The construction of Southeastern Europe in Western imagination is the result of assertions of imperial power from some of the first recorded histories onward to modern time. Instead of providing alternative narratives gaping differences in time period, literary genres and geographical origins ballast stereotypical racist tropes and derogatory images of the countries of Southeastern Europe. For example, Roman histories, secondary historical works, twentieth century travel literature, and Central Intelligence Agency estimates all exhibit the same perception. The narrative created by these accounts is limited, remarkably racist and counterfactual. While there has been an abundance of new scholarship aimed at debunking the myths surrounding the area, much of the revisionist histories focus on placing blame, proving ethnogenesis, and serving political purposes. Understanding how the sources continue to influence perception is a pivotal step to understanding Southeastern Europe.

Gypsies or Roma are one of the minorities frequently represented in film, whenever we talk about European or American film; within this context Russian and Eastern European cinema seems to offer the richest palette of portrayals, as in this region Roma represent an important and controversial minority. Film scholars agreed that from the moment when Roma appeared on screen and until the last decades when a shift toward a more realistic approach can be detected, their filmic representations were predominantly stereotypic and highly exoticized. Films from the last decades show more interest in the depiction of poverty, discrimination and marginalization, but stereotypical representation is still present and dominant. The purpose of this paper is to focus on several stereotypes generally perceived as negative stereotypes (theft, drunkenness, vulgar language, falseness, etc.) and to demonstrate that in relation to Gypsy representations on screen, these stereotypes change their function, trying to inculcate upon the viewer sympathetic feelings and accentuating the gap between the Roma cinematic image and the dominant ideology about them in the societies where they live. This thesis will examine negative stereotypes and their function in some of the most representative films of the Gypsy cinema: Skupljaci perja / I Even Met Happy Gypsies (Petrović 1967), Tabor ukhodit v Nebo/ Gypsy Camp Goes to Heaven or Queen of the Gypsies (Loteanu 1976), Ko to tamo peva? / Who’s Singin’ Over There? (Sijan 1980), Dom za vesanje / Time of the Gypsies Gypsies (Kusturica 1988), Gadjo Dillo / The Crazy Stranger (Gatlif 1997), Dallas Pashamende / Dallas among Us (Pejo 2005), and Baklava (Petrov 2007). Special attention will be paid to the relationship between the subjects of representation (Roma), their authors (the directors), and their consumers (the viewers). / text

This thesis analyzes the socio-political function of cinema in Yugoslavia during its two most vibrant eras, the 1960s and 1980s. Film in Yugoslavia existed on a materially state centered model yet presented an ideological plurality in its filmic representativeness that offers a richer and more dynamic understanding of the Yugoslav state. This thesis proposes that by looking at Yugoslav film from its inception following world war two until its dissolution in the early 1990s reveals a fascinating ideological trajectory reflected in the evolving contours of the socio- political and economic make-up of Yugoslavia.

The thesis explores the ways in which Serbian ethnic media in Canada represent their own group and “Others”, specifically Croats, Slovenians and Catholics, Bosniaks, Albanians and Muslims, Montenegrins and the West. The research investigates the convergence of these representations with Canadian multiculturalism. The thesis epistemologically feeds from Jean Jacques Rousseau’s 18th century theories of recognition and patriotism, Stuart Hall’s (1997) theory of representation and identity and Edward Said’s (1978) theory of Orientalism, and is further guided by the theoretical frameworks of Charles Taylor’s (1994) politics of recognition, Benedict Anderson’s (1992) long-distance nationalism and Maria Todorova’s (1994) Balkanism. Qualitative content analysis through purposive and sequential sampling of Serbian ethnic broadcasting is conducted to gauge the programs’ representations of the “Self” and “Others”. Ethnic media provide a method to promote a minority group’s heritage, but also to facilitate communication between various cultural, ethnic, religious and racial groups. In the age of an increased critique of multiculturalism, the role of ethnic media rises in importance. The findings of the thesis show that Serbian ethnic media employ Canadian multiculturalism to promote Serbian heritage, but also to stereotype other groups. Applying the theoretical juxtaposition of multiculturalism, nationalism and “Othering”, this research argues that through negative identification of “Others”, Serbian ethnic media deviate from Canadian multiculturalism that calls for a positive recognition of all Canadian groups.

