(W)Rapping Nationalism:

Critical Discourse Analysis and Discourse Historical Approach to Interpreting Nationalist Narratives in Serbian Hip Hop Music

In partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of

Master of Arts (MA)

Submitted to

Karl-Franzens Universität Graz

Submitted by

Zorana Dimitrijević

At the Centre for Southeast European Studies

Supervisor: Univ. Prof. Dr. phil Florian Bieber

Graz, Austria

2020

ABSTRACT

The aim of this Master thesis is to point to the relation between nationalism and hip-hop culture in Serbia since 2012. It includes analysis of the political and social context which allowed nationalist rhetoric to penetrate the sphere of popular music, and explains the main narratives that can be found in it. The songs Dogodine u Prizrenu, Poslednja Straža and Terijerska Krv, recorded in 2016, 2017 and 2018 will be analysed. The main methodology that this thesis is based on is Critical Discourse Analysis and Discourse Historical Approach, with the special focus on exploring the use of topoi of history, threat and saviour. This methodology helps place the discourse used in the songs into relevant historic and political context, and provides tools for interpreting both visual and verbal aspects of the songs. The main findings of the song point to the growing trend in hip-hop music to reflect the dominant nationalist discourse that exists in the public, and can easily be connected to the xenophobic and anti-Albanian statements that exist as part of a comprehensive warmongering and nationalist campaign by the current Government in Serbia.

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Table of contents

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………...…...……i Table of contents…………………………………………………………….…..ii Introduction……………………………………………………...………….…..1 Chapter 1 –Methodology and Theoretical Background ……………….…….…..9 1.1. Methodology: Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse Historical Approach and Topoi...... 9 1.2. Defining Nationalism...... 12 1.3. Defining (Popular) Culture……...... 20 Chapter 2 – Next Year in Prizren ...... 26 2.1. Introduction...... 26 2.2. Analysis...... 27 2.3. The use of topoi...... 35 2.4. Conclusion...... 37 Chapter 3- The Last Guard...... 39 3.1. Introduction...... 39 3.2. Analysis...... 39 3.3. The use of topoi ...... 45 3.4. Conclusion...... 46 Chapter 4 – Terrier Blood...... 47 4.1. Introduction...... 47 4.2. Analysis ...... 48 4.3. The use of topoi ...... 52 4.4. Conclusion...... 54 Conclusion...... 55 Bibliography or Reference List...... 57 Appendix 1 – “Dogodine u Prizrenu”………………………………………..…62 Appendix 2 – “Poslednja Straža“...... 66 Appendix 3 – “Terijerska Krv”………………………………....…………...…69

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Introduction

The role of culture in forming and reproducing national identities has been researched by scholars of nationalism for decades. When analyzing the scholarship on the relationship between culture and nationalism, scholars have traditionally mostly focused on ‘national culture’, usually explained as ‘high’ culture, or ‘official’ culture, and this has predominantly been explored from a ‘top down’ approach which sees culture as created and imposed by elites on common people.1 Only in the last decade of the 20th century have scholars started exploring the topic of everyday practices and expressions of nationalism, which was heavily influenced by the work of Michael Billig2, whose seminal work inspired many scholars3 to deal with banal and mundane aspects of nationalism. In spite of expectations and (wrong) predictions about the impact of globalization on creating a homogenous world order, nationalist tendencies in many countries continued to flourish, and develop in unexpected ways, with the help of modern ways of communication and the mass media.

That is why many scholars understood that, in order to explain the contemporary forms of nationalism and to analyze the conditions under which these new and modern forms of nationalist discourses emerged, it is necessary to look into the sphere of popular culture. Tim Edensor is certainly one of the scholars whose work contributed to understanding of the relationship between popular culture and national identities the best,4 but academia and scholarship on this topic had to come a long way until popular culture was even recognized as a legit and relevant topic in cultural studies. Edensor argues that traditional forms of Topoi expression of national identity have been replaced by products of popular culture5. For him, the term ‘popular’ refers to everyday practices and products, something that is not usually reflected upon, but exists nonetheless.

