Islandness of Sveti Stefan: A Collection of Particular Manifestations Through Time

Sveti Stefan, a tiny Montenegrin island with a rich historical and cultural background, remains underexplored in academic research. Considering its physicality (shaped by nature and human intervention), circumstances that determined and directed its development (its settlement foundation from a seized Turkish treasure, its role as a small capital for surrounding villages, its gradual abandonment, its radical transformation into a luxury hotel), and its social structure (the original islanders later replaced by seasonal tourists), the paper investigates the islandness of Sveti Stefan, acknowledging both its literal and metaphorical meanings. Through a case study and literature analysis, combining theorization on islands and islandness with documentation on Sveti Stefan, this research explores the change of islandness of a particular place over time, as well as the contradictory nature of different manifestations of islandness, depending on external circumstances. The differentiation between general islandness and particular islandness—the former is seen as a shared potential among islands, the latter as a time-bound collection of qualities specific to each island—tends to reconcile the opposing sides of islandness manifestations and justify their coexistence. Susceptible to further change and redefinition, the islandness of Sveti Stefan represents a collection of every particular islandness that has manifested through time as an accomplished expression of general islandness.