Television, Rituals, Struggle for Public Memory in Serbia during 1990s
Keywords:
urban space and place,
rituals,
media,
political protests,
public memory
Abstract
The aim of the paper is to point to the the role of television (mainly state owned and controlled) and ritual actions, in creating and distributing messages concerning important social and political events during the 1990s. The main argument is that the urban street political protest actions that were performed by the political and social opponents of the ruling regime, mainly in Belgrade streets and squares, were a logical outcome of the regime’s media policy, and closely dependent on it. The aim of that policy was to silence the opposing voices and make them invisible, but also to avoid speaking about events that might threaten the image of the ruling regime as tolerant, peaceful and patriotic, the examples of which were information on war crimes, and devastations of Vukovar, Dubrovnik and Sarajevo. Political protests and ritual actions have created a place where these issues could safely be spoken out, thus creating an emerging public counter sphere. Instead of considering media and rituals as separated ways of communication, it will be showed how in particular social and political context in Serbia during 1990s, television and rituals have reached a point of mutual constitution and articulation.
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References
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Prošić-Dvornić, M. 1995. Modeli »retradicionalizacije« : put u budućnost vraćanjem u prošlost, GEI SANU 44: 293-310.
Prošić-Dvornić, M. 1996. »Laughter in Tears: Today's Humour in Yugoslavia«. In: Laughter and Tears in the Balkan Cultures. International Ethnological Symposium E. Karpodini Dimitriadi (ed.). Athens. Doukas School, 183–205.
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Silverstone, R. 1988. Television Myth and Culture. In: Media, Myths and Narra-tives, Television and the Press Carey W. James, Carey, W. James (eds.). Newbury Park, London, New Delhi. SAGE, 20-47.
Thake, K. 1991. The Use of Space for Power Struggle. Spacio e Societa 14.53:72-85.
Veljanovski, Rade. 1995. RTB/RTS od socijalizma do nacionalizma, Republika 1-15: 9-24.
Vujović, S. 1997. Grad u senci rata. Beograd. Prometej/Institut za sociologiju Filozofskog Fakulteta u Beogradu.
Verdery, C. 1999. The Political Lives of Dead Bodies: Reburial and Postsocialist Change. New York. Columbia University Press.
Becker, K. 1995. Media and the Ritual Process. Media Culture & Society 17 (4):629-647.
Benhabib, S. 1996. Models of Public Space: Hannah Arendt, the Liberal Tradition, and Jurgen Habermas. In: Habermas and the Public Sphere Craig Calhoun (ed.). MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), London. MIT Press, 73-98.
Bird, S. E., R.W. Dardenne. 1988. Myth, Chronicle and Story: Exploring the Narrative Qualities of News. In: Media, Myths and Narratives, Television and the Press Carey, W. James (ed.). Newbury Park, London, New Delhi. SAGE, 67-87.
Bodnar, J. 1994. Public Memory in an American City: Commemoration in Cleveland. In: Commemorations, The Politics of National Identity Gillis, R. John (ed.). Princeton. Princeton University Press, 74-90.
Bolčić, S. 1993. Sociologija i »jugoslovenska svakodnevica« početkom devedesetih, Sociološki pregled 27 (1-4): 27-38.
Calhoun, C. 1996. Introduction: Habermas and the Public Sphere. In: Habermas and the Public Sphere C. Calhoun (ed.). Cambridge (MA), London. The MIT Press, 1-50.
Carey, W. J. (ed.). 1988. Media, Myths and Narratives, Television and the Press. Newbury Park, London, New Delhi. SAGE.
Čale- Feldman, L. 1993. The Theatralization of Reality: Political Rituals, Poetics of Resistance. In: Fear, Death and Resistance – an Ethnography of War: Croatia 1991-1992 L. Čale Feldman, I Prica, R Senjković (eds.). Zagreb. Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, 5-24.
Čolović, I.. 1993. Bordel ratnika. Beograd. Biblioteka XX vek.
Dragičević-Šešić, M. 1994. Neofolk kultura. Sremski Karlovci, Novi Sad. Izdavačka knjižarnica Zorana Stojanovića.
Dragičević-Šešić, M. 1997. Street as a Political Space: The Space of Carnivalization. Sociology 39(1): 95-110.
Erdei, I. 1994. Medijska konstrukcija realnosti korišćenjem različitih vremenskih modela i perspektiva. In: Prošić-Dvornić, Mirjana, Kulture u tranziciji, Beograd. Plato, 129-136.
Erdei, I. 1997. Alice's Adventures in Studentland: Narrative Multiplicity of the Student Protest, Sociology 39.1: 111-133.
Erdei, I. 1998. Prostorno-vremenski obrasci novih političkih rituala u Beogradu od 1990-1993. unpublished M.A. theses. University of Belgrade.