1 See i.e.: Gellner 1983, Hobsbawm and Turner 1983 2 Billig, Michael. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage Publications. 1995 3 See i.e.: Brubaker et al.2007, Fox and Miller-Idriss 2008, Skey 2011. 4 Edensor, Tim. National identity, popular culture and everyday life. Oxford: Berg. 2002 5 Ibid, pp 12. 1

In order to understand the role of popular culture, and especially popular music which is the most relevant topic of research for this thesis, we have to look into the work of the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies, whose scholars focused on the political and social importance of popular culture and on the ways that popular music has been used in political purposes. Instead of analyzing how a particular product of popular culture, or a piece of music affects the audience, they looked into the ways that these pieces produce people, as members of a particular community, and how it leads to the creation of a feeling of collective identity. Ernest Gellner wrote that “It is nationalism which engenders nations, and not the other way around”6, which means that for the existence of a nation it is essential to reproduce the feeling of identification with one’s nation. There are many ways that this can be done, and it usually involves representations of certain national traditions, myths of origin, images of historic events that symbolize success and glory, figures of a particular (national) importance, religious symbols, and many other elements. This helps ‘remind’ people of their nationhood and many scholars argue that it helps strengthen the ties between people of the same national community. These common practices, symbols and images are used to help people ‘imagine’ a community, which, as scholars like Anderson and Billig argue, does not exist as a natural phenomenom, but exists only in the minds of their members. In order for people to be able to imagine themselves as belonging to a particular community with people they have never met, images are used to create the feeling of collective identity and collective memory of certain events. In his book “Banal Nationalism”, Billig argues that in order to prevent the collapse of a national community, people have to be able to identify with the concept of nationhood. Billig also writes about the ways that this consciousness of nationhood is used as a tool for mobilizing people in situations of crises. On the other hand, he emphasizes that the feeling of belonging to a particular nation is not (re)produced in times of crises, but in everyday lives of people, through their daily activities. It is the images and activities people experience in their day to day lives, as well as things they read in newspaper and hear about in media that reproduce nationhood.

6 Gellner, Ernest. Nations and Nationalism. Oxford:Blackwell. 1983, pp. 55.

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Benedict Anderson also emphasized the importance of newspapers throughout the history of creating and spreading the feeling of belonging to an ‘imagined community’7. Apart from the idea that a nation, or imagined community as he calls it, is a socially constructed community, constituted by people who simply believe in it, or imagine it, Anderson claims that the ritual of reading the newspaper is of a great importance, as it helps people imagine that it is the activity that they share with other members of the community, regardless of the physical distance between them. In addition to that, Anderson argues that it is this activity in particular, and the symbolic value that members of a particular nation ascribe to it, that serves as an important political tool.

When it comes to the mobilizing potential role of (popular) culture in politics in Serbia, it has been written about and explored by scholars of nationalism. Former Yugoslavia was one of the first regions analyzed as an example of the relationship between nationalism and popular culture8. Most of these works focused on the impact of turbo folk music on culture(s) in post- Yugoslav space, as well as on the importance of this music genre for spreading the war propaganda in the region during the 1990s. In his book “The Culture of Power in Serbia”, Eric Gordy wrote about the regime of Slobodan Milošević and the tools he used in order to remain in power, mainly focusing on the destruction of alternatives in politics, culture, media and everyday life, which created an overall atmosphere in which people felt like they lost control over key aspects of their lives. A chapter in which he focuses on the control and destruction of alternatives in music, as well as the importance of turbo folk ‘culture’ for the maintenance of Milošević’s regime is of particular importance for this thesis. Since the mid-1980s, popular folk music has been an unavoidable topic of public discussion, as well as one of the main identification markers of people. During the 1990s, the ‘issue’ of turbo folk ‘culture’ became an important field of political and ideological fight in the process of construction of Serbian national identity. Turbo folk became a widely recognizable symbol of particular kind of

7 Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London: Verso. 1983 8 See i.e: Gordy, Eric D. The Culture of Power in Serbia: Nationalism and the Destruction of Alternatives. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999; Baker, Catherine. Sounds of the Borderland: Popular Music, War and Nationalism in Croatia since 1991. Routledge, 2010.

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Serbian nationalism, both for those who were supporters of this type of music, as well as to those who strongly opposed it.

