About

Tatjana Aleksić is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan. She holds an MA in English Literature and Theory from the University of Nis, Serbia, obtained in 2002, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Rutgers University, earned in 2007. Her research focuses on cultural texts, with particular attention to the use of sacrificial metaphors in Balkan community building and the reinforcement of communal ideologies. She explores themes related to ethnic cleansing, rape, murder, and the construction of collective identity through cultural theory, sociological analysis, and human rights studies. Her notable publication, 'The Sacrificed Body: Balkan Community Building and the Fear of Freedom,' published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2013, examines these issues within the Balkan region and their broader implications.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Art
• Law
• History
• Psychology
• Psychoanalysis
• Art history

Selected publications

• Trauma, Memory, and the Politics of Mourning in New Albanian Film from Kosovo

  Studies in Eastern European Cinema · 2024

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Art
  • Psychoanalysis

  A quarter century since the wars of Yugoslav dissolution were ended in 1999 by NATO bombardment, film production observing the wars through a critical lens can still be called quite meager. In the past few years, however, an increasing number of Albanian filmmakers from Kosovo have emerged, exposing the consequences of the war as well as the continuing legacy of strict patriarchal norms and post-war lethal capitalism. In the films discussed in this article – Zana (2019) by Antoneta Kastrati, Hive (2021) by Blerta Basholli, and Three Windows and a Hanging (2014) by Isa Qosja – the suffering of the female protagonists is pitted against the collective trauma and thus coopted by the same nationalist-­capitalist thanatopolitics that created the conditions for the wars, and continues to regulate, restrict and repress survivors' memory and mourning practices. The films' female protagonists defy these restrictions, resisting through silent stoicism and 'agonistic mourning'.

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• The Body of a Political Masochist: Torture, Performance and Power in Elias Maglinis' The Interrogation

  Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand) · 2016-08-23

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Includes image: 'allegorical scene', 1955. Abstract In November 2013 Russian conceptual artist Petr Pavlensky nailed his testicles to the icy cobbles of the Red Square in Moscow and sat there until the police and health services intervened. This protest/performance act rounded off a politically inspired “trilogy” that over two years involved various methods of body brutalization. The two performances preceding this one were a rather obvious act of Pavlensky’s sewing his lips shut, in protest at the incarceration of Pussy Riot members and the silencing of Russian dissidents, while the other one had him lying naked in a roll of barbed wire in front of the Legislative Assembly, in protest of Russian censorship, the notorious anti-gay legislation and a few other recent controversial laws. Resorting to such excruciating performances was part of his many attempts at drawing attention as much to the complacency with which contemporary Russians tolerate the corruption and bureaucratic impenetrability of Vladimir Putin’s rule, as Pavlensky’s own reaction as an artist to the commodification and mainstreaming of art in contemporary society.

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• Sex, violence, dogs and the impossibility of escape: Why contemporary Greek film is so focused on family

  Journal of Greek Media & Culture · 2016-10-01 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The article reads two recent Greek films, Kinodontas/Dogtooth (Lanthimos, 2009) and Miss Violence (Avranas, 2013), as offering a critique of the model of family repression. It argues that the films in their seemingly different aesthetic choices make similar points about the familial necropolitics that does not merely reflect social pathologies but likely also produces them. The families in both films are exposed to forms of control by a fatherly figure who dominates and almost entirely determines the content of the families’ daily lives. They inhabit lives and living spaces that visually, as well as narratively, offer no space for dissent or escape. However, the family members themselves, and especially their mother figures, are likewise perceived as semi-willing accomplices in the repressive scheme, as afraid of the male tyrants, as of the idea of their own liberation. Overall, the article argues that while the family control mechanisms presented in these and other recent Greek films can be read in response to the contemporary Greek crisis, this need not be the case, as the reach and implications of their critique are far wider.

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• Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900–1949 by Theodora Dragostinova (review)

