Bachelor 2024/2025

Yugoslavia - Building a Multi-National State

Type: Elective course (History)

Area of studies: History

Delivered by: Department of History

Where: School of Arts and Humanities

When: 5 year, 3 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Stefan Gužvica, Evgeniia Platonova

Language: English

ECTS credits: 3

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Yugoslavia, was the most ethnically mixed European country formed out of the Versailles peace settlement. It lasted for almost a quarter of a century in its monarchist and socialist forms, and it collapsed into ethnic civil war twice in this period. The second time around, there was no pan-Yugoslav anti-nationalist force to patch it back together, and the country, inspired by a 200-year-old idea, is now seemingly gone for good. This class will look at the challenges and complexities of building a multi-ethnic state through the case study of Yugoslavia. It will examine its successes and failures, the questions of federalism and centralism, nationalism and internationalism, monarchism and communism, impositions and negotiations, and all the shades in between. The class will look not only at the political aspects of “the national question,” but also social and cultural phenomena that interact with nationhood, such as labor, consumption, gender, cinema, and philosophy.