Eurasian Studies Balkans, Anatolia, Iran, Caucasus and Central Asia Studies Notebooks

Series | Eurasian Studies
Edited book | Ca’ Foscari, Venice and the Balkans
Chapter | Sistemi di scrittura, confini e identità nazionali

Sistemi di scrittura, confini e identità nazionali

Uno sguardo su alcune ideologie alfabetiche in ex-Jugoslavia

Abstract

Some examples regarding the employment of writing systems in ex Yugoslavia with ideological purposes can be illustrated analysing the link combining these cultural elements with identitary and national/nationalist rhetorics in Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. A growing attention towards the element of the alphabet is evident in most republics of ex Yugoslavia, where already during the last years of the federation the symbolic function of the scripts was being enhanced by cultural and political elites. This phenomenon coincided with the intention of creating cultural projects aimed at expressing the existence of distinct histories and identities within the country. With the definition of new borders and territorial entities, among other elements, alphabets have taken up the active role of representing the different nations in the area: in specific, Croatia started focusing more and more on the Glagolitic heritage and script, Serbia on Cyrillic, and Montenegro added two extra characters to the newly codified Montenegrin alphabet.


Open access

Submitted: July 13, 2016 | Language: it

Keywords GlagoliticoCiryllic alphabetAlphabetic ideologies


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