Ottoman image in croatian history textbooks

This work aims to shed a light on the way Ottoman image in the Croatian textbooks shifted. Image studies and textbook research offered a methodological background appropriate for this subject. Image studies, on the one hand, provided a clear overview in mechanisms which are making stereotype immune to historical oblivion. North-south, strong-weak, central-periphery mechanisms go alongside with bipolar characteristics of stereotypes. On the other hand, textbook research opens a whole spectrum of new subjects that should be introduced in this work (from the writing of textbooks to the illustrations used in these books and their interpretations). According to this methodological background, the Croatian history text books used between 1946 and 2005 are analysed. The analyzes were dealing also with determination of historical background of a certain period, educational system in that period, texts analyses, stereotype and auto-stereotypes analyses as well as interpretation of visual solutions in the relevant books. The goal was to determine connection between all this factors, in order to illustrate the process of stereotyps or image variability. The study concludes that Ottoman image in text books kept changing within the mentioned period. However, it is understood that negative connotations of the Ottoman image were not descending in one straight line. Instead, the image seemed to have shifted accordingly as the political situation in Croatia changed throughout the period the study dealt with.Keywords: Image studies, textbook research, Ottoman image, Croatian textbooks, stereotypes, auto-stereotypes.