Anti-Yugoslavism in Kosovo and Macedonia: A View from Outside

• In Event: Yugoslav (Re)Visions I: Comparative anti-Yugoslavism

Abstract

My title reflects on two aspects of the problem of anti-Yugoslavism: 1) as a US citizen, my perspective, while informed by more than 50 years of field work, is not that of someone who grew up in former Yugoslavia; and 2) the majority languages in both Kosovo and Macedonia are "outside" the ex-Serbo-Croatian majority that dominated Yugoslavia. Although Yugoslavia pursued comparable linguistic policies in both Kosovo and Macedonia 1944-1968, the results were failure in Kosovo and success in Macedonia. Thus "anti-Yugoslavism" has very different meanings in the two places, but also with various entanglements on both sides. Part of the explanation for these differences is rooted in developments that began in the 19th century, and language is deeply implicated in both cases. The role of foreign states is also implicated. For my purposes, language policy serves as a prism for examining what "anti-Yugoslavism" means for Kosovo and Macedonia.

Author

• Victor Allen Friedman, U of Chicago