Gordy also claims that the regime of Slobodan Milošević heavily relied on the use of folk music for the promotion of their nationalist goals, adding that folk music has traditionally served the interests of nationalist politics, which laid the basis for the important role of turbo folk music in maintaining the regime during the 1990s.9 Gordy, however, claims that it is difficult to be certain whether Milošević’s regime turned their back on the domestic rock and roll culture deliberately, in order to support the kind of culture which was in line with the war propaganda, or if it was done with an aim of eliminating the alternative in music for their political opponents, mostly consisted of urban, educated population.10

In general, both in academic and in everyday discourse, the music genre known as turbo folk has been associated with images of the Balkans as rural, undeveloped and violent. Some authors have associated this type of music with the rise of nationalist ideology in Serbia, while other types of “Western music” have been linked to the ideas of urban, civilized Europe. For this analysis, I find it particularly important to define several concepts that are often used when discussing the relationship between popular culture and nationalism. The most important one is the concept of Orientalism, developed by Edward W. Said.11 The author defined it as the general acceptance or consensus in “The West” that there is a natural distinction between their culture and the culture of “The East”, which lies in the images of the latter as backward, uncivilized and violent. In the academic context which deals with Southeastern Europe, this concept has been used to describe the opposition between the West and the Balkans. Several scholars, such as Katherine Fleming12 and Sarah Green13 have argued that Said’s concept of orientalism might not be applicable on analyzes of the Balkan region, and that using the term

9 Gordy, Eric D. The Culture of Power in Serbia: Nationalism and the Destruction of Alternatives. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999, pp. 130. 10 Ibid, pp. 125. 11 Said, W. Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Book, 1978. 12 Fleming, E. Katherine. Orientalism, the Balkans, and Balkan Historiography. American Historical Review, Vol.105, Issue 4, 2000. 13 Green, Sarah. Notes from the Balkans: Locating Marginality and Ambiguity on the Greek-Albanian Border. New Jersey, Princeton University Press. 2005

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Orientalism in a careless and inattentive way can only lead to further reproduction of stereotypes, instead of their deconstruction. Maria Todorova is certainly one of the authors whose work has largely contributed to better understanding of the ways that the Balkans are “imagined” by the “West”, and in her book she offers a thorough historical analysis and critics of Said’s concept of Orientalism, which shows that stereotypes about the Balkans had been formed in a completely different historical context, from early renaissance to contemporary times.14 Milica Bakić Hayden and Robert Hayden15 have written about the ways that these discourses on West and East have been internalized both in the Balkans as well as in Western Europe. However, their analysis points to the fact that these concepts do not simply stand in clear opposition to one another, and they cannot be seen as a simplified version of Said’s Orientalism, but have to be placed in certain cultural and historical contexts which produce the meanings behind these terms.

In order to analyse the importance of and meanings behind pieces of popular music in (not only) contemporary Serbia, it is particularly important to mention the concept of Nesting Orientalism, developed by Milica Bakić-Hayden.16 She argues that within Balkan, which is already seen as the European “East“, the original idea of the opposition between the Orient and the Europe, or the East and the West, is continuously reproduced, marking certain countries as “more Eastern“ than others.

This thesis investigates new forms of nationalism which are spread through popular culture, in particular through rap music. The empirical material that I will analyze will show that it is wrong to assume that nationalist narratives in popular culture in Serbia can only be found in turbo folk music, which was the case earlier, especially during the 1990s. Even though different types of music such as punk, rock and roll and hip-hop used to be seen as the music which came from ‘the West’, and especially during the 1990s these music genres used to belong to an alternative music culture, which was strongly opposed to the nationalist regime and turbo folk as its channel. Apart from the music taste, creating or supporting these alternative types

14 Todorova, Maria. Imagining the Balkans. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1997. 15 Bakić-Hayden, Milica, Hayden, M. Robert. “Orientalist variations on the theme “Balkans”: symbolic geography in recent Yugoslav cultural politics”. Slavic Review, Vol. 51, 1992. pp 1-15. 16 Bakić-Hayden, Milica. “Nesting Orientalism: The case of former Yugoslavia”. Slavic Review, Vol. 54, Issue 4, 1995. pp 917-931. 5

of music had a very distinct political role at that time. Nowadays in Serbia, the sphere of popular music, regardless of the genre, has been hijacked by supporters or advocates of nationalist ideology, especially since the declaration of independence of Kosovo. Nationalist narratives, especially the ones claiming their right over the territory of Kosovo, can now be found both in turbo folk, but also in rock and roll, as well as in hip-hop music. The fact that Serbian hip-hop, as a culture and a music genre which tackles problems of marginalized groups and often presents the voice of average people and their everyday issues, includes nationalist narratives and often even violent elements, as I will discuss in further text, and the popularity that these groups have gained in the recent years, means that there is an alarmingly large portion of public who shares the views of these hip-hop groups.

