Balkan variations of Orientalism and Occidentalism

Abstract

Summarizing, the aim of this paper was to provoke scrutinizing in a Balkan context the notions of Orientalism and Occidentalism – two forms of demonizing the Other, coined in the age of Enlightenment, two phenomena that are ambivalent and imported from other cultures. They interact in a curious manner and took critical place in the mythologues of all the nations in the region although in different ways.

Keywords

• orientalism, occidentalism, Balkan, Other, demonizing the Other, mental map