Abstract
This article gives an overview and analysis of a topic that has long influenced political and social reality in BiH, especially in the last 30 years. The politicization of history as a means of recreating national identity has proven to be the strongest weapon in the hands of the country’s nationalists. This article looks at how the politicized construction of national identity through politicizing history has created a new social order and state structure. In 2009 the European Court of Human Rights found that the BiH constitution discriminates on basis that citizens who do not belong to one of the three main ethnicities are not ineligible to run for president. By creating identity divisions among the peoples of Bosnia, nationalists continue to question the existence and legitimacy of the state and attempt to devise a new state.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Regarding language, see also Kordić (2010).
References
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
———. 2016. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. (Revised edition.) London: Verso.
Arthur, Paige, ed. 2011. Identities in Transition: Challenges for Transitional Justice in Divided Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Samo Bardutzky, The Strasbourg Court on the Dayton Constitution: Judgment in the case of Sejdic´ and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 22 December 2009 (October 19, 2010) European Constitutional Law Review, Vol. 6, Issue 2.
Connerton, Paul. 1989. How Societies Remember. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dzaja, Srecko M. 1999. Konfesionalnost i nacionalnost Bosne i Hercegovine: Predemancipacijsko razdoblje 1463-1804, Ziral, Mostar.
———. 2003. Bosanska Povijesna stvarnost i njezini mitološki odrazi.
Gilbert, Paul. 2000. Peoples, Cultures and Nations in Political Philosophy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hadzijahic, Muhamed. 1974. Od tradicije do identiteta—Geneza nacinalnog pitanja bosanskih Muslimana. Sarajevo.
Hoare, Marko Attila. 2007. The History of Bosnia; From the Middle Ages to the Present Day. London: SAQI.
Imamovic, Mustafa. 1997. Historija Bosnjaka. Sarajevo: Preporod.
Kaufman, Stuart. 2001. Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Kordić, Snježana. 2010. Jezik i nacionalizam. Zagreb: Durieux (Rotulus Universitas).
Nenad Dimitrijevic, “Serbia after the Criminal Past: What Went Wrong and What Should be Done”, International Journal of Transitional Justice 2, no. 1, 2008.
Ognjenovic, Gorana, and Jasna Jozelic, eds. 2014. Politicization of Religion: The Power of State, Nation and Faith. London: Palgrave.
———. 2020. Politicization of History in School Textbooks. London: Palgrave.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jozelic, J. (2021). Reconfiguring and Imposing Identity: Politicization of Identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In: Ognjenovic, G., Jozelic, J. (eds) Nationalism and the Politicization of History in the Former Yugoslavia. Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65832-8_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65832-8_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-65831-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-65832-8
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)