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SlaVic StudieS/cultural theory “A multifaceted analysis of sacrifice and violence, Aleksić’s book will have a major impact on Balkan studies because it takes issue with feminism’s idealization of the female body; it conducts an analysis of cultural material from diverse nations; it shows the survival of key literary and cultural tropes; it demonstrates the interrelation between culture and politics, nation and state, literature and identity; and because it examines the victim without falling into the trap of victimology.” —Gregory Jusdanis, The Ohio State University “Historians do not generally doubt that intercommunal violence can plague any society on earth, but they are generally in agreement that different regions or sets of cultures express the causes and dynamics of that violence in unique ways. Tatjana Aleksić, in this solidly researched study, focuses on culture, specifically literature, as a way of describing intercommunal violence in the Balkans. What we see in examples from Serbia, Albania, Greece, Croatia, and Romania is that nationalist violence, or ‘ethnic conflict,’ in Southeastern Europe, is a kind of subordination of individuality to the perceived demands of centralized rule or state building.” —John K. Cox, North Dakota State University Living in one of the world’s most volatile regions, the people of the Balkans have witnessed almost unrelenting political, economic, and social upheaval. In response, many have looked to building communities, both psychologically and materially, as a means of survival in the wake of crumbling governments and states. The foundational structures of these communities often center on the concept of individual sacrifice for the good of the whole. The Sacrificed Body examines the widespread use of the sacrificial metaphor in cultural texts and its importance to sustaining communal ideologies in the Balkans. Tatjana Aleksić further relates this theme to the sanctioning of ethnic cleansing, rape, and murder in the name of homogeneity and collective identity. In numerous examples, ranging from literature to film and performance art, Aleksić views the theme of sacrifice and its relation to exclusion based on gender, race, class, sexuality, religion, or politics for the sake of community building. She finds that the sacrifice narrative becomes most prevalent during times of crisis brought on by wars, weak governments, foreign threats, or even globalizing tendencies. By employing cultural theory, sociological analysis, and human rights studies, Aleksić exposes a historical narrative that is predominant regionally , if not globally. Tatjana Aleksić is associate professor of South Slavic languages and literatures and comparative literature at the University of Michigan. Pitt SerieS in ruSSian and eaSt euroPean StudieS uniVerSity of PittSBurgh PreSS www.upress.pitt.edu Cover image: I [ ] CU, Cooper Union, New York, April 2011. Courtesy of Nataša Bojić Cover design: Joel W. Coggins ISBN 13: 978-0-8229-6261-8 ISBN 10: 0-8229-6261-6 ...

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