Ex-centric Identities in Central Europe: The Curious Case of Snežana Nešić

Abstract

This study is part of my ongoing research on the Serbian art music diaspora. After the dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and the ensuing wars, hundreds of thousands of people left the region and settled all over the world. This massive “brain drain” affected many areas; in respect to art music, around 50 composers left Serbia, which was an enormous loss for such a small country. Several composers continued their careers in the countries of Central Europe. The very term “Central Europe” is understood in various ways; some definitions exclude Serbia from this conceptual territory, while others include it, alongside Croatia and Slovenia; this discrepancy raises the issues of identity, placing, belonging, heritage, and inclusion, which are amplified by emigration and exile. After discussing the theoretical implications of these notions, I will focus on the professional odyssey of Snežana Nešić (1973), a female composer and accordionist of Serbian extraction, educated in Ukraine, who has lived in Hannover, Germany for two decades now.