Identity and Nationalism in the Balkans: Anthems and the Making of Nation States in Southeast Europe

Anthems are symbolic means through which nations present themselves to the world. Accordingly, creating seven new nation states out of the bones of Yugoslavia required new anthems. Why did these new states opt for century-old national songs or, failing this, for the anthems without words? What are the images and symbols that each of these states chose as their ‘national signatures’ and how were these chosen? This book explores a variety of images of nationhood (or the absence of them) in the lyrics of the official anthems and of competing national songs and traces their historical trajectory from the time of their conception to their legal entrenchment. This is the first full-length study into the symbolic representations of nationhood in the recently created nation states of the Balkans.