Encounters With Colonial Bosnia: Slovenian Views Between European Superiority and (South-)Slavic Familiarity

The article examines the Slovenian literary thematization of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Immigrants, including Slovenians, played various roles in Bosnia that were, in many ways, similar to those played by Western Europeans in non-European colonies. Typical colonial practices such as segregation and the hierarchization of cultures were lucidly identified and criticized by some authors. In confronting the Other, writers perceived themselves as a part of a superior European civilization, in which, to the exclusion of the “savage Asian Turk,” the (South-)Slavic imaginary could also be inscribed. Some authors expressed this element of (South-)Slavic inclusiveness through a specific (South-)Slavic familiarity.
Keywords: Eurocentrism, colonialism, (south) Slavism, Slovenian emigrants and travelers, Austro-Hungarian monarchy