  Journal of modern Greek studies · 2014-05-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Reviewed by: Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900–1949 by Theodora Dragostinova Tatjana Aleksić Theodora Dragostinova . Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900–1949. Ithaca : Cornell University Press . 2011 . Pp xix + 294 . Hardcover $46.95 . Forging homogenous nations is very much a European project, although political and academic discourse often make it sound as if Europe had nothing to do with it, and that nationalist resentments concentrated at its edges are the result of some deep, immanent flaws unknown to Europe “proper.” Demographic crises in the Balkans have historically been caused by this same homogenizing process, albeit owing more to the fact that the long Ottoman (and later Austro-Hungarian) colonization ended only in the wake of World War I, and due to the quintessential problem that small peoples everywhere are rarely able to define their policies without foreign pressures or interventions. Consequently, the issues of unstable state borders and ethno-religious minorities that were “awarded” to this or that nation state, depending on the peace treaty, happened in the Balkans later than in the rest of Europe and continue to inform political and social issues to this day. Dragostinova’s investigation spans the first half of the twentieth century, from around Bulgarian independence from the Ottoman Empire to the end of the Greek Civil War in 1949. It observes not only the official national and demographic policies of Bulgaria and Greece but also popular responses to nationalist projects. Drawing on diverse sources, the book opens with the ambition to “explain nationalistic outbursts of hatred in the area but [also] refute clichés of ‘primordial animosities’ ” (x), in contrast to the prevailing view of the Balkans as a site of incessant and inexplicable ethnic violence, cleansings, and forced relocations. The history is not new, but Dragostinova’s book demonstrates the human side and the human cost of many a historical catastrophe. Her focus on many individual histories and personal experiences serves as a counterbalance to authoritative histories that usually dismiss the kind of sources she digs into: memoirs, letters, interviews, and even some literary accounts. Designated merely as Christian Ottoman subjects at the point of the rise in national consciousness and backed by their intellectual elite, Bulgarians and Greeks, just like other constituents of the Empire, began to claim a separate cultural, religious, and linguistic identity. Dragostinova notes the many difficulties Bulgarians experienced in their efforts to define themselves as independent from the Greek ecclesiastical and cultural domination within the Empire, a relative privilege the Greek Church and Greek elites were unwilling to lose. Many documents used in the book resonate with the tone of Bulgarian frustration at such treatment that, it is fair to say, to some degree informed not only inter-communal relationships after independence but even the state policies towards the Greek minority in Bulgaria. Dragostinova’s book offers a wealth of documents pertaining to the modern state’s necropolitical “population management”: resettling, ethnic cleansing, “exchanges,” persecutions, and executions. It brings to view many personal stories and tragedies that uncover not only an entanglement of historic events and bureaucratic impenetrability but also deeply human fears and erratic decisions made in times of economic insecurity and political instability. The destinies of the Greek minority in Bulgaria and of the Bulgarians in Greece likewise emphasize the plea of minorities who find themselves trapped within a nation state, especially in times of commotion. Persistent [End Page 205] failures of state policies directed at achieving national consolidation under “one roof” by all means available, including voluntary and forced migration, attest to the problems of ethnic communities with diverse cultural backgrounds, in comparison with local communities of mixed ethno-religious background who are invested in and share cultural affinities and customs. An “exchange” of refugees in the early 1900s between Bulgaria and Greece acutely points to this discrepancy, with most of the voluntary Greek emigrants from Bulgaria either returning to their land or emigrating elsewhere after failing to accommodate themselves in their national “motherland.” Among those who tried to reverse their citizenship claims in order to remain in Bulgaria, many tested the labyrinthine bureaucracy firsthand, frequently being repatriated to their country...

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• A Portrait of the Artist as a Political Dissident: The Life and Work of Aleksandar Petrović. By Vlastimir Sudar. Bristol: Intellect Books; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. xvi, 366pp. Notes. Filmography. Bibliography. Index. Photographs. $64.50, hard bound.

  Slavic Review · 2014-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  A Portrait of the Artist as a Political Dissident: The Life and Work of Aleksandar Petrović. By Vlastimir Sudar. Bristol: Intellect Books; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. xvi, 366pp. Notes. Filmography. Bibliography. Index. Photographs. $64.50, hard bound. - Volume 73 Issue 3

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• Post-Yugoslav Literature and Film: Fires, Foundations, Flourishes. By Gordana P. Crnković. New York: Continuum, 2012. x, 301 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. $120.00, hard bound.

  Slavic Review · 2013-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Post-Yugoslav Literature and Film: Fires, Foundations, Flourishes. By Gordana P. Crnković. New York: Continuum, 2012. x, 301 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. $120.00, hard bound. - Volume 72 Issue 4

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• The Sacrificed Body: Balkan Community Building and the Fear of Freedom

  2013-10-28 · 8 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  "Living in one of the world's most volatile regions, the people of the Balkans have witnessed unrelenting political, economic, and social upheaval. In response, many have looked to building communities, both psychologically and materially, as a means of survival in the wake of crumbling governments and states. The foundational structures of these communities often center on the concept of individual sacrifice for the good of the whole. Many communities, however, are hijacked by restrictive ideologies, turning them into a model of intolerance and exclusion. In The Sacrificed Body, Tatjana Aleksic examines the widespread use of the sacrificial metaphor in cultural texts and its importance to sustaining communal ideologies in the Balkan region. Aleksic further relates the theme to the sanctioning of ethnic cleansing, rape, and murder in the name of homogeneity and collective identity.

  Publisher

• Terror and Joy: The Films of Dušan Makavejev. By Lorraine Mortimer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. xiii, 335 pp. Notes. Index. Filmography. Photographs. $25.00, paper.

