Mediating Spaces: Literature, Politics, and the Scales of Yugoslav Socialism, 1870–1995

Throughout the twentieth century in the lands of Yugoslavia, socialists embarked on multiple projects of supranational unification. Sensitive to the vulnerability of small nations in a world of great powers, they pursued political sovereignty, economic development, and cultural modernization at a scale between the national and the global – from regional strategies of Balkan federalism to continental visions of European integration to the internationalist ambitions of the Non-Aligned Movement. In Mediating Spaces James Robertson offers an intellectual history of the diverse supranational politics of Yugoslav socialism, beginning with its birth in the 1870s and concluding with its violent collapse in the 1990s. Showcasing the ways in which socialists in Southeast Europe confronted the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of globalization, the book frames the evolution of supranational politics as a response to the shifting dynamics of global economic and geopolitical competition. Arguing that literature was a crucial vehicle for imagining new communities beyond the nation, Robertson analyzes the manuscripts, journals, and personal correspondence of the literary left to excavate the cultural geographies that animated Yugoslav socialism and its supranational horizons. The book ultimately illuminates the innovative strategies of cultural development used by socialist writers to challenge global asymmetries of power and prestige. Mediating Spaces reveals the full significance of supranationalism in the history of socialist thought, recovering a key concern for an era of renewed geopolitical contestation in Eastern Europe.

About the Author :
James M. Robertson is assistant professor of history at the University of California, Irvine.

Review :
“A major contribution to the intellectual history of leftist thought in South East Europe and a compelling interpretation of the development of socialist thought in the region.” Dragana Obradovic, University of Toronto “Yugoslavia’s experience was one of forming a political federation of separate spaces during most of the 20th century, which dissolved by the next century. This book will be of most interest to historians and political scientists. Recommended.” Choice "One great pleasure of reading Mediating Spaces is that Robertson curates the understudied literature of the Balkans with the unselfconscious enthusiasm and confident erudition of an aficionado, quoting generously from such authors as Miroslav Krleža, August Cesarec, Dubravka Ugrešić, and many others. Socialist students of literature, especially those of us interested in the neglected literatures of the global periphery, are all the richer for his efforts." Protean Magazine "Robertson’s book is a welcome addition to the growing body of research on Yugoslavia asking new questions about its political and cultural history. His socio-spatial perspective provides a basis for provoking and original arguments about the problems facing and decisions taken by Yugoslavia’s left-wing intellectuals and writers." Slavonic and East European Review