Even though hip-hop culture has a strong impact on the lives and cultural practices of (young) people in Serbia today, this area of popular culture has only recently started being analyzed as a topic of academic works. Only in the last three years we can find relevant and comprehensive academic pieces that include analyses of the role of hip- hop and/or Diesel (dizel) culture in Serbia, as well as historical overviews of these cultures’ developments.17 For that reason, I believe it is important to fill the gap in scholarship on popular culture, and write about nationalist narratives that exist in hip-hop music today. Hip-hop as a genre of music and a culture emerged in the English-speaking world, so when it became popular in Serbia, its first fans were people who spoke English, which usually meant that they belonged to upper-middle class, or the group of mostly well educated young people18. With the spread of the so-called dizel culture in Serbia, and its influence on the hip-hop music, the class and political structure of supporters of this type of music changed. In his article on the historical development of the hip-hop culture in Serbia, Predrag Kovačević argues that despite the connection between the

17 See, i.e.: Papović, Jovana and Pejović, Astrea. “Revival without Nostalgia: The ‘Dizel’ Movement, Serbian 1990s Cultural Trauma and Globalised Youth Cultures.” In Schwartz, Matthias and Winkel, Heike (Eds.). Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context. London: Springer Nature America, Inc. 2016. pp. 81-93. doi:10.1057/9781137385130_5; Musić, Goran and Vučević, Predrag. “Diesel Power: Serbian Hip Hop from the Pleasure of Privileged to Mass Youth Culture.” In Miszcynski, Milosz and Helbig, Adriana (Eds.), Hip Hop at Europe’s Edge: Music, Agency and Social Change. JSTOR. 2017. pp. 85-108. doi: 10.2307/j.ctt2005sm8.9; Kovačević, S. Predrag. “Between the First and the Second Serbia: On the Political and Class Dimension of Hip- Hop Subculture in Serbia.” Sociological Review, vol. LII, no. 3. 2018. pp.699-720. 18 Kovačević, S. Predrag. “Between the First and the Second Serbia: On the Political and Class Dimension of Hip-Hop Subculture in Serbia.” Sociological Review, vol. LII, no. 3. 2018. pp. 701.

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dizel subculture and hip-hop, there was a sub-group within the hip-hop culture which remained hostile to this influence, and the group was consisted of mostly well-educated, urban youth who listened to the music that came from the US. To this he adds that when the dizel subculture as such disappeared, hip-hop was the only culture that could take its place and speak in the name of this social and cultural group.19 Today, most of the hip-hop culture is perceived as a channel for expressing opinions of the young, urban population with nationalistic tendencies who is, mostly, opposed to the current political regime.

Despite the popular assumption that rock and roll culture was the main cultural representative of the oppositional and anti-war/anti-regime discourse during the 1990s, Eric Gordy points to the fact that rock culture was never a coherent unit, and that there were rock bands whose relationship to Milošević’s regime was dubious. Gordy provides the example of the band Riblja Čorba, and he emphasizes the nationalist and often sexist verses that could be found in some of their most popular songs.20 The main opponents to the regime in the sphere of culture were those people who made and listened to hip-hop music, as well as various types of electronic music. Those were mostly well-educated, urban young people who criticized the regime for its anti-Western propaganda, and who used music as a way to present themselves internationally as aiming to be a part of the ’’Europe“, and as modern and progressive. Although not formally or explicitly part of the political life of the country at that time, they had a strong influence on the pro-European opposition and they used their music to mobilize their politically like-minded people. However, after 2000, these types of progressive or liberal ideas became radically unpopular among members of the hip-hop culture. Nowadays, a large portion of the supporters or authors of hip-hop music belong to the right-wing, conservative ideology, whose main focus is critique of the current government’s formally pro-EU politics, whose rhetoric often includes strong signs of affiliation with the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the imperative to reclaim the ’’sacred“ territory of Kosovo which was ’’seized by the enemies“.

Due to the fact that rap music is considered to represent the ’’voice of the streets“, and that, in spite of the fact that there are still various subcultures within hip-hop culture who represent

19 Ibid, pp.703. 20 Gordy, Eric D. The Culture of Power in Serbia: Nationalism and the Destruction of Alternatives. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999, pp. 116. 7

people of different class and/or ideological affiliation, and due to the fact that the ones who are believed to represent the ’’real“ hip-hop music in Serbia are young people with strong political opinions, it is important to analyze the nationalist rhetoric that lies within some of their most popular songs.