  Slavic Review · 2010-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Terror and Joy: The Films of Dušan Makavejev. By Lorraine Mortimer. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. xiii, 335 pp. Notes. Index. Filmography. Photographs. $25.00, paper. - Volume 69 Issue 2

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• Southeastern<scp>E</scp>urope

  The Encyclopedia of the Novel · 2010-12-24

  other1st authorCorresponding

  Southeastern Europe is better known as the Balkans, although this name has historically been problematized and often acquired negative connotations. Maria Todorova's seminal study on the Balkans, Imagining the Balkans (1997), has, for example, analyzed both the category itself and the various negative connotations assigned to the region. The region is imagined as a more or less compact entity due to historical developments that marked it, primarily the Ottoman colonization, but also the many episodes of turbulent history since the formation of modern nation‐states. Cultural development in the region that has, for the most part, been a polygon of conflicts for the world powers, has suffered a certain dose of “belatedness” relative to European mainstream influences, as Gregory Jusdanis controversially claims about modern Greek culture in Belated Modernity and Aesthetic Culture (1991). Most importantly, culture in the Balkans has rarely had the luxury of avoiding the grip of history and evolving with independent aesthetic attributes. The few periods of relatively unhindered literary and cultural developments created a sense of time compression that sometimes prevented literary styles that had almost run parallel courses from maturing to their full distinction.

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• Mansarda by Danilo Kiš , John K. Cox (review)

  World Literature Today · 2009-03-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII of war-torn Sarajevo as Brik nears his roots. Brik's wild pilgrimage becomes a sardonic search forhis soul,which "most people" locate "somewhere in the abdominal area." At the Cher nivitsi Jewish Center, however, a man observes, "God will take care of the dead. We need to take care of the living."And in theChi?en?u (Kishinev) Jewish cemetery, in response toKirk's existential query about whether theworld is about lifeor death, his guide responds: "I think it is about life. I think there is always more life than death." From these threads Brik fash ions Lazarus's sister Olga, strong and clear-sighted. After grave rob bers "raise" and mutilate Lazarus's body, thus literalizingBrik's confla tion of Averbuch with his biblical counterpart, Olga attends a public burial of the rediscovered corpse, compromising her Orthodox faith to spare her community a possible revenge attack. Her imagined letter to her mother echoes the Ukrainians' words: "I chose lifeover death. God will take care of thedead. We have to take care of the living." No less lost in the East than in America, Brik muses, "Home is where someone might notice your absence." But visiting Rora's sur geon sisterAzra, to fix thehand he broke freeingaMoldavian girl from her would-be pimp, he abandons irony: "The seat of her soul was in her deep, sea-green eyes. Somehow, she reminded me of Olga Averbu ch." Shortly after a nurse urges him to stay?"This is your home"?Brik meets an old girlfriendwho asks, "Where have you been?" Someone has finally noticed his absence: he ishome. After Rora is gratuitously murdered, Azra encourages Brik to finishhis project. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimii Ultimately, Hemon's completed work is both a postmodern tour de forcewhose ironic style evokes Conrad and Flaubert and an exis tentialcall toembrace lifedespite its horrors, one's self despite its flaws, and a commitment to the living that acknowledges and nurtures the soul. Michele Levy North CarolinaA&T University Danilo Kis\Mansarda. John K. Cox, tr. New York. Serbian Classics. 2008. 112 pages. $19.95. isbn978-0-9678893-7-5 Mansarda is the firstEnglish trans lation of Danilo Kis's novel pub lished in Yugoslavia in 1962. The author's emphasis on bohemian and socially transgressive behavior goes against the grain of "socialist realist" tendencies that elevated the collective spirit and self-sacrificeof the individual for the creation of socialist Utopia. The protagonist is an urban bohemian whose lofty dis sociation from the mundane and socially responsible is declared by theepigraph of thenovel taken from Alexandr Blok: "The more that life pushes a person up to greater and greater heights, the colder it gets forhim or her, and the less one is capable of comprehending life and ^^^h adjusting to it."The attic room,man- ^^^m sarda, thus becomes a metaphor for therathercarefree lifeof theaspiring ^^^H writer, Orpheus, and his roommate ^^^1 and alter ego Igor?"Perpetual stu dent. Student-vagabond. Stargazer. ^^^J Sleepwalker"?a life that revolves around the girl Eurydice, drinking, ^^^h womanizing, and discussions on the relation of art to reality. The beginning of Orpheus's transformation occurs following his (real or imaginary) "visit" to the ^^^h Pacific islands, bringing over non- ^^^J European "wisdom" and a realiza tion that everything in his lifehas been a construct, even the mansarda and Eurydice. Challenged to "move down to theground floor,"exchange his candlelit night musings with daylight writing thatoffers a better look at people below, and engage inwriting about thepoor, Orpheus insists thathis book will be "without dialectics and ethics," devoid even of love. His work, he emphasizes, is an exercise in the emancipation from egoism that, however, soon turns intoa revolt against the indul gent artifice of literature and the urge to acknowledge the "reality" of life through rituals of everyday life and charitable work. "Doesn't real life, realitas, lie somewhere between your mansarda and your Walpurgis Night?!" a friend inquires of him. The mythical Orpheus ^^^B descended into theUnderworld in ^^^b order to bring back Eurydice, and was the only man to come back alive. Doesn't realitas, therefore, lie between thepalpable misery of the people "below" and his disinterest edness in daily matters? Orpheus's...

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Frequent coauthors

• Rhea Galanaki

  1 shared

• Ismail Ferik Pasha

  1 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Comparative Literature

  Rutgers University New Brunswick