By analyzing discursive equalization of the categories of life and death in different spoken and written genres in the 1990s, the author uncovers a number of ideas and strategies around which the discourses guided by this phenomenon are structured. The first part of the paper is aimed at understanding the relation of these categories in Serbian folk culture and possible influences of the latter on recent articulations of the examined phenomenon. In the second part of the paper the central ideas (...) of the phenomenon are identified. These refer to the survival of the nation, "not betraying the ancestors", and ethnic territorialization. From the analysis of different spoken and written genres the conclusion may be derived that the "cancellation of boundaries" between the extremely opposed categories of life and death is made possible by the following discursive strategies: 1. "non-existification", 2. collective individualization, 3. vitalization, 4. mortification, and 5. various combination of the foregoing strategies.. Analizom diskursivnog izjednacavanja kategorija zivota i smrti u razlicitim govornim i pisanim zanrovima devedesetih godina XX veka, autorka iznalazi krug ideja i strategija oko kojih se struktuiraju diskursi usmereni ovim fenomenom. Prvi deo teksta posvecen je razumevanju odnosa ovih kategorija u srpskoj narodnoj kulturi i eventualnim uticajima ove kulture na novije aktualizovanje fenomena koji tematizuje. U drugom delu teksta identifikovane su nosece ideje ovog fenomena, koje se ticu opstanka nacije, "neizneveravanja predaka" i etnicke teritorijalizacije. Iz analize razlicitih govornih i pisanih zanrova proizlazi daje "ukidanje granica" izmedju ekstremno suprotstavljenih kategorija zivota i smrti omoguceno diskursivnim strategijama: 1. "onepostojanja", 2. kolektivne individualizacije, 3. vitalizacije, 4. mortifikacije i 5. razlicitim kombinacijama ovih strategija.. (shrink)

The paper is an analytic retrospective of the author?s work during the preceding research period, involving the study of role, meaning and place of stereotypes in identity discourses. In order to explain the reasons for and ways of dealing with stereotypes, she reviews the evolution of her own research approach and the alternative approaches to the topic from the perspective of various scholarly disciplines. Seeking to avoid the trap of?interpreting stereotypes stereotypically?, the author chooses not to follow the usual method (...) whereby ethnic stereotypes are?deconstructed? as false and generalizing image of oneself and others, and exposed to social-psychological and political-anthropological critique. Instead, the author looks at stereotypes primarily in terms of their linguistic and social?semiotics? and their theoretical and practical usability. Stressing the necessity of relativizing the binary structure of discourse, the author argues that stereotypes, though indispensable as elements of the?economy? of language and thought, should be socially conceptualized and historicized in analysis. U ovom tekstu autorka daje pregled svog rada tokom proteklog projektnog perioda u kome je istrazivala ulogu, znacenje i mesto stereotipa u identitetskim diskursima. Da bi objasnila razloge i nacine svog bavljenja stereotipima, ona se osvrce kako na evoluciju sopstvenog istrazivackog postupka, tako i na alternativne pristupe temi iz perspektiva razlicitih naucnih disciplina. U nastojanju da izbegne zamku?stereotipnog tumacenja stereotipa?, autorka ne sledi uobicajeni postupak?dekonstrukcije? etnickih stereotipa, kao lane i uopstavajuce predstave o sebi i?drugom?, te njihove socijalno-psiholoske i politicko-antropoloske kritike, vec se prevashodno bavi dimenzijama jezicke i socijalne?semiotike? stereotipa i njihovom teorijskom i prakticnom upotrebljivoscu. Polazeci od neophodnosti stereotipa u?misaonoj ekonomiji?, autorka se u svom postupku zalaze za relativizaciju binarne strukture diskursa, kao i za socijalnu kontekstualizaciju i istorizaciju stereotipa u teorijskoj analizi. (shrink)