In my research, I will try to show that nationalist rhetoric, similar to the one that has traditionally been part of the turbo folk culture, can now be found in hip-hop music as well. I am to show that, even though members of the hip-hop community today expressed a similar anti-regime rhetoric that existed during the regime of Slobodan Milošević, they have rejected the pro-European narratives, and now present the EU, the US, and the “West” in general as the main enemy of the Serbs, which is the idea that can be found in the rhetoric of all conservative, populist political parties and political movements. The underlying hypothesis of this research is that, by shifting to such political ideas, members of the hip-hop/ rap culture in Serbia have moved from the sphere of alternative political and cultural options, to the mainstream political discourse. One of my main assumptions is that there are certain discursive patterns, themes or even phrases that are constantly repeated in most of the contemporary rap songs in Serbia. These patterns include contradictory images of, on one side, Serbs as victimized, defeated, forced into exile and constantly targeted by the evil West. On the other side, Serbs are portrayed as ‘chosen by God’, strong, brave and proud warriors, who simply want to protect what ‘naturally belongs to them’. Among these discursive patterns, or topoi as Ruth Wodak refers to them21, we can often find the concept of Othering, as well as other exclusionary concepts, which are used to reaffirm the dichotomies between the Serbs and their ‘enemies’, regardless of who they represent in a particular song. I will show that, similarly to what can often be found in rhetoric of nationalist actors, the songs that will be analyzed include topoi of threat, history and saviour, which have been used with an aim of supporting the argumentation of the songs which are usually based on stereotypical representations of the Serbian nation which has fought against many different regimes, countries and nations in numerous wars throughout the history, but always managed to preserve its honor and tradition.

21 Wodak, Ruth, De Cillia, Rudolf, Reisigl, Martin and Liebhart, Karin. The Discursive Construction of National Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2009. Translated by: Hirsch, Angelika. Mitten, Richard and Unger, J.W.

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The question that this research raises is in which way has hip-hop culture in Serbia responded and reacted to the anti-Albanian and nationalist rhetoric that has been increasingly present in the Serbian public since 2012?

Chapter 1 –Methodology and Theoretical Background

1.1. Methodology: Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse-Historical Approach and Topoi

In my thesis I will use Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as the main methodological framework. One of the main characteristics of Critical Discourse Analysis, according to Wodak and Van Dijk22 is the discipline’s interest in analyzing ‘naturally occurring’ language use and ‘real’ language use, rather than using some made-up and fictional examples. This means that CDA is mostly used to explore the meanings behind everyday language use, especially certain narratives that occur frequently. In the case of this thesis, CDA will be used to analyze the existing lyrics of songs and linguistic patterns that appear in rap music, which reflect certain narratives that exist in the society. Another key feature of CDA is its focus not only on analysis of the linguistic and verbal aspects of one unit, but also on non-verbal aspects of communication, i.e. images, music, multimedia, etc. In addition to the analysis of the linguistic patterns and narratives used in the songs, the aim of my thesis is to focus on the images used in the videos which contribute to the overall ‘language’ of the songs, but also the music which often influences the general tone of the songs and the emotion that the songs aims to evoke in the listeners. One of the reasons why I think that CDA is of relevance for my research, is the fact that it also studies functions of contexts of language use, which means that it does not only analyze the language itself, as isolated from a specific social, political or cultural reality, but also considers these specific backgrounds and contexts when explaining the meanings behind certain patterns of a language use. If one pursues an analysis of the songs’ lyrics, and limit it to a semantic analysis of the words and phrases used, without considering a very specific political background of it, both from a historical, but also a contemporary perspective, they would not be able to prove that there is anything problematic or nationalistic

22 Van Dijk, A. Teun. “Critical Discourse Analysis”. The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Second Edition. Tannen, Deborah; Hamilton, El. Heidi and Schiffrin, Deborah (Eds.). 2015. pp. 466- 485. 9

in the language of these songs. On the contrary, it might lead to a wrong assumption of a banal, benevolent expression of affection for one’s country and pride of its history.

