This work explores the role of literature in the former Yugoslavia's attempts to create a multicultural nation. It focuses on the cultural processes by which the idea of a nation was developed and on the reasons that this idea failed to bind the South Slavs into a viable nation and state.

"Discussing the rise and fall of Yugoslavia from a cultural point of view, that is, how the culture(s) of the country contributed to its formation and to its dissolution, this book leads to an entirely new and more accurate understanding of the tragedy of Yugoslavia." --Vasa Mihailovich, University of North Carolina

"Discussing the rise and fall of Yugoslavia from a cultural point of view, that is, how the culture(s) of the country contributed to its formation and to its dissolution, this book leads to an entirely new and more accurate understanding of the tragedy of Yugoslavia."-Vasa Mihailovich, University of North Carolina