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Yugoslav studies or Yugoslavistics (Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslavistika; Slovene: Jugoslovanske študije; Macedonian: Југословенски студии; Albanian: Studime Jugosllave; German: Jugoslawistik; Latin: Iugoslavistica) is an academic discipline within Slavic studies and historical studies which is concerned with the study of the 19th-century or earlier origins of the Yugoslav idea, creation of Yugoslavia, history of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, World War II in Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia and breakup of Yugoslavia including Yugoslav Wars as well as the Yugoslavs either as an umbrella term or exclusive identification. In contemporary period the discipline is also focused on the post-Yugoslav remembrance of Yugoslavia.[1] Historically, the term was also used as an umbrella term for Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Bosnian, Slovenian and Montenegrin studies. During the 1990s the discipline was closely intertwined with the field of security studies due to the conflicts in the region.[2]
The collapse of the Yugoslav state in early 1990s brought the existence of the discipline into question with multiple institutions changing their names or closing down. The field needed to redefine its new position in relation to closely related South Slavic studies (which alongside post-Yugoslav space include Bulgaria as well) and Serbo-Croatian studies (further differentiated into Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin studies).[3] In his 1993 essay The Phantom of Yugoslavistics (German: Das Phantom der Jugoslavistik) German Slavist Reinhard Lauer stated that the field was based on the historical coincidence of the existence of a Yugoslav state and on the “fading out of the Bulgarian components and interests" concluding that the South Slavic studies should take its place.[3] The conflict in the area of former Yugoslavia nevertheless attracted significant academic attention with over 130 books being published on it and with multiple authors analyzing it in the framework of Yugoslav or Post-Yugoslav studies.[4] Today the field is dealing with transdisciplinary analysis of various Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav phenomena, social relations and practices.[5]
