This essay, adapted from my master’s thesis and published in one of Croatia’s oldest literary monthlies, *Republika*, explores the shifting and often contested boundaries of the Western Balkans — not merely as a geographical space, but as a complex interplay of imagined, social, and geopolitical frontiers.
It interrogates the notion of borders beyond cartography, tracing the subtle lines that shape collective mentality, historical consciousness, and regional identity within a broader European framework.
At its core, the text reflects on the conditions necessary for the emergence of self-awareness — not only at the level of the nation, but within a wider geopolitical constellation increasingly defined by fragmentation and reconfiguration.
Positioned between critical inquiry and reflective prose, the work seeks to articulate a space in which identity is neither imposed nor inherited, but consciously negotiated.