Getting over Europe: The Construction of Europe in Serbian culture (Book Review)

Zoran Milutinovi? sets out to inquire the ways in which “Europe” (or the many social imaginations of that name) was constructed “in Serbian culture, in the selected writings of leading writers and intellectuals between two world wars” (p. 9). Partly anchored in imagology, the study follows manners and practices of expression and transmission of social perceptions and images in literary discourses. Through cross- cultural contrasting, interpretations and analyses of primary texts, the book offers a thick and captivating snapshot of entangled intimate, personal and collective discourses of Europe. It examines wider transnational and more “local” Balkan and Serbian imaginations of Europe and of its purported zeitgeist throughout the historical crises and transformations following the “Great War” (1914-1918). The book’s nine analytical chapters delve into the discourses of key (predominantly) Serbian writers and public intellectuals between the two world wars – from Isidora Sekulic? and Jovan Skerlic? to Milos? Crnjanski, Ivo Andric? and others. In engaging with the discursive dynamics of identity construction between their personalities, their national-ethnic collectivities, multi-layered social roles and their intimate “Europes”, Milutinovic? distills themes that according to him underwrite and partly tie together the “European” and “Western” narratives of the different authors. His analysis unfolds as highly accessible to wider audiences beyond the confines of academia. It reads as an intimate dissection of original texts in ways that invariably raise questions about the cognitive and emotive structures shaping collective and individual imaginations of Europe in Serbia. This review will inspect in more depth three particular aspects of Milutinovic?’s narrative: the manner of his interpretation and analysis of primary discourses, the unique and hybrid genre of the text, as well as its sociological focus.