When Drniš Came to the Sea

Croatian Nationalism, Dalmatian Regionalism, and the Politics of Identity, 1990-2001

Bibliographic Data

ID2993367
AuthorsJohn E Ashbrook (Midwestern State University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume73
Issue1
Pages59-81
Publication date2025-03-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Southeast European Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2701-8199 • E-ISSN: 2701-8202
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/soeu-2024-0045
OpenAlexW4409370836
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

This article analyzes the politicization of identities in Dalmatia during the turbulent decade of the 1990s. It argues that during the Croatian War of Independence (or the Homeland War), several factors led to the politicized delegitimization of Dalmatian identity outside a Croatian nationalist context. These included the proximity of the Serbian Krajina rebellion, the flood of displaced persons from the Croatian hinterland to the coastal cities, the attacks of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)-led government on the regionalist Dalmatian Action party and regionalism in general. The author also analyzes how many coastal Croats reacted to and described their hinterland cousins, mirroring the rural/urban divide that characterized descriptions of Serbs by nationalist Croats during the dissolution of Yugoslavia

Art · Croatian · Geography · Identity (music · Linguistics · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Regionalism (politics · Sociology · Balkan and Eastern European Studies · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Central European national history · Gender Studies · Law

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Open DOIOpen Access