Croats’ Troubled Search for Identity

Wiesław Walkiewicz

Titles

Abstract

In the article, which is a continuation of the research emphasis, is built on Croatian identity without reference to (self)identification coincidences, splits, sometimes historical events, in way of ethnic communities that create a united continent. The leitmotif of the discourse is “screening” categories of defining Europe for showing different possibilities of perceiving it. The discourse summoned title translates into a continuity of the occurrence of national and trans-European matters and their mutual conditions and implications. Against this background and also in the context of articulating constituent features of European citizenship, the author conducts an analysis of central-east identity, in the same measure regional as exceeding local levels of identification.

In the described social study, the analysis is based on the example of the “Balkan flank”, but more precisely on the casus of Croatian historical experiences and their projections relative to the position of the nation among others that are located around. An important place in the considerations is not so much taken by the matter of the difficult past (NDH, diverse attitude to the Tito regime, not shunning from terrorist actions) but a mythologized reflection on it and role of elites in the creation of a contemporary policy and formation of collective perception. The central accent of the study is the boundaries and memory as the possibility mental imprinting of this borderland at South Slavic reality–compensational myth creation and revision of the past. Reflections finds in inquirations root matters, but also need of building more positive external relations, with taking universal threats related to integrational processes in consideration. An important place in the discussion are the latest efforts of the elites over the Sava in defining the Croatian identity in terms of political correctness templates without actual constitutive features that are not necessarily well received in countries shut off from the authoritarian tradition.

In the article, which is a continuation of the research emphasis, is built on Croatian identity without reference to (self)identification coincidences, splits, sometimes historical events, in way of ethnic communities that create a united continent. The leitmotif of the discourse is “screening” categories of defining Europe for showing different possibilities of perceiving it. The discourse summoned title translates into a continuity of the occurrence of national and trans-European matters and their mutual conditions and implications. Against this background and also in the context of articulating constituent features of European citizenship, the author conducts an analysis of central-east identity, in the same measure regional as exceeding local levels of identification.

In the described social study, the analysis is based on the example of the “Balkan flank”, but more precisely on the casus of Croatian historical experiences and their projections relative to the position of the nation among others that are located around. An important place in the considerations is not so much taken by the matter of the difficult past (NDH, diverse attitude to the Tito regime, not shunning from terrorist actions) but a mythologized reflection on it and role of elites in the creation of a contemporary policy and formation of collective perception. The central accent of the study is the boundaries and memory as the possibility mental imprinting of this borderland at South Slavic reality–compensational myth creation and revision of the past. Reflections finds in inquirations root matters, but also need of building more positive external relations, with taking universal threats related to integrational processes in consideration. An important place in the discussion are the latest efforts of the elites over the Sava in defining the Croatian identity in terms of political correctness templates without actual constitutive features that are not necessarily well received in countries shut off from the authoritarian tradition.

Keywords

Croatia, Croatian identity, history of Croatia, collective memory, symbols of Croatian history

References

Monography

Avramovski Ż., Balkanske zemlje i velike sile 1935-1937, Beograd 1968

Balaban J., U potrazi za identitetom, Komparativna studia vrednota: Hrvatska i Europa, Zagreb 2005

Bayer R., Medjugorje Day by Day, Notre Dame 1993

Bartnik Cz. S., Idea polskości, Lublin 1990

Bokszański Z., Tożsamości zbiorowe, Warszawa 2006

Giddens A., Modernity and Self-Identity, London 1990

Giddens A., Europa w epoce globalnej, Warszawa 2009

Giełżynski W., Sto twarzy Jugosławii, Warszawa 1977

Huntington S., American Politics. The Promise of Dishannoray, New York 1981

Isaacs H. R., Power and Identity, Tribalism in World Politics, Boston 1979

Istorija XX veka, Zbornik radova, Vol. II, Beograd 1961

Jagiełło-Szostak A., Idea narodu politycznego kontra etnonacjonalizmy, Wrocław 2013

Jetzt die Zukunft gestalten! Sozialethische Perspektiven, H. Renockl, S. Balaban (ed.), Wien–Würz-burg 2010

Kłoskowska A. (ed.), Oblicza polskości, Warszawa 1990

Krysieniel K., System polityczny Chorwacji, Poznań–Chorzów 2007

Kujundžić N., Inne spojrzenie na historię – Chorwaci w stuleciu śmierci, Zagreb 2002