Frazer, N. 1996. Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy. In: Habermas and the Public Sphere Calhoun, Craig (ed.). Cambridge (MA), London. The MIT Press, 109-142.
Gillis, R. J.. (ed) 1994. Commemorations, the Politics of National Identity. Princeton. Princeton University Press.
Halpern, J.M. and D. Kideckel (eds.). 2000. Neighbors at War: Anthropological Perspectives on Yugoslav Ethnicity, Culture and History. University Park, Pennsylvania .The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Handleman, D. 1998. Models and Mirrors: towards an Anthropology of Public Events. New York, Oxford. Routledge.
Ivanova, R. 1994. Put ka demokratiji: prostorne dimenzije masovnih političkih protesta u Bugarskoj. In: Kulture u tranziciji M. Prošić-Dvornić. Beograd. Plato, 169-178.
Jansen, S. 2000. Victims, Underdogs and Rebels: Discursive Practices of Resistance. Critique of Anthropology 20 (4): 393-419.
Jovanović, G. 2000. The Yugoslav War Through Cartoons. In: J.M. Halpern and D. Kideckel, Neighbors at War: Anthropological Perspectives on Yugoslav Ethnicity, Culture and History. University Park, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 255-288.
Kertzer, I. D. 1988. Ritual, Politics and Power. New Haven and London. Yale University Press.
Kukral, A. M. 1995. Prague 1989: Theater of Revolution, A Study in Humanistic Geography. (unpublished PhD theses). Lexington, Kentucky.
Mihnjik, A. 1995. Misliti savremenu demokratiju. Beograd. Samizdat B92.
Milivojević, S., J. Matić. 1993. Ekranizacija izbora. Beograd: Vreme knjige.
Morley, D. and K. Robins. 1997. Spaces of Identity, Global Media, Electronic Landscapes and Cultural Boundaries. London. Routledge.
Naumović, S. 1994. Upotreba tradicije – politička tranzicija i promena odnosa prema tradiciji u Srbiji 1987-1990. In: Kulture u tranziciji M. Prošić- Dvornić (ed.). Beograd. Plato, 95-120.
Pieke, N. F. 1992. Images of Protest and the Use of urban Space in China's tradition of Protest. Paper presented at the Symposium on Urban Images: Cities and Symbols, Symbols and Cities. Centre of Non-Western Studies, Leiden Uni-versity, January 6-9: 24.
Prošić-Dvornić, M. 1991. »Sa nama nema neizvesnosti« – politički predizborni plakat u Srbiji 1990. Narodna umjetnost 28: 349-375.
Prošić-Dvornić, M. 1993. “Enough! Student Protest '92: The Youth of Belgrade in Quest of "Another Serbia". The Anthropology of East Europe Review. Special Issue: War Among the Yugoslavs 11 (1-2): 108-116.
Prošić-Dvornić, M. 1994. »Another Serbia«: Pacifist and Feminist Movement. In Kulture u tranziciji M. Prošić-Dvornić (ed.). Beograd. Plato, 179-199.
Prošić-Dvornić, M. 1995. Modeli »retradicionalizacije« : put u budućnost vraćanjem u prošlost, GEI SANU 44: 293-310.
Prošić-Dvornić, M. 1996. »Laughter in Tears: Today's Humour in Yugoslavia«. In: Laughter and Tears in the Balkan Cultures. International Ethnological Symposium E. Karpodini Dimitriadi (ed.). Athens. Doukas School, 183–205.
Prošić-Dvornić, M. 1998. »The Topsy Turvy Days Were There Again: Student and Civil Protest in Belgrade and Serbia, 1996/1997«. The Anthropology of East Europe Review 16 (1):77-98.
Radulović, L. 2007. Okultizam ovde i sada : magija, religija i pomodni kultovi u Beogradu, Beograd. Srpski genealoški centar.
Silverstone, R. 1988. Television Myth and Culture. In: Media, Myths and Narra-tives, Television and the Press Carey W. James, Carey, W. James (eds.). Newbury Park, London, New Delhi. SAGE, 20-47.
Thake, K. 1991. The Use of Space for Power Struggle. Spacio e Societa 14.53:72-85.
Veljanovski, Rade. 1995. RTB/RTS od socijalizma do nacionalizma, Republika 1-15: 9-24.
Vujović, S. 1997. Grad u senci rata. Beograd. Prometej/Institut za sociologiju Filozofskog Fakulteta u Beogradu.
Verdery, C. 1999. The Political Lives of Dead Bodies: Reburial and Postsocialist Change. New York. Columbia University Press.
Published
2008-12-01
How to Cite
Erdei, Ildiko. 2008. “Television, Rituals, Struggle for Public Memory in Serbia During 1990s”. Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology 3 (3), 145-69. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v3i3.8.
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