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Title: Dense in literary analysis of past Balkan writers.
Review: Todorova's book changed the way I viewed the Balkans. By analysing the way in which Balkan and Western Europeans wrote about the Balkans, "Imagining the Balkans" shows how this peninsula became the recipient of totally negative and pejoritve notions about Europe. Todorova deals well with some writers sentimentality, and over romanticization which unfortunetly persists today and leads not to understanding but to confusion of the issues. Old metaphores such as "the Balkan Pouder Keg" are shown to be only a way of dismissing a whole group of people as "irrational peasants." Although quit heavy in theory, a worth while read for any serious history student.
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