The article deals with the explanatory relevance of the concept of stereotype in one of its original meanings - as a "mental image". This meaning of the term is the starting point for further differentiations, such as: between linguistic and behavioral stereotypes ; universal and particular stereotypes; self representative and introspective stereotypes; permanent and contemporary stereotypes; and finally, what is most important for our purposes, the difference between silent and audible stereotypes. These distinctions, along with the functions of stereotype, are (...) discussed in the first part of the paper. In the second part, the relations of silent and audible stereotypes are tested against the introduction of "innovative vocabularies" in popular lore. In other words, the explanatory power of this differentiation is checked through an analysis of unconventional motives in Serbian epic poems. The goal of the argument is to clarify the procedure of self creation of masculinity as a relevant feature of the "national character" through "tactic games" of silent and audible stereotypes. The examination of these "poetic strategies" serves a twofold purpose: to illustrate the process of constructing particular features of the "ethno type", on one hand, and to check hypotheses and models which are taken as frameworks in analyzing stereotypes, on the other. Predmet radja je ispitivanje znacaja pojma stereotipa i reafirmisanje ovog pojma u jednom od njegovih prvobitnih znacenja kao "slika u nasim glavama". Takvo shvatanje stereotipa u ovom tekstu je polaziste za diferencijacije u okviru samog fenomena: na jezicke stereotipe i stereotipe u postupanju i glasne stereotipe. Funkcije stereotipa i ove podele su, u najkracem, predmet razmatranja prvog delu teksta. U drugom delu teksta testiranje odnos izmedju nemih i glasnih stereotipa na nekoj vrsti "inovativnog vokabulara" u narodnom predanju. To drugim recima znaci da se u ovom delu teksta proverava funkcionalnost ovako diferenciranih stereotipa putem analize nekonvencionalnih motiva usmene knjizevnosti. Cilj je da se osvetli postupak samokreiranja jednog svojstva "nacionalnog karaktera" putem "takticke igre" izmedju nemih i glasnih stereotipa. Stoga je ispitivanje ovih poetickih strategija koliko u funkciji priblizavanja mehanizama izgradnje specificnih svojstava "etnotipa", odnosno u funkciji pokazivanja dispozitiva savremenih prica o "kolektivnom imidzu", toliko i u funkciji provere unapred naznacenih pretpostavki i zadatih modela u okviru kojih se ispituje fenomen stereotipa. (shrink)

Each society is marked by a selective cultural memory which, beside events and traditions whose importance is emphasized, is also constituted by its parts and contents whose influence is either diminished or forgotten. Our society, too is marked by such kind of memory, with obvious reduction, value opposition and, in sum, general duality within the reception of cultural memory, which is always more complex than it appears in political speeches mother-tongue reading books or history textbooks. For this reason, an examination (...) of construction and reception of cultural memory, with an emphasis on traditions of Enlightenment and Romanticism, stems from a necessity to answer a set of questions regarding the contemporary relation to the past, the way "distance" or "proximity" to the latter is constituted, and especially the way in which contemporary practices mark, change and make use of cultural history. Starting from the assumptions that shaping cultural history, its heritage and "memory" is closely connected to the beginnings of nation-building and that cultural memory is a never-ending political process it is my intention in this research project to examine the rivalry juxtapositions, "interruptions" and new foundations of traditions, focusing on the interdependent relation of Enlightenment and Romanticist strands, and particularly on their unmarked, empty spots. Just as cultural memory is a result of two opposed processes - foregrounding and oblivion - so this research is similarly devoted to a double and apparently paradoxical task. On one hand, the accent is on the resurrection and reinforcement of integrative segments of these traditions which, at the time of their emergence as well as in subsequent interpretations, were mostly neglected. On the other hand there is the need to keep pace with what is required by the current "acceleration of time", which amounts to nothing else but the necessity to forget. Briefly put, the aim is to point to disciplinary-interdependent, more nuances and more communicative ways of viewing these relations, which would diminish the exclusivist and profound opposition within the contemporary reception of the traditions examined. (shrink)

Predlozena tema aktualizuje upotrebu mitskih aspekata srpskog nacionalnog identiteta u naucnom, politickom i publicistickom diskursu, kao i njihov znacaj, prijemcivost i 'odjeke' u svakodnevnom zivotu gradjana Srbije. Ova tema je dobila poseban znacaj u poslednjoj deceniji XX veka, kada je oslobodjeni nacionalni diskurs upotrebljavao mitske motive za legitimaciju nacionalnih politickih programa. Specificnost upotrebe mitskih elemenata u ovom periodu ogledala se u svojevrsnom mesanju diskursa, mitskog, knjizevnog, naucnog i politickog, pri cemu su se motivi prelivali iz jedne regije u drugu bez (...) menjanja znacenja i sistematskog mesta. (shrink)

U ovom tekstu skiciraju se dosadasnji rezultati rada na projektu Spinning out of control: rhetoric and violent conflict. Representations of 'self' - 'other' in the Yugoslav successor states, i obrazlazu smernice daljeg toka istrazivanja.

