The Disintegration of “Power/Knowledge”: Post-Socialist Studies as Decolonial Studies? A Personal Point of View. Part 1: Post-Colonialism, Balkanism and Self-Colonization
The Disintegration of “Power/Knowledge”: Post-Socialist Studies as Decolonial Studies? A Personal Point of View. Part 1: Post-Colonialism, Balkanism and Self-Colonization

Summary/Abstract: The relationship between post-colonial and post-socialist studies is extraordinarily complex. Post-colonialists might argue that it can be approached from different perspectives as well as different power positions of knowledge production. As a result, I have chosen a spe- cific trajectory that intersects and challenges the static power positions and is able to trace the debates and the unfolding of the complex problem over time. As a long-time scholar in this area, and moreover, one who has taken many different roads in both fields, I will describe this relationship from the perspective of my own scholarly biography. However, my professional career has spanned several decades and surpassed the transient trends and fashions within this scholarly field. As such, it can only be depicted as an extensive narrative comprising multiple episodes. Each episode showcases its unique scientific intrigue and unravels its own methodologi- cal peripeteia, all of which contribute to the overarching story I wish to share. Such complex material required a specific structure and organization, leading to the formation of three distinct parts of the story. These parts are published in sequence across the double issue of the jour- nal Studia Litteraria, devoted to forms of engagement in contemporary Southern and Western Slavic literatures.

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