The thesis explores the ways in which Serbian ethnic media in Canada represent their own group and “Others”, specifically Croats, Slovenians and Catholics, Bosniaks, Albanians and Muslims, Montenegrins and the West. The research investigates the convergence of these representations with Canadian multiculturalism. The thesis epistemologically feeds from Jean Jacques Rousseau’s 18th century theories of recognition and patriotism, Stuart Hall’s (1997) theory of representation and identity and Edward Said’s (1978) theory of Orientalism, and is further guided by the theoretical frameworks of Charles Taylor’s (1994) politics of recognition, Benedict Anderson’s (1992) long-distance nationalism and Maria Todorova’s (1994) Balkanism. Qualitative content analysis through purposive and sequential sampling of Serbian ethnic broadcasting is conducted to gauge the programs’ representations of the “Self” and “Others”. Ethnic media provide a method to promote a minority group’s heritage, but also to facilitate communication between various cultural, ethnic, religious and racial groups. In the age of an increased critique of multiculturalism, the role of ethnic media rises in importance. The findings of the thesis show that Serbian ethnic media employ Canadian multiculturalism to promote Serbian heritage, but also to stereotype other groups. Applying the theoretical juxtaposition of multiculturalism, nationalism and “Othering”, this research argues that through negative identification of “Others”, Serbian ethnic media deviate from Canadian multiculturalism that calls for a positive recognition of all Canadian groups.

The thesis explores the ways in which Serbian ethnic media in Canada represent their own group and “Others”, specifically Croats, Slovenians and Catholics, Bosniaks, Albanians and Muslims, Montenegrins and the West. The research investigates the convergence of these representations with Canadian multiculturalism. The thesis epistemologically feeds from Jean Jacques Rousseau’s 18th century theories of recognition and patriotism, Stuart Hall’s (1997) theory of representation and identity and Edward Said’s (1978) theory of Orientalism, and is further guided by the theoretical frameworks of Charles Taylor’s (1994) politics of recognition, Benedict Anderson’s (1992) long-distance nationalism and Maria Todorova’s (1994) Balkanism. Qualitative content analysis through purposive and sequential sampling of Serbian ethnic broadcasting is conducted to gauge the programs’ representations of the “Self” and “Others”. Ethnic media provide a method to promote a minority group’s heritage, but also to facilitate communication between various cultural, ethnic, religious and racial groups. In the age of an increased critique of multiculturalism, the role of ethnic media rises in importance. The findings of the thesis show that Serbian ethnic media employ Canadian multiculturalism to promote Serbian heritage, but also to stereotype other groups. Applying the theoretical juxtaposition of multiculturalism, nationalism and “Othering”, this research argues that through negative identification of “Others”, Serbian ethnic media deviate from Canadian multiculturalism that calls for a positive recognition of all Canadian groups.

This paper aims to show how identity can be of importance to issues relating to development. More specifically, it deals with how the Kosovar Albanians perception of their collective identity have affected Kosovo’s economic development. The study draws primarily from the theories of Identity Economics and Orientalism and presents a hypothesis which is then tested empirically through the analysis of the in-depth interviews and participant observation carried out in Kosovo. The results show that Kosovar Albanians have, to a degree, internalized the Orientalist discourse, which often portrayed them in racist terms as the ’other’, in their view of their collective identity and that this has had a negative effect on how they perceive their potential in the global economic system, which in turn has undermined the country’s economic development. Thus, identity seems to be of significance when it comes to issues relating to development.

