3. The Construction of Kosovo as Serbia’s Ontic Space

To understand ontological insecurity and state of anxiety unleashed in Serbia by the secession of Kosovo, one needs to look back further into history. Kosovo neither always belonged to Serbia nor was it always considered by Serbs as their core territory. This chapter investigates why, when, how and by whom Kosovo was constructed as Serbia’s ontic space. This process accelerated in the 1870s due to a particular set of changing geopolitical circumstances in Central Europe. The process waxed and waned during the twentieth century, eventually contributing to the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The Kosovo myth has been central to the process of discursive linking of the territory of Kosovo to Serbia’s collective identity. It is a sacralised narrative that has evolved over time, about the ‘catastrophic defeat’ of Serbian forces against the Ottoman Empire at the Kosovo field on 15 June 1389 according to the old Julian calendar (28 June according to the modern Gregorian calendar).