Sarajewo jako metafora. Miasto i mit

Abstract

Post-Yugoslav prose published in Poland after the year 1990, despite its simplistic reception by Poles, complicates the simple, nationalistic image of political divisions that had followed the collapse of Yugoslavia. Literary representations of Sarajevo conceived of as a space that is complex both ethnically and culturally becomes a perfect symbol of multi-cultural and trans-cultural dependencies. Consequently, the city shown in disseminational contexts violates the iconic image of the Balkans that is over-represented in mainstream Polish reception and supported by ethno-national categories overused by the media and popular magazines.