{"title":"Ales Debeljak","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"twilight-of-the-idols-book-ales-debeljak-9781877727511","title":"Twilight of the Idols","description":"This long, two-part essay raises disturbing questions about our intellectual commitment to the concept of multiculturalism and paints a haunting portrait of a place that no longer exists. The striking photographs show us what remains of a culturally rich and diverse place, where as Debeljak states, the people \"until yesterday had lived in a single state, but who today have different countries. The guns of the Balkans have silenced those good vibrations. The stars have set, And of all seasons, the lands south of my own country know but a single one -- the deep, dark winter of death.\"","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49531925823761,"sku":"GOR001930498","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50392460787985,"sku":"CIN1877727512G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1877727512.jpg?v=1751422494"},{"product_id":"smugglers-book-ales-debeljak-9781938160677","title":"Smugglers","description":"Bilingual English and Slovenian poems examine the aftermath of post-Yugoslavia and the Balkan Wars, recalling vanished people and their country.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51053424050449,"sku":"NIN9781938160677","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1938160673.jpg?v=1750997237"},{"product_id":"hidden-handshake-book-ales-debeljak-9780742517806","title":"The Hidden Handshake","description":"The Hidden Handshake uses four distinct, yet intertwined essays to address the questions surrounding our notions of citizenship, national identity, and cosmopolitan belonging. The violent disintegration of Yugoslavia and the undercurrent of EU enlargement stand out as two contrasting movements that highlight the importance of having a national identification while also defying it to avoid both the rigidity of nationalist exclusivism and the blithe nonsense of global citizenship. Through the exploration of sociohistorical material and artistic visions as well as the author's layered identity as a Slovene, a Yugoslav, a Central European, and a European, Ale? Debeljak tries to show that it is possible to remain faithful to geography, history, and community even as one fosters links to global cultural movements. Not surprisingly, the book itself shares some of this hybrid identity. It uses not only theoretical concepts and empirical data, but also historical sketches on art, national life, and society, along with poetic autobiographical reminiscences and personal anecdotes. Ultimately, the book calls for an adoption of liberal nationalism, which is commensurate with democratic order, and for a more ecumenical understanding of artistic visions that does not discriminate on the grounds of one's place of origin.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51687289225489,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51687289454865,"sku":"NIN9780742517806","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52148801798417,"sku":"NLS9780742517806","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0742517802.jpg?v=1753789063"},{"product_id":"reluctant-modernity-book-ales-debeljak-9780847685837","title":"Reluctant Modernity","description":"In this book, Ales Debeljak offers a refreshing alternative to postmodernists such as Baudrillard, who declare the death of art conceived as yet another source of rootless, circulating fictions. Inspired by the melancholy critical theory of Adorno and Benjamin, and drawing on Weber, Debeljak shows that with the dawning of modernity, art was made autonomous. Art production was effectively emancipated from the exigencies of everyday life and its guiding ideal of purposive rationality. The Renaissance brought on the first stage in a long, gradual withdrawal of art from the hitherto dominant mythological, religious, and aristocratic legitimization. Yet it was not until the 18th century that art assumed the separate status of a commodity to be bought and sold. However, art paid a price for its autonomy; through commodification art production ultimately become an extension of capitalist logic and control. The deterioration of bourgeois liberal individualism into the narcissism of mass society accompanied the decomposition of art into simplified mass art and commercialized kitsch. Maintaining its formal autonomy (museums, galleries, etc.), its content became the universal object of indirect corporate exploitation. Today postmodern art, argues Debeljak, is subjected to infinite reproducibility, total integration into mass society, and political resignation-no longer representing an alternative reality. The postmodern institution of art thus cannot be simply cured of modern structures and assumptions, but is, instead, fated to a continuous and painful relationship with modernity.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52453815124241,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52453815943441,"sku":"NLS9780847685837","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780847685837.jpg?v=1759369216"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-ales-debeljak.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}