František Šístek

Brief Information

Dr František Šístek holds a doctoral degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology from Charles University, Prague (2007), where he worked on the topic of Our Brothers in the South: The Image of Montenegro and the Montenegrins in Czech Society, 1830-2006. He received his MA degree from the Faculty of History, entral European University, Budapest (2001), and complemented his studies with an interest in literature and poetry. He is the bearer of the Šrámkova Sobotka Award for Young Poetry Writers (1st prize) and Šrámkova Sobotka Award for Young Short Story Writers (1st prize) for 1998 and 1999, respectively. is Černá Hora /Montenegro – A Short History (Praha: Libri, 2007) was granted the Miroslav Ivanov Award for Non-Fiction at the Prague Book Fair and riter´s Festival (April 2008).

Dr Šistek’s research experiences include analyses of Serbia and Montenegro (political affairs and organised crime) for Europe Analyse, Paris (2000-2003), research and translation for The Prague Post, Prague (2004-2005), and a researcher of modern Southeast European history, Czech – South Slavic relations, images and stereotypes of the other, Institute of History, Czech Academy of Sciences (2006-present).

Getting together with other fellows in Sofi a during our fi rst working session was exactly what I needed: some advice, some friendly critique, a chance to learn from others and, last but not least, a huge intake of calories in the form of delicious Bulgarian food! Now I am back in my forest again, all alone, but this time with a map …

František Šístek

Projects

Montenegro 1900 –1945: Search for a New Mission

Regimes of Historicity and Discourses of Modernity and Identity, 1900-1945, in East-Central, Southeastern and Northern Europe

Project Outline

The history of Montenegrin identity debates in the first half of the twentieth century has been relatively little known even to Balkan specialists. However, competing visions of the country’s past and future, the increasingly contested nature of national identity of the predominantly Orthodox population (defined either as Serb or exclusively Montenegrin) and other themes of intellectual debates deserve more attention for their relevance in the wider ex-Yugoslav, Balkan and East European contexts. This interesting but generally overlooked history of Montenegrin intellectual debates in the first half of the 20th century provides several new examples of historical myths and narratives, competing national projects, visions of past and future, discursive battles over identity, cases of domestication and transformation of ‘Western’ ideas and concepts. Hence, the research project aims at

A careful reconstruction of the emerging identity discourses in Montenegro between 1900 and 1945;
An analysis of their strategies, origins, and contribution to the modernity debates there, and the ways they influenced economic reasoning;
The documentation of the spread of European ideas in early-twentiethcentury Montenegro (especially those of an alleged racial purity), resulting from multifaceted receptions, domestication processes, and intraregional transfers there.

At a wider scale, the project hopes to contribute to a better understanding of the intellectual history of Yugoslavia. Montenegro was often regarded as a peripheral part of the ‘Serb ethnic space’; nevertheless, its distinctive political history and perceived racial qualities of its population significantly influenced the development of modern concepts of Serbian identity.

The research proposes a new assessment of the Montenegrin material, which can provide some fresh insights especially in comparison with other cases of ‘delayed’ and similarly contested ethnic groups throughout the Region (Macedonians, Bosniaks/Muslims, Ruthenes etc.), and whose modern national identity developed during the twentieth century.

Former Fellows

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