Memory, history, identity

Berisha, Isuf. (2017). Memory, history, identity. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Philosophy.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij filozofije) [mentor Veljak, Lino].

PDF (Croatian) - Registered users only Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

This thesis investigates identity issues in Kosovo after 1999. The postwar debate on identities in Kosovo was pretty controversial. The very initiation of this debate soon after the war was something surprising and confusing for majority of Kosovar public and scholars‟ community. Therefore frequent opinions that this debate is unnecessary or damaging, while some participants even jumped to the conspiracy theories in order to explain this phenomenon. In this thesis we intend to articulate and discuss identity questions in Kosovo based on contemporary theories and research results on identity issues. The author‟s argument is that postwar discussion on this problematic reflects processes of identity transformation that were triggered by radically changed social context that came with liberation of Kosovo. Therefore this work will concentrate on identifying, analyzing and explaining these phenomena by taking as starting point their manifestation in postwar identity debate in Kosovo. This work is focused on Kosovar identity which was at the center of this debate. Kosovar identity has been analysed in relation to other social identities of Kosovo‟s society. Great deal of attention was paid to the relation of Kosovar identity with national or ethnic identities in Kosovo, especially to the relation with Albanian national identity. Similar attention during above mentioned debate received also religious identities and their relation with Albanian national identity. After representing the objectives of the study at the beginning, author introduces the context and importance of identity issues in today‟s world. Possible approaches to the concept of identity are discussed in second chapter, through critical consideration of conceptions of some main thinkers on this notion as a philosophical category, like Aristotel, J. Locke, W. Witgenstein, M. Heidegger and T. Adorno. Following detailed critical rewiew of contemporary world debate on various aspects of identity issues should provide analitical and interpretation tools for later discusion of identity problematics in postwar Kosovar society. Main theoretical streams of this debate are represented through their main authors. After discussing views of Erik H. Ericson on concept of identity, sociological stream of this debate was represented through authors like E. Goffman, P. Berger, Z. Bauman and A. Giddens. Importance of philosophical aproach was discused through critical consideration of contribution on identity issues by J. Habermas and P. Ricoeur. In third chapter the concept of identity was discussed from the perspective of the relation of various social entities with their main Other/s. Author uses concepts of identity situation, function of identity, and methphore of transformers as figure for analysing and interprpretation of identity transformation proceses. Identity issues in postwar Kosovar society are disscussed in forth chapter, while new dynamics between national or ethnic identities and political identities are analysed in fifth chapter. Relations of Albanian national identy towards religious identities among Albanian are discused extensivelly in sixth chapter, while relations of Kosovo with its new main Other Europe are thematized in last chapter.

Actions (login required)

View Item