This is not an essay on the history of the Slovenian-Croatian border. It is an essay on the contemporary perception of the border’s history. For Slovenia, which only has 46 km of the Adriatic coast, the question of the maritime border and the border in Istria are especially pressing. The context of the EU did not just help to solve the problem, it also complicated it. The Essay deals with the history of the border insomuch as is needed to confront a historiography, based on comparable methodology/theory, with nationalist perceptions. A brief analysis of the nationalist historical narrative on the border reveals five characteristics of nationalist representation of the border history: anachronisms; false methodology; inconsistency; the focus on the "movements" of the individual parts of the border; the belief in the “naturalness” of national identities.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3377012
The author concentrates on the period before the first Yugoslav state. The reason for that is obvious: The Slovenian and Croatian nationalisms were formed in this period, and the administrative borders on the ground were demarcated by the Habsburg administration in the 18th and 19th century. In the second part of the article, the author tries to grasp the image of the border in Slovenian public sphere and the importance of the border in the last two decades for the Slovenian nationalism. The context of the EU was did not just help to solve the problem, it also complicated it.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3304564