{"id":52688,"date":"2026-04-28T12:52:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52688"},"modified":"2026-04-28T12:57:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:57:57","slug":"eleonora-naxidou-and-yura-konstantinova-balkan-perspectives-of-europe-between-east-and-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52688","title":{"rendered":"Eleonora Naxidou and Yura Konstantinova \u201eBalkan Perspectives of Europe: Between East and West\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Through the lens of the Balkan nations, this volume makes a valuable and significant contribution to the fields of European and Southeast European studies by reconsidering the East\/West dichotomy \u2013 both in terms of the Orient\u2013Occident divide and the Eastern\u2013Western Europe binary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balkan Perspectives of Europe focuses on concepts of Europe as articulated in the Balkans from the nineteenth century to the present \u2013 an area that remains largely underexplored, despite extensive research on national identity and the construction of the Other. The authors address this scholarly gap through meticulous bibliographic research, drawing on both published and unpublished sources in Balkan languages. A key strength of the collection is its inclusion of contributors from the Balkans as well as from wider European and American academic contexts, enabling a nuanced and comprehensive examination of the subject through internal and external perspectives. The authors argue that, in asserting their cultural identification with Europe, Balkan nations have developed concepts of Europe that resonate with Occidental discourses and offer a counter-narrative to dominant Western conceptualizations of the Balkans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broadening access to these ideas, this book\u2019s approach allows scholars, students, and general readers to deepen their understanding of the Balkan region and its perspectives on identity and otherness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction: Balkan Occidental Discourse or Balkan Counter-Orientalism
Eleonora Naxidou and Yura Konstantinova<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part I: What Is Europe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Diverse Perceptions of Europe in the Newly Founded Greek State
Lina Louvi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Meeting Europe During a War: Perceptions of the French by Varna Residents During the Crimean War (1853\u20136)
Ivan Roussev<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. \u2018Mixed Feelings\u2019: Nineteenth-Century Balkan Intellectuals and the Tanzimat<\/em>
Raymond Detrez<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. The West, the East, and the Balkans: Bulgarian Intellectuals of the Revival and the Image of Europe
Eleonora Naxidou<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Between Imperial Legacy and European Identity: The Alchemy of Greek Perceptions of Europe
Stamatia Fotiadou<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part II: East vs West: The Two Sides of the Same Coin?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Images of Russia in the Greek World and Their European Horizon (Eighteenth Century)
Nikolas Pissis<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Traces of American Protestant Missions in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Balkans: Local Perceptions of the USA
Elmira Vassileva<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Modelling Emotions: Bulgarian Perceptions of Russia
Yura Konstantinova<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. Postwar Realignment: Yugoslavia Seeks to Join Europe
Robert Niebuhr<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. (Step-)Mother Russia: Projections and Mental Maps of Russia in Serbia
Nenad Stefanov<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part III: Visual Encounters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11. Heritage and Civilizational Discourse: \u2018Civilized Europe\u2019 and \u2018Antiquities\u2019 in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Romania
Roxana Coman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

12. \u2018Grandma Europe\u2019: Political Imaginary and Representations of Europe in Bulgarian Caricature at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century
Dobrinka Parusheva<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

13. The Bulgarian Perception About Russia and the Fate of Russian Monuments in Bulgaria
Tina Georgieva<\/em>14. Americans Appeared in the Balkans: How They Were Imagined in the Movies from the Region?
Gergana Doncheva<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Editor(s)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eleonora Naxidou<\/strong> is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History of Southeastern Europe in the Department of History and Ethnology at Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. She is the author of the book Europeanness in the Context of Bulgarian \u2018Balkanness\u2019: Lyuben Karavelov, Federalism, and the Greeks<\/em> (2021; in Greek), and co-editor of several scholarly volumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yura Konstantinova<\/strong> is Professor at the Institute of Balkan Studies & Center of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She has published extensively and been involved in numerous academic research projects on subjects including the history of modern Greece, Greek\u2013Bulgarian relations, and international relations in Southeastern Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