The article explores the meaning and usages of "communicative and cultural memory" in the context of "mental maps". It looks particularly at theories which, on the basis of constructed symbolic divisions, connote a "lasting Balkan/European reality". The explication focuses on the content considered by these theories as specifically Balkan understanding of the concepts of Space and Time. U tekstu se razmatraju znacenja i razlicite primene sadrzaja "komunikativnog i kulturnog pamcenja u kontekstu savremenih "mentalnih mapa" i posebno teorija koje na konstrukcijama (...) simbolickih podela sugerisu "trajnu balkansku realnost". Razmatranje je ograniceno na deo sadrzaja koji ovim teorijama koristi kao argumentacija za tezu "specificno balkanskog" ili "specificno srpskog" razumevanja kategorija vremena i prostora. (shrink)

The paper examines the meanings of representations of Serbia, the Balkans and Europe at the time of encounter between Enlightenment and Romanticist traditions. The analysis starts from the assumption that the emergence of negative representations of South Eastern Europe cannot be discussed without placing it within the broader context of 18th and 19th century philosophy and literature and the consequences of new philosophical and literary ideas. Underlying the substantial change of the previously dominant paradigms that is expressed in the symbolic (...) division into 'West' and "East', there was a factual rather than symbolic division into an industrial and an agricultural Europe, whose boundaries coincided with the reference points of the symbolic distinction. Insisting on the importance of both analytic levels - the 'symbolic' and the 'factual' - the first section of the paper briefly outlines the development of symbolic geography in the context of 'Balkan' studies in the 1990s, as well as the failure of this genre and the constructivist paradigm in Serbian social theory. The second section is devoted to the discourses of conceptualizing broader communities in symbolic, linguistic, imagological, cultural, political, economic etc. terms, focusing on the beginnings of ideological and linguistic unification of South Slavs and their inclusion into the "enlightened Europe". By analyzing Vuk Stefanovia: Karadzix's writings, as well as correspondence, articles and commentaries referring to Vuk's work in the first half of the 19th century, the author takes the perspective of the past in order to identify the reasons for the failure of imagological and constructivist approach today. U ovom tekstu autorka istrazuje znacenja predstava o Srbiji, Balkanu i Evropi u vremenu susreta prosvetiteljske i romanticarske tradicije. Polaziste je u pretpostavci da se o pocecima negativnih predstava o jugoistocnom delu Evrope ne moze govoriti izvan sireg konteksta filozofije i knjizevnosti XVIII i XIX veka i posledica novih filozofskih i knjizevnih ideja. Sustinska pramena do tada vladajucih paradigmi, izrazena simbolickom podelom na 'Zapad'i 'Istok', u osnovi je imala manje simbolicku a vise fakticku podelu na industrijsku i zemljoradnicku Evropu, cije su se granice uglavnom poklapale sa referentnim tockama simbolicke distinkcije. Potencirajuci vaznost obaju nivoa u analizi, 'simbolickog 'i 'faktickog', prvi deo teksta odnosi se na sazeto predstavljanje razvoja simbolicke geografije u kontekstu studija o Balkanu devedesetih godina proslog veka, kao i na neuspeh ovog zanra i konstruktivisticke paradigme u srpskoj drustvenoj teoriji. Drugi deo teksta posvecenje diskursima osmisljavanja vecih zajednica na simbolickim, jezickim, imagoloskim, kulturnim, politickim, ekonomskim i dr. osnovama, sa fokusom na pocetke idejnog i jezickog ujedinjenja Juznih Slavena, kao i njihovog ukljucenja u prosvecenu Evropu. Analizom tekstova Vuka Stefanovica Karadzica, kao i prepiskama, clancima i komentarima koji su se odnosili na Vukov rad u prvoj polovini XIX veka, autorka iz perspektive proslosti pokusava da ukaze na razloge neuspeha imagoloskog i konstruktivistickog pristupa u savremenosti. (shrink)

Ratovi u bivsoj Jugoslaviji devedesetih godina proslog veka doveli su ovaj region u centar medijske paznje i probudili odgovarajuce interesovanje i u akademskoj teoriji Zapada. Posto su poslednjem "otkrivanju Balkana" posredovali upravo ratovi, navijacki, povrsni ili egzoticni pristup pitanjima raspada SFRJ kao akademskoj temi nije neocekivan. S druge strane, u tematizovanju pitanja svoje savremenosti i najblize proslosti akademska javnost Srbije nije bila ni priblizno aktivna; iz najrazlicitijih razloga ali pre svega zbog nesklonosti sistematskim istrazivanjima, formiranje znanja i predstava o ovim (...) temama uglavnom je ostavljala medijima, publicistima kolegama izvan svoje akademske zajednice ili nekom kasnijem vremenu. Uprkos tome sto su predstave o poslednjim ratovima neretko pocivale na stereotipima i propagandi, kao i cinjenici da formirano znanje o ovoj problematici pati od grubog pojednostavljivanja, ova pitanja su retko bila podsticajna za domace istrazivace. Posebno su izbegavane teme velikog nasilja, pa su izvan akademske paznje ostali i najmarkantniji ratni dogadjaji, mozda i zato sto se smatralo da bi ono po cemu su region i Srbija postali poznati najbolje bilo sto pre zaboraviti. U retrospektivi, pak, savremeno akademsko cutanje o poslednjim ratovima tesko je posmatrati izvan kontinuiteta sa cutanjem iz vremena socijalizma i rata koji mu je prethodio. Zato se ovim tekstom ne pokrecu samo pitanja razloga netematizovanja najblize proslosti i uticaja cutanja u socijalizmu na ono sto je doslo posle njega, vec se podstice istrazivanje semantike i funkcija cutanja i precutkivanja u poslednjim ratovima, kao i uzajamni odnos izmedju cutanja i konstrukcija drustvenog pamcenja. (shrink)

