Either Balkan Express or Café Europa: paradox od Croatian cultural allegiance in the essays of Slavenka Drakulic
Abstract
Working from the ambiguous and oppressive meanings of the term East in Western perspective, the paper examines how the constant paradox in portrayal of Croatian cultural allegiance in the works of Slavenka Draculic articulated in her essays How we survived Communism and Even Laughed, The Balkan Express and Cafe Europa as well as fables A Guided Tour Through the Museum of Communism. Focus of this paper is on Draculics rhetorical strategies used in critique of communist and post-communist discourse as well as on narrative experiencing the margin as a person from Eastern Europe, the backward Balkans,mirroring multiple marginalities rising from symbolic meaning of Oriental or unbecoming within Central Europe and is a contradiction to western modernity.
This inquiry into Drakulic's work is performed through the lens of a feminist critique as she is widely considered critical voice of reason that recaptures the rise of new memory politics that legitimizes conservative nationalism. Her position of dissident author rises from personal experience of cultural backlash and displacement from Croatian society that is largely based both on her "westernized" feminist opinion on women's rights and ironical portrayal of gender in society.