The Balkans in Travel Writing

This book revisits images of the Balkans in twentieth-century travel writing that vividly mirrors the turbulent changes that the region went through. As such, it provides a vital basis for research into the variety of possibilities, or obstacles, present on the region's path to accession, when its unique heritage will have to be reconciled with a more European identity. This volume explores the work of well-known authors, such as Rebecca West, Paul Theroux, Robert D. Kaplan, and also contributes to travel writing theory by addressing less-known travellers who recorded their thoughts on the social dynamics of the region. The corpus offers divergent and often contradictory views, ranging from moral and political criticism to a delight in the rich heritage and the still undiscovered Balkan paths. More importantly, its generic potentials prove to overcome both the discourse of power and the discourse of apology. Its narrative style also comprises striking variations, from the objective and well-researched approaches to quick impressionist sketches. Being a multi-generic form, travel writing is observed from a multidisciplinary perspective, encompassing fields such as literature, linguistics, history, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, political sciences, and geography.
About the Author: Marija Krivokapic teaches 19th- and 20th-century British Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Montenegro. Her publications mostly focus on the work of D. H. Lawrence, including Lawrence in Italy (Belgrade, 2000) and Quest for the Transcendent in D. H. Lawrence's Prose (Niksic, 2009). Her recent interests include contemporary Native American literature, having co-authored, with Dr. Sanja Runtic, the books Native American Contemporary Literature (Osijek, 2013) and Towards the End of Native History: Essays on Native American Contemporary Literature and Literary Criticism (Niksic, 2014), and travel writing. She has edited and co-edited a series of academic books and translations of British, Canadian, South African, and Native American authors, and is the current general editor of the linguistics and literary journal Folia linguistica et litteraria. She is the recipient of two Fulbright stipends, as a teacher at the Louisiana State University, Alexandria, in 2009, and as a researcher at the University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, in 2015. She has also been a coordinator of an international project for the advancement of language studies, SEEPALS 2010-2013, financed by the European Commission, which was chosen as an example of best practice.