Even though Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer in their article on CDA argue that all of these above mentioned characteristics can refer to both Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), but also Discourse Analysis (DA),23 the main difference between them is in the fact that CDA is based on an interdisciplinary, problem-oriented approach, which means that it is focused on exploring the social phenomena that lie beyond a specific linguistic unit. For this research, this means that one cannot simply point to the nationalist narratives used in the songs, because without explaining the development of nationalism as political, and social phenomena, these narratives themselves would not be a relevant topic of investigation. In addition to this, Wodak and Meyer continue to explain the importance of CDA as an analytical tool, and argue that the ultimate aim of CDA is to produce critical knowledge which would help people emancipate themselves, and liberate themselves from different forms of domination.

In their article, Wodak and Meyer emphasized the fact that CDA is not a single theory, and that it is consisted of various theoretical backgrounds, based on various methodologies and approaches.24 Moreover, different researchers conceptualize particular terms in different ways, and terms such as ‘discourse’, ‘ideology’ or ‘power’ have various meanings25.

The authors of the article provide a short historical overview of the way that the term ‘ideology’ has been perceived, focusing on the political and social contexts that gave either positive or negative meanings to this term. Without giving a clear definition of the term, Wodak and Meyer explain that the ‘type’ of ideology that CDA is interested in are the “hidden and type of everyday beliefs, which often appear disguised as conceptual metaphors and analogies”.26 It is particularly these forms of everyday, latent beliefs that I aim to explore and investigate by looking into the products of popular culture, especially rap music.

23 Wodak, Ruth and Meyer, Michael. “Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda, Theory, and Methodology 1”. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. 2009, pp.2. 24 Ibid. 25 Ibid, pp. 5. 26 Ibid, pp. 8.

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In a book she co-edited with Michał Krzyżanowski, Ruth Wodak emphasized that discourse analytical approaches in social sciences attempt to transcend the linguistic aspect and to focus on a sociological, political, historical or psychological aspect of the analysis of a particular discursive event.27 In addition to that, Theo van Leeuwen also writes how critical discourse analysis moved its focus beyond language, so that most researchers of CDA accepted visual representations, as well as the interaction between language and images as relevant objects of research.28

Nationalist narratives in popular culture in Serbia in general, but also rap music in particular, mostly rely on certain historic events, or historical contexts as a tool for gaining support and popularity. These contexts usually include invented or real historical events, such as battles, wars, and historical characters that are believed to be of a particular importance for Serbian national identity. Therefore, analyzing the lyrics and images used in the rap songs, without including the historical context of the Kosovo battle, Car Lazar, Saint Sava, and the historic role of Orthodox Church, to mention just a few, would be incomplete and pointless. For that reason, the second methodology that I aim to use is the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA), as it allows the analysis to focus on the relevant historical context while all the while interpreting the texts and images used.

The analysis will be heavily influenced by the book called “The Discursive Construction of National Identity” written by Ruth Wodak, Rudolf de Cillia, Martin Reisigl and Karin Liebhart, in particular the part of the book in which the authors write about the strategies usually employed in the construction of national identities.29 These strategies, or most of them, include topoi, or as the authors of the book define them, argumentation schemes, which are used to increase the success of a particular text, or discourse, and which are used as patterns that can be found even in speeches of political opponents. Topoi are often used to legitimize one’s political ideas, or to discredit one’s opponents, or simply as a tool of populists to gain support.

27 Wodak, Ruth and Krzyżanowski, Michał (eds.) Qualitative Discourse Analysis in the Social Sciences. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2008. ISBN: 9780230019867, pp. 12. 28 Van Leeuwen, Theo . “Critical Discourse Analysis”. in: Brown, Keith (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd edn., Vol. 3). Oxford: Elsevier. 2006. pp. 292. 29 Wodak, Ruth, De Cillia, Rudolf, Reisigl, Martin and Liebhart, Karin. The Discursive Construction of National Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2009. Translated by: Hirsch, Angelika. Mitten, Richard and Unger, J.W. 11

The analysis in this thesis shows that all of the rap songs include some of these argumentation schemes, and they are used in a way that aims to evoke the feelings of national victimization, empathy, but also support and national pride. In most cases, these topoi in the songs are used to reaffirm the existing and often used dichotomies of “Us” versus “Them”, and the process of “Othering” one’s (perceived) enemies.

