This book is an important and timely reminder that war and exile are two deeply interconnected experiences. It is also a tribute to the recent history of the Balkans: the suffering and heroic spirit of its people, seen in the individuals’ will for dignity, life-preservation, humour and personal performance. The richness of the book’s argument is in the complex web of theoretical approaches that Silvija Jestrovic employs to help us better understand the recent movements of history; it teaches us the techniques of deep personal involvement and the necessary critical distance required to examine the phenomenon of performance that takes place within such horrific social conditions as war, genocide, siege or exile.

In her breath-taking monograph, Jestrovic proposes to re-think the category of space as a source of people’s identification. As she explains, the experience of war and the process of re-defining subjectivity begin with our personal experience of space. Thus, this book looks at the contested territory of national and communal identities, consciousness and memory and the juxtapositions that create the spaces of conflict and resistance. As its subject matter, the book does not confine itself to a single genre and includes novels, films, live installations and postcards as well as performances ranging from Susan Sontag’s staging