Burek

Fülszöveg

"As simple as burek" is a popular phrase used by many young people in Slovenia.
Jernej Mlekuz maintains that the truth is just the opposite. The burek is a pie made
of pastry dough filled with various fillings that is well-known in the Balkans, and
also in Turkey and the Near East. Whether on the plate or as a cultural artifact, it
is in fact, not that simple. After a brief stroll through its history, Mlekuz focuses
on the present state of the burek, after parasitical ideologies had attached
themselves to it and poisoned its discourses. In Slovenia, the burek has become
a loaded metaphor for the Balkans and for the immigrants from the republics of
the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Without the burek it would
be equally difficult to consider the jargon of Slovenian youth, the imagined world
of Slovenian chauvinism, and the rhetorical arsenal of advertising agents when
promoting healthy foods.
In this analysis, Mlekuz refers to the burek as the... Tovább

Fülszöveg

"As simple as burek" is a popular phrase used by many young people in Slovenia.
Jernej Mlekuz maintains that the truth is just the opposite. The burek is a pie made
of pastry dough filled with various fillings that is well-known in the Balkans, and
also in Turkey and the Near East. Whether on the plate or as a cultural artifact, it
is in fact, not that simple. After a brief stroll through its history, Mlekuz focuses
on the present state of the burek, after parasitical ideologies had attached
themselves to it and poisoned its discourses. In Slovenia, the burek has become
a loaded metaphor for the Balkans and for the immigrants from the republics of
the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Without the burek it would
be equally difficult to consider the jargon of Slovenian youth, the imagined world
of Slovenian chauvinism, and the rhetorical arsenal of advertising agents when
promoting healthy foods.
In this analysis, Mlekuz refers to the burek as the "metaburek." All at the same
time it is greasy, Balkan, Slovenian, not-Slovenian, Yugoslavian, familiar, foreign,
disturbingly unhealthy, plebeian, junk food, and finally, a cherub (burek spelled
backwards is kerub, the Slovenian word for cherub). And this metaburek is never a
completely pure, innocent, unconditioned burek. It is much more.
The book is genuinely innovative in both theme and method of research of contemporary
cultural reality. Today we often speak about interdisciplinarity, but it is still very rare to
have a multi-perspective approach applied so thoroughly and consistently. Analyzing
patterns and practices, stereotypes about the self and the other, the author is discovering
the essence of Slovenian daily culture, values, needs, and hopes as expressed among
different social groups by referring to one and the same artifact: the burek.
Milena Dragicevic Sesic, Head of UNESCO Chair
and Professor at Belgrade University of Arts
This is an excellent case-study of a cultural phenomenon of everyday life—a popular
fast-food—which is addressed on both horizontal and vertical level. The author unites
meticulous analysis of data, examples and facts from different levels of Slovenian reality:
from popular culture to consumerism, from advertising to everyday life, from political
discourse to new phrases and jokes, from street cultures to immigrant identities.
Mitja Velikonja, Professor of Cultural Studies, University of Ljubljana
About the author
Jernej Mlekuz is Research Fellow at the Slovenian Migration Institute at the Research
Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Vissza