One of the aims of the thesis is to point to the fact that, rap songs nowadays use the rhetoric and strategies often used by right-wing, populist parties whose political program involves nationalist narratives. There are three topoi that Wodak has written about, that I find particularly relevant for my research. By analyzing the topos of saviour, the topos of history, and the topos of threat, I aim to show that these discursive patterns can easily be found in various rap songs, and that most of their language is based on these three topoi30. Topos of saviour, as Wodak suggests31, occurs often in right-wing populist rhetoric, and can be found in the analyzed rap songs, and it relies on the idea of the existence of a strong, heroic figures that have traditionally be seen as ‘saviours’ of the nation, and as someone who can be trusted to save the nation in case of any danger. This leads me to the topos of threat, which is often about the image of an external danger that needs to be stopped. In the case of the analyzed rap songs, the external threat is usually presented as ‘the West’, but also defined in ethnic terms, especially when talking about the contested territory of Kosovo, the main ‘enemies’ in that context being ethnic Albanians. Lastly, the topos of history is focused on emphasizing the importance of certain historic events and characters, which is used to discursively construct the national identity. I argue that the fact that all of the analyzed songs include these three topoi, it shows that the nationalist rhetoric in rap music in Serbia today exists and that it is standardized, to a certain point.

30 Ibid, pp. 36. 31 Wodak, Ruth. “The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Discourses Mean. Los Angeles: Sage, 2015. pp. 10 12

1.2. Defining Nationalism

Before I attempt to prove that strong nationalist rhetoric can often be found in products of popular culture in Serbia today, it is important to focus first on defining the terms of nationalism and popular culture, as they are often used very vaguely. Here I will mention some of the authors and their definitions of nationalism that I find the most relevant for this research.

Michael Billig is certainly one of the authors whose work on the relation between popular culture and nationalism, as well on locating nationalist rhetoric outside of the political contexts that are commonly seen as nationalist, is of high relevance for this thesis. In the introductory part of his book “Banal Nationalism”, Billig uses the example of the Gulf War to point to the fact that nationalism exists outside of countries commonly associated with right-wing politics, and that the term ‘nationalism’ is usually considered to be located on the periphery, or outside of what is commonly known as the West. Billig argues that nationalism exists in the West’s established nation-states, not just the ones that aim to redraw existing territorial borders. Moreover, Billig claims that it is wrong to assume that nationalism emerges in the established nation-states on special occasions. Rather, he argues that nationalism is more than a ‘temporary mood’32, as he refers to it; it is a part of daily practices of numerous people, expressed through national anthem and national flags, both of which are present at all important state events. Billig goes on to claim that nation-states are not being created in moments of crisis, and giving examples of the United States of America, France and the United Kingdom, he argues that their citizens are being reproduced as nationals of these states through banal practices. Michael Billig argues that it is not an accident that political vocabulary does not include the term which would describe the practices and habits that reproduce established nations as nations, which leads to the term ‘nationalism’ being seen as a problem, and as something that only emerges on the periphery, or outside of established, civilized nations. 33

Billig insists on expanding the meaning behind the term ‘nationalism’, so that it also includes the means and habits by which nation-states are reproduced. In order to do so, he introduced the term ‘banal nationalism’, which would stand in contrast to the term ‘hot nationalism’, and

32 Michael Billig. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage Publications. 1995, pp. 5 33 Ibid. 13

which would cover the habits and practices that exist in everyday lives of people belonging to ‘established’ nations, and through these practices, a nation is reproduced, or ‘flagged’ as Billig refers to it. The fact that banal nationalism does not include violent practices or open invitation to expand a country’s territorial boundaries, does not mean that it is benign or harmless.

Michael Billig looks into the reasons why people in countries considered to be established, or the ones conventionally belonging to what is called ‘the West’, do not forget their nationality, or why their national belonging is of a high importance for many people. Billig claims that reproduction of this feeling of belonging to a particular nation, or importance of one’s own nation does not take place (again, at least not in established Western nations) during crisis, but rather on ordinary days, through practices of what the author calls banal nationalism. Citizens of these established nations are constantly being reminded of their national belonging, through flagging of nationhood. The practices of flagging, or reminding is so common and familiar, that it often goes unnoticed. One of the main examples that Billig provides is ‘not a flag which is being consciously waved with fervent passion; it is the flag hanging unnoticed on the public building.’34

Following on the work of Benedict Anderson, Billig claims that nation-states, as well as national languages do not naturally exist, but have to be imagined, which is why he claims that nationalism implies a strong social psychological dimension. In the book, Billig provides an analysis of British daily newspