The Likeness: Semblance and Self in Slovene Society

The Likeness is a close ethnographic study of subjectivity in the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia. In this highly imaginative work, the author argues that much of what matters in Slovenia plays out on surfaces-of people and things, systems and locations-rendering the complexity of expression external and legible, but rarely unique or original. Here likenesses are everywhere in bloom and powerfully deployed. Moving blithely from Slovenia’s most famous thinkers to its most confounding artists, from grammatical categories of number to the particularities of history, The Likeness explores alternative modes of self-expression as postsocialist Slovenia gains visibility on the world stage.