Lorković M., Narod i zemlja Hrvata, Zagreb 1996

Łastawski K., Polska tożsamość narodowa we współczesnym procesie integracji europejskiej, Warszawa–Rembertów 2003

Łepkowski T., Uparte trwanie polskości, Londyn–Warszawa 1989

Muminović R., Fenomenologija srpske genocidne svijesti, Ankara 1995

Muś J., Szpala M., Chorwacja w Unii Europejskiej, Łódź 2012

Olujić Ž., Kako nisam obranio Andriju Artukovića, Zagreb 1991

Perica V., Balkanski idoli. Religija i nacionalizam u Jugoslaviji, Beograd 2006

Rozmyślania o cywilizacji, J. Baradziej, J. Goćkowski (eds.), Kraków 2001

Skotnicka-Illiasiewicz E., Powrót czy droga w nieznane? Europejskie dylematy Polaków, Warszawa 1997

Sztompka S. (ed.), Imponderabilia wielkiej zmiany, Warszawa–Kraków 1999

Šute I., Slogom slobodi! Gospodarska sloga 1935–1941. Srednja Europa, Zagreb 2010

Tantum Historiae, Księga ofiarowana Mieczysławowi Tantemu w osiemdziesiątą rocznicę urodzin, P. Żurek (ed.), Bielsko-Biała 2008

Tuđman F., Bespuća povjesne zbilnosti: Velike ideje i mali narodi; Nacionalno pitanje u suvremenoj Europi, Zagreb 1990

U potrazi za identitetom. Komparativna studija vrednota: Hrvatska i Europa, J. Baloban (ed.), Zagreb 2005

Ugrešić D., Kultura kłamstwa, Wołowiec 2006

Vavić M., Andrija Artuković, Zagreb 1985

Vlašić B., Vojinović A., Križni put. Povijest, svjedočanstva, dokumenti, Zagreb 1991

Walkiewicz W., Jugosławia. Państwa sukcesyjne, Warszawa 2009

Wokół problemów tożsamości, A. Jawłowska (ed.), Warszawa 2001

Żmigrodzki M. (ed.), Kierunki ewolucji systemu politycznego Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, Lublin 1997

Articles

Czerwiński M., Język propagandy w Niezależnym Państwie Chorwackim. Próba charakterystyki, ,,Socjolingwistyka”, 2005, Vol. XIX

Ognnyanova-Krivoshieva I., Ustasha nationalism in Croatia during the second world war (1941–1945), „Sprawy Narodowościowe”, Poznań–Warszawa, 2006, fasc. 28

Pozdravni govor Predsjednika Republike dr. Franje Tudmana prigodom dolaska Sv. Oca Ivana Pavla II. u Hrvatsku 10. Rujna1994, Časopis za suvremenu povijest, Zagreb 1994, XXVI, No. 2

Srešen A., Piskač D., Hrvatski nacjonalni identitet i Europska unija, ,,Slavia Meridionalis. Studia Slavica et Balcanica”, t. XII, L. Moroz-Grzelak (ed.), Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa 2012

Szacki J., O tożsamości (zwłaszcza narodowej), ,,Kultura i Społeczeństwo”, 2004, No. 3

Wolff-Powęska A., Rola tożsamości narodowej w procesie kształtowania się demokratycznej kultury politycznej Europy Środkowej, ,,Przegląd Zachodni”, Poznań 2000, No. 2

Żylińska J., Jeszcze o polskości, „Znak”, 1988, no. 3

Press

Lengyel L., Czasy trudnej demokracji, ,,Gazeta Wyborcza”, 30 X 2003

Mesić S., Ja sam dogovorio sastanak u Karađorđevu in an interview given on February 27, 2008, (http://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/1045335.html, access: 27.12.2016

Information

Information: Central European and Balkan Studies, 2017, Tom XXVI, pp. 29 - 42

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/2543733XSSB.17.021.8319

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Croats’ Troubled Search for Identity

English:

Croats’ Troubled Search for Identity

Authors

Wiesław Walkiewicz

Warsaw University of Life Sciences

Published at: 22.03.2018

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Percentage share of authors:

Wiesław Walkiewicz (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English

View count: 1267

Number of downloads: 1329

<p> Croats’ Troubled Search for Identity</p>

Pobierz pełny tekst

Titles

Abstract

Keywords

References

Information

Authors