need to retreat to Salonica in a general conflict. The events prior to and during the Second World War seem to have vindicated such preoccupations of Yugoslav policy-makers. All the Great Powers involved in the conflict in the Balkans realised the significance attached to Salonica in Belgrade and tried to utilise it for their own ends. Throughout these turbulent events Prince Paul and his government did not demonstrate an inclination to exploit the situation in order to achieve territorial aggrandisement but rather reacted with restraint being vitally concerned that neither Italy nor Germany took possession of Salonica and thus encircled Yugoslavia completely leaving her at their mercy.
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- The Roman Station Timacum Maius (?)
- The 2009 archaeological campaign at Niševac, eastern Serbia, has provided important evidence for the urban growth of a Roman settlement, such as drains and a section of the Roman road traversing the settlement. Along with a sumptuous structure furnished with a wall heating system discovered in 2008, the latest excavation results provide clues as to the importance of the settlement which, containing all elements of Roman urban architecture, offers further corroboration to its presumed identification as the Roman station of Timacum Maius on the Lissus-Naissus-Ratiaria road.