SERBISTICS AND GEOPOLITICS: Reflections on the Serbian Question
Subotić, Momčilo. 2023. Serbian Studies and Geopolitics: Essays on the Serbian Question.
Belgrade: Institute for Political Studies. ISBN 978-86-7419-378-5
A book that connects two concepts, the scientific discipline of the Serbian language and literature, a branch of Slavic studies, therefore SERBISTICS, and another concept, which denotes the country, as space and politics, therefore GEOPOLITICS. Why does the author give the title to the monograph SERBISTICS AND GEOPOLITICS: Reflections on the Serbian Question and what does the work deal with?
Dedicating the monograph to his granddaughter Irina, as a memory of her starting school, the author studies: the right to self-determination, the geopolitical fate of the Republic of Serbian Krajina, the policy of leaving Kosovo and Metohija, through Resolution 1244 and the Brussels Agreement. The author of the monograph, Prof. Momčilo Subotić, PhD, deals with Cold War relations between the West and Russia before and after World War II, the collapse of the SFRY, the right to self-determination, as well as issues of national identity.
According to the author, one of the key components of national identity is the importance of the science of language, in our case SERBISTICS. Therefore, it is necessary to view the concept of Serbian studies in an integral way, because in addition to language and literature in a broader sense, it also includes cultural, social and political institutions, processes and relations. The aim of this paper is also to point out the decisive contribution of Sava Mrkalj, the predecessor of Vuk Karadžić, as the first Serbian scholar philologist and one of the most educated Serbs of his time, in the reform of the Serbian alphabet (orthography, language and writing).
At the very end, the author deals with the current situation of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, and the goal of this is actually to point out important historical moments. And when it comes to Serbia and the Serbian people, one should reason at the level of historical experience: there is no Serbia, a united and democratic Serbian state without a strong Russia as its historical protector.
