Balkan Odyssey II: "The Balkan Prospect and the Greek Crisis (of the 1990s): Cultural Reflections"

In 1989, the borders hitherto separating Greek culture and society from its contiguous Balkan polities came down, and Greeks had to reorient themselves toward their immediate neighbors and redefine their place within a ‘new Europe’ and a more fluid world order. Projecting the political foresight and mustering the modernizing policies to succeed in such an undertaking would be no small feat even at the best of times. However, little time elapsed before Greece and Europe were effectively held hostage to events in the Balkans–just at the time when both intended to serve as the region’s welcoming hosts. Casting a glance back at this historical conjuncture and its aftermath–from a distinct vantage point, a Greek prospect of sorts–this talk reflects on cultural and theoretical study of the Balkans. How did one theorize the Balkans then and why? How do we imagine or reimagine it now?