The thesis explores the ways in which Serbian ethnic media in Canada represent their own group and “Others”, specifically Croats, Slovenians and Catholics, Bosniaks, Albanians and Muslims, Montenegrins and the West. The research investigates the convergence of these representations with Canadian multiculturalism. The thesis epistemologically feeds from Jean Jacques Rousseau’s 18th century theories of recognition and patriotism, Stuart Hall’s (1997) theory of representation and identity and Edward Said’s (1978) theory of Orientalism, and is further guided by the theoretical frameworks of Charles Taylor’s (1994) politics of recognition, Benedict Anderson’s (1992) long-distance nationalism and Maria Todorova’s (1994) Balkanism. Qualitative content analysis through purposive and sequential sampling of Serbian ethnic broadcasting is conducted to gauge the programs’ representations of the “Self” and “Others”. Ethnic media provide a method to promote a minority group’s heritage, but also to facilitate communication between various cultural, ethnic, religious and racial groups. In the age of an increased critique of multiculturalism, the role of ethnic media rises in importance. The findings of the thesis show that Serbian ethnic media employ Canadian multiculturalism to promote Serbian heritage, but also to stereotype other groups. Applying the theoretical juxtaposition of multiculturalism, nationalism and “Othering”, this research argues that through negative identification of “Others”, Serbian ethnic media deviate from Canadian multiculturalism that calls for a positive recognition of all Canadian groups.

The thesis deals with the Czech community of musicians who play so-called "Balkan music". The research deals with those coming originally from the Czech Republic and who do not have any obvious links to the Balkan peninsula. The emphasis is put on their stereotypical notion about Balkans. The content of the music works they produce and the way how are performed are considered as the key moments how the musicians express their feelings and visions about Balkan. The most of the thesis originates from my personal experience with the "Balkan music" in the Czech environment and from my participation in the Džezvica band. This band is also utilized as an reference model of the "western idea"about the Balkan. The work comprises of both theoretical part denoting the stereotypization and balkanism and the field research carried out during years 2010-2012 in Prague. As an integral part follows the analysis of semi-structured interviews with selected musicians on the (general) topic "balkan music". As the main outcome, the thesis captures and analyses whether we can evaluate the "czech balkanism" with the balkanism and if and how are such musicians' concepts being made.

The past two decades of political and social disintegration in Bosnia and Herzegovina have given birth to literary counterreactions against hegemonic ways of imagining social life in the country. This thesis deals with a particular practice in BosnianHerzegovinian war and post-war literature, which uses infantile perspectives to critically address issues related to the socialist history of Bosnia as part of Yugoslavia, the war in the 1990s, and the socalled transitional post-war period. Drawing on an old Western literary tradition of using the child character to estrange conventional experiences of the world, the texts (by authors such as Miljenko Jergović, Nenad Veličković, Alma Lazarevska, Aleksandar Hemon, and Saša Stanišić) use the skewing and dislocating outlook associated with the infantile subject to expose and undermine perceivably problematic mechanisms in socialist, ethnonationalist, and Western liberal hegemonic discourses. In contrast to previous research on the topic, which has primarily focussed upon the narratological conditions for the infantile perspective, the focus here is on the subversive infantilisation of hegemonic discourse—that is, the very discursive act of representing and contesting dominant concepts, narratives, and representations. The texts are seen as transitional areas through which input from the social world passes and, in this process, is restructured and ultimately transformed into a configuration slightly or radically different from the original input. Theoretically inspired by discourse theory and ideas from New Historicism, the study isolates and investigates a set of techniques through which this reconfiguration occurs. Apart from discussing the use of the basic infantile perspective as such a technique, the study also considers how the notion of the infantile influences techniques of dichotomisation (the production of positional counterpoints), appropriation (the critical subsuming of dominant discourse), and blending (the mixing of dominant and childish imagery). The thesis also addresses the possible political implications of the strategy of subversive infantilisation. Here the approach is influenced by the political philosophy of Jacques Rancière, which enables an understanding of the aesthetic reconfiguration of how Bosnian social life is imagined as a way of constituting a new form of subjectivity that evades the excluding and oppressive framework of hegemonic discourse.