Open AccessVia Illyria to Europe
Author(s) -
Vladimir V. Mihajlović
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
etnoantropološki problemi
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2334-8801
pISSN - 0353-1589
DOI - 10.21301/eap.v8i3.9
Subject(s) - abandonment (legal) , politics , narrative , humanism , german , action (physics) , identity (music) , history , sociology , philosophy , literature , aesthetics , political science , archaeology , law , art , physics , quantum mechanics
Archaeology in Serbia was shaped as a discipline by the end of the 19th century. Its founders, mainly educated at the universities in the German-speaking lands, in the spirit of Altertumswissenschaft, have brought with them the corresponding attitude towards the Classical antiquity. In the process of transfer of the concepts a certain blurring occurred, but not absolute abandonment of the previous narratives about the ancient past, for example the one developed in the framework of Proto-Illyrism. From its inception in the humanistic histories of the 16th century, the Proto- Illyrian idea was the framework of political action, the pivotal point of identity construction, but as well the grounds for territorial aspirations. In these tendencies a major role was played by the Classical past. Through the usage of Classical ethnonyms and toponymes, political concepts and historical narratives, the advocates of Proto-Illyrism took part in the positioning of the Balkans in the temporal and spatial domain of the modern Europe. The paper points to the role of the Proto-Illyrian idea in the affirmation and/or legitimizing of various interests (individual, group), as well as in constructing various identities in the Western Balkans.