This text is part of a research conducted under the working title "What do we talk about when we are silent and what are we silent about when we are talking? - premises for the anthropology of silence about the nearest past." In the first part the author investigates the meaning of silence in the Croatian and Serbian press right before and during Croatia's Operation Storm. The ratio between silence, suppression of information and forgetting, on the one hand, and social (...) memory, on the other, has been elaborated in the final part of the text by following reports about the anniversaries of Operation Storm in both Croatian and Serbian publics. The starting point lies in the belief that the phenomenon of silence, being an immanent part of each discourse, represents an important factor in the creation of social relationships and system of value models, that it has important communication and cognitive functions and that the performance character lies in its essence. In short, silence makes it possible to form the prevailing image about this event, even if it does not construct it indirectly - through speech. The author has elaborated on the meaning of silence in the context of Operation Storm partly because studies about the breakup of Yugoslavia frequently mention silence as a manipulation strategy employed by some of the sides in the conflict, while not a single study systematically investigates the semantic of silence and suppression of information in these conflicts. Most importantly, taking into account the frequency of direct silence in the newspaper discourse and rhetoric strategies that point at silence indirectly from the context and discourse, the author focuses on the relationship between the event and silence. In order to shed light on the way in which Operation Storm is remembered, i.e. forgotten, in the stakeholders' publics and political imageries, she follows the dailies - Vecernje Novosti Politika, Danas - Vecernji List, Jutarnji List, Magazin supplement of the Jutarnji List, as well as texts about Operation Storm in weeklies such as the NIN and Vreme of Belgrade or Globus of Zagreb in the period between August 2, 1995 and mid-August 2006. Ovaj tekst je deo istrazivanja koje se odvija pod radnim naslovom "O cemu govorimo kada cutimo i o cemu cutimo kada govorimo? - polazne pretpostavke za antropologiju cutanja o najbilizoj proslosti". U prvom delu autorka ispituje znacenja cutanja u pisanju hrvatske i srpske stampe neposredno pre hrvatske akcije Oluja i tokom same akcije. Odnos cutanja, precutkivanja i zaboravljanja, s jedne strane, i drustvenog pamcenja, s druge strane tematizovan je u zavrsnom delu teksta, pracenjem napisa o godisnjicama akcije Oluja u obe javnosti - hrvatskoj i srpskoj. Polaziste je u uverenju da je fenomen cutanja, buduci imanentni deo svakog diskursa znacajan cinilac kreiranja drustvenih odnosa i sistema vrednosnih modela, da ima vazne komunikativne i kognitivne funkcije i da je u svojoj sustini performativnog karaktera. U najkracem, cutanje pomaze formiranju dominantne slike o ovom dogadjaju, ako je, na posredan nacin - preko govorenja - i ne konstruise. Tematizovanje znacenja cutanja u kontekstu akcije Oluja preduzeto je delom i stoga sto se precutkivanje u studijama o kraju Jugoslavije neretko pominje kao manipulativna strategija neke od strana u sukobu, a da nema ni jedne studije koja bi sistematski ispitivala znacenja cutanja i precutkivanja u ovim konfliktima. I najvaznije, uvazavajuci frekventnost neposrednog izrazavanja cutanja u novinskom diskursu, kao i retorickih strategija koje posredno, iz konteksta i uspostavljenog sveta diskursa, upucuju na cutanje, autorka se usredsredjuje upravo na odnos dogadjajnosti i cutanja. Kako bi osvetlila nacin na koji je operacija Oluja zapamcena, odnosno zaboravljena u zainteresovanim javnostima i politickim imginarijumima, prati pisanje dnevne stampe - Vecernje novosti, Politika, Danas - Vecernji list Jutarnji list, Magazin - dodatak Jutarnjeg lista, kao i napise o Oluji u nedeljnicima, poput beogradskog NIN-a, Vremena ili zagrebackog Globusa u periodu od 02. avgusta 1995. do sredine avgusta 2006. godine. (shrink)