Publisher's Synopsis
European Theories in Former Yugoslavia shows that there is no such thing as a direct transfer or influence of theories from the centre to the margins, but only complex practices of borrowing, translating, and reinterpreting, conditioned by specific contexts; in this case those of former Yugoslavia and its contemporary cultural sphere. Here, reception is no longer simply about receiving fresh knowledge from the centre, but also about communicating feedback into broader contexts, shaped by multicultural and global connections and exchange. The book poses broader questions about contemporary theory today: what are theories today? How do specialised theories of culture, gender, media and art history relate to current philosophical turns in new materialism, neo-Marxism, and biopolitics? These questions, posed from the perspective of a European periphery, in this case former Yugoslavia, gesture toward the dialectically tense relationship between the centre and the margins, that is, between original theories and their transformed perspectives. The range of authors brought together here offers a cross-section of post-Yugoslav theory, comprising both young scholars in the early stages of their academic careers and more senior, established thinkers, educated both in the region and abroad, and coming from a variety of academic backgrounds, including art theory, gender theory, cultural studies and theory, sociology, anthropology, theatre studies, musicology, political theory, and literary theory, among others. The schools of thought they address, elaborate on, critique, and apply in their texts are similarly varied: from French post-structuralist theory and philosophy, via German critical and postmodern theory, to a number of other topics and authors in contemporary European theory and philosophy. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of art and media theory, philosophy, sociology, and cultural studies, and their reception, interpretation, application, and elaboration in the region of former Yugoslavia.
