Mythical Horizons and Liminality: Discourses of Kosovo’s Sovereignty

Sammanfattning: Despite the frequency of use amongst scholars of IR, myth remains largely a term of colloquiality. However, this paper aims to argue that as a distinct temporal and normative structure within discourse, it is a powerful tool for understanding the ways in which narratives give meaning to political phenomena, not just by describing how they are, but how they ought to be. To explain the function of myth, a case study of Kosovo has been conducted. Much scholarly debate on the nature of internationally contested states exists, but we will make the argument that Kosovo is best understood as a being in a state of liminality, due to the conflicting nature of its political structures and foreign intervention. By joining the theory discourse of Laclau and Mouffe, with insights from psychoanalysis we suggest a framework for analysing the distinct nature of political myths. The utopian horizons of myth spell out two antagonistic narratives of sovereignty in Kosovo: one of European integration and market liberalisation, and one of unification with Albania.