December 2, 2025 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

272 Pages 23 B\/W Illustrations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISBN 9781032895154<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/Balkan-Perspectives-of-Europe-Between-East-and-West\/Naxidou-Konstantinova\/p\/book\/9781032895154<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":52690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knjige","category-novosti"],"acf":{"facebook_opis":"Eleonora Naxidou i Yura Konstantinova, \"Balkan Perspectives of Europe: Between East and West\" istra\u017euje kako su balkanske zemlje kroz povijest oblikovale vlastitu sliku Europe."},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Balkan-Perspectives-of-Europe-Between-East-and-West.jpg?fit=350%2C525&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54031,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=54031","url_meta":{"origin":52688,"position":0},"title":"Call for Book Chapters: Alternatives to the Nation-State: Federalism, Autonomy, and Post-Imperial Imaginaries in the Mediterranean Long Nineteenth Century","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"11. lipnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Workshop Date: September 24, 2026 - September 25, 2026 Location: Greece Subject Fields: Intellectual History, Modern European History \/ Studies \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/HNet_Logo_with_tag.png?fit=1200%2C424&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/HNet_Logo_with_tag.png?fit=1200%2C424&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/HNet_Logo_with_tag.png?fit=1200%2C424&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/HNet_Logo_with_tag.png?fit=1200%2C424&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/HNet_Logo_with_tag.png?fit=1200%2C424&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53790,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=53790","url_meta":{"origin":52688,"position":1},"title":"“The Balkans in the Seventh Century: Ethnic and Cultural Transformations”, eds. P. Sophoulis, G. Kardaras","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"2. lipnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"The seventh century was a period of radical transformation in the Balkans in terms of political, social, and economic history. The decline in Byzantine power led to the collapse of ancient urban civilization, the arrival of new populations from eastern Europe and the steppes, and, subsequently, the establishment of new\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Knjige"","block_context":{"text":"Knjige","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Balkans-7th-century.webp?fit=596%2C888&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Balkans-7th-century.webp?fit=596%2C888&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Balkans-7th-century.webp?fit=596%2C888&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52580,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52580","url_meta":{"origin":52688,"position":2},"title":"Conference “Living in the aftermaths: Trauma, politics and survival in Yugoslavia and successor states, 1945 \u2013 present”","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"21. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"The conference aims to explore how war-related psychological distress was experienced, narrated, debated and reframed in Yugoslavia in the second half of the twentieth century. It asks how the theme of wounded psyche and wartime suffering was addressed and acknowledged in political, psychiatric and broader cultural discourses of socialist Yugoslavia,\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Battle_of_Neretva_Picasso_poster-Conference-Living-in-the-aftermaths.webp?fit=564%2C954&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Battle_of_Neretva_Picasso_poster-Conference-Living-in-the-aftermaths.webp?fit=564%2C954&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Battle_of_Neretva_Picasso_poster-Conference-Living-in-the-aftermaths.webp?fit=564%2C954&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53169,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=53169","url_meta":{"origin":52688,"position":3},"title":"Snimka razgovora sa Maxom Bergholzom “Da li je pravedno sje\u0107anje mogu\u0107e?”","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"12. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"KONT Talk \u201eDa li je pravedno sje\u0107anje mogu\u0107e?\u201c bio je razgovor sa Max Bergholz sa Concordia University, fokusiran na memorijalnu arhitekturu i na\u010dine na koje se pamte masovni zlo\u010dini. Razgovor je gra\u0111en kroz tri primjera: Kulen Vakuf, Garavice i Glina. U Kulen Vakufu otvorena je pri\u010da o cikli\u010dnom nasilju i\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/KONT-TALKS-MAX-BERGHOLZ.png?fit=850%2C478&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/KONT-TALKS-MAX-BERGHOLZ.png?fit=850%2C478&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/KONT-TALKS-MAX-BERGHOLZ.png?fit=850%2C478&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/KONT-TALKS-MAX-BERGHOLZ.png?fit=850%2C478&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53793,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=53793","url_meta":{"origin":52688,"position":4},"title":"“Shaping the Nation in Medieval Europe”, ed. E. Adde","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"2. lipnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"This volume in The Medieval Globe book seriesexplores a fundamental problem of European historiography within a global context: the history of medieval nations and the question of their relationship to modern nation-states. Focusing on the emerging or established societies of Christian Europe and their immediate neighbours, contributors ask: To what\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Knjige"","block_context":{"text":"Knjige","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Shaping-medieval-nation.webp?fit=596%2C895&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Shaping-medieval-nation.webp?fit=596%2C895&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Shaping-medieval-nation.webp?fit=596%2C895&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52834,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52834","url_meta":{"origin":52688,"position":5},"title":"“Spatial Worlds of Medieval Central Europe: Real, Imagined, and Conceptual”, Budapest, 19\u201321 May 2027","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"6. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Following successful conferences in Budapest (2014), Olomouc (2016), Zagreb (2018), Gda\u0144sk (2021), Bratislava (2023), and Munich (2025), the Seventh Biennial Conference of MECERN (http:\/\/mecern.eu\/) will focus on spatial worlds in medieval history, especially in Central Europe. The concepts of space, place, and the environment are central to our understanding of\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mecern-Logo.jpg?fit=450%2C270&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52688"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52693,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52688\/revisions\/52693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}