Breaking with Transition

To accessed and download “Breaking with Transition: Decolonial and Postcolonial Perspectives in Eastern Europe” (PDF, English/Albanian), click here.

The workshop sessions, presentations and talks given by an interdisciplinary group of theorists (Paola Bacchetta, Sezgin Boynik, Boris Buden, Marina Gržinić, Linda Gusia, Tjaša Kancler, Eli Krasniqi, Nita Luci and Piro Rexhepi) covered a range of social and political issues specific to the Balkans. The status of non-EU countries was analysed with regard to: the question of whether their status changes our conception of Europe and the corresponding distinction between the West and the East; the history of racial and ethnic discrimination of the Balkans by Western Europe and the way in which this history informs the nature of political interventions in the region, which has led to further economic and political devastation; the relationship between racial and ethnic discrimination and politics that have “appeasement” and “peace” at their core; the way in which transition politics and the “civilizing mission” of Europe forecloses or opens possibilities for non-heteronormative sexuality and/or gender expression in the Balkans; and more. This special issue represents the decolonial and postcolonial analysis of the Balkans, which constituted the theme for the inaugural BSTP workshop. 

Find here the report on the 2018 BSTP workshop: Current decolonial and postcolonial discourses towards post-socialist Balkan countries.

BSTP collaborated with Feminist Critique Journal on this issue in order to expand decolonial and postcolonial discourse to include the unique socio-political conditions of post-socialist Eastern Europe. The special issue examines the decolonial turn in the Balkans as a significant shift in theory and practice that further elaborates on decoloniality itself. The contributors raise a wide range of questions about the status of Eastern Europe in relation to decolonial, post-socialist, and postcolonial theories.

In this issue, you will find: Marina Gržinić, Tjaša Kancler and Piro Rexhepi’s trialogue, “Decolonial Encounters and the Geopolitics of Racial Capitalism”, which articulates the relevance of decolonial theory to the Balkans. They do not present the Balkans as representing analogous modes of oppression to those of the Global South, rather, they trace the specific historical contours of capitalism, racism, xenophobia, and patriarchy as it has developed in Eastern Europe; Genta Nishku’s “The Wretched on the Walls: A Fanonian Reading of a Revolutionary Albanian Orphanage”, which develops a decolonial analysis of the Balkans through the 1976 film Lulëkuqet mbi Mure/Red Poppies on Walls; Jeta (Jetim) Luboteni’s article “A Heavy Word: Discourses on Albanian Sworn Virgins”, which analyses the Burrnesha communities through queer theory; and Lesia Pagulich and Tatsiana Shchurko’s interview with Neda Atanasoski and Kalindi Vora, which explores the position of post-socialism in thinking about the global coloniality of power.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Breaking with Transition
Marina Gržinić, Tjaša Kancler, Piro Rexhepi: Decolonial Encounters and the Geopolitics of Racial Capitalism
Genta Nishku: The Wretched on the Walls: A Fanonian Reading of a Revolutionary Albanian Orphanage
Jeta (Jetim) Luboteni: A Heavy Word: Discourses on Albanian Sworn Virgins
Lesia Pagulich, Tatsiana Shchurko: (Re)thinking Postsocialism: Interview with Neda Atanasoski and Kalindi Vora
Erzébet Barát: Stigmatization of the Analytical Concept of Gender as Ideology
Мария Лукьянова, Рина Винтер: Строчки из жизни швей
Оксана Дудко: Гуманітарне насильство, або Критика американського імперіалізму
About the Contributors