The Balkans
Mission Possible
Maria Todorova(Author)
Pallas Publications (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 31. July 2026
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-90-485-7405-6 (ISBN)
Description
In this incisive book, Maria Todorova revisits the region she famously theorized, asking not only what has changed in the past thirty years but whether the conceptual tools used to understand the Balkans still make sense. Treating the Balkans as a historically contingent and ultimately transient construct, Todorova traces their rise, transformations, and anticipated exhaustion, while confronting long-standing silences-especially around race. She then turns a critical eye to Balkan studies itself, examining its institutionalization and the allure, limits, and misapplications of post- and decolonial frameworks. The final section shifts scale dramatically, using brief biographies to reveal how individuals are shaped-and distorted-by scholarly and political frames. Subtle, unsparing, and deeply reflective, this book reopens the epistemological question of the Balkans at a moment when easy paradigms have become impossible to sustain.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academic
Illustrations
12 s/w Abbildungen
12 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-90-485-7405-6 (9789048574056)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Maria Todorova is the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor Emerita of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Content
List of Illustrations
Preface: Ascent
I. Tracing the Balkans or Mission Possible: Fallout
The Beginning of the Balkans
Race as a Category of Analysis
The End of the Balkans
II. Measuring the Balkans or Mission Possible: Dead Reckoning
Institutionalization of Balkan Studies and Dominant Trends
The Zeitgeists of Empire, Coloniality, and Their Derivatives
On Decoloniality
Do the Balkans Need Their Own Epistemology?
III. Framing Balkan Biographies or Mission Possible: Rogue Nation
Pancho Vladigerov: Art Music? World Music? National Music?
Christian Rakovsky: Cosmopolitanism and the World Revolution
The Chronocoenosis of Angelina Boneva
Postface: Rappel
Bibliography
Index
Preface: Ascent
I. Tracing the Balkans or Mission Possible: Fallout
The Beginning of the Balkans
Race as a Category of Analysis
The End of the Balkans
II. Measuring the Balkans or Mission Possible: Dead Reckoning
Institutionalization of Balkan Studies and Dominant Trends
The Zeitgeists of Empire, Coloniality, and Their Derivatives
On Decoloniality
Do the Balkans Need Their Own Epistemology?
III. Framing Balkan Biographies or Mission Possible: Rogue Nation
Pancho Vladigerov: Art Music? World Music? National Music?
Christian Rakovsky: Cosmopolitanism and the World Revolution
The Chronocoenosis of Angelina Boneva
Postface: Rappel
Bibliography
Index