engleski

Stereotypes of the Balkans among Zagreb Youth: A Contribution to the Study of Imaginative Geography

Stereotypes establish and activate borders towards Others. They translate the name of the Other into a metaphor &#8211 ; placing it in that form into the mental map. Therefore stereotypes become a way of tracing borders, an element of delimitation within mental maps and of basic zoning within imaginative geography. In this paper an attempt is made to discern the imaginative zones of the Balkan peninsula at the basis of stereotypes which secondary school students in Zagreb have on the Balkans. The negative stereotypes in regard to the Balkans in a whole that were shown in the research indicated a strong role of the Balkans as a referent distance factor in regard to which the Croatian cultural Self was measured and constructed. Regardless of generalization and simplification, the Balkans are in every aspect too close to people in Zagreb to be perceived in a homogenised way. The mental map of the Balkans which Zagreb youth have in their consciousness divides the region into zones. Four imaginative zones could be assigned. The first is the zone of direct relations and the closest cultural/linguistic contacts &#8211 ; this is the zone of the incomplete Other. The most emotional relationships arise in this zone, which is therefore the most active source of stereotypes. The second zone is the zone of ignorance or indifference &#8211 ; very little is know about it, but the negative picture created in the first zone is expanded (generalised) onto it. The third lays outside the symbolic-value system, the zone of the violated canon &#8211 ; the zone of the complete Other. And finally there is a fourth zone &#8211 ; non-Balkan in the Balkan Peninsula &#8211 ; which is the only one perceived positively. Imaginative zones, naturally, do not have firm borders. These borders are blurred, and the zones themselves can be discontinuant.

The Balkans; stereotypes; imaginative geography

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