Course Title：巴尔干地区的文化多样性

Various negative and (rare) positive stereotypes are associated with the term Balkans, often described as a “wild”, “fighting”, “primitive” space where different languages and cultures meet and clash, but also a space of Oriental mysticism and attraction, which is why the Balkans is considered to be the Orient in Europe. Since the Balkans is commonly regarded as a metaphor for multiculturalism, the course aims to provide an introduction to the languages and cultures of the region, particularly of the newly-formed states (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro), established after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, where Serbo-Croatian was the official language up until 1990. The language history is outlined from the 19th century, important for the national revival and the birth of the common language for Croats and Serbs (1850), through Yugoslavia's multiethnic and multilingual period (1945-1990), to the 1990s, which marked the disintegration and emergence of new states. Learning a language cannot be separated from learning a culture. For that reason, the course offers an insight into the cultural and social diversity of the region while emphasizing both similarities and differences among the cultures that are analyzed, compared and closely intertwined. The Balkan cultural space is viewed within the framework of the EU's cultural policy, which has been promoting a mosaic of languages and cultures, i.e. "unity in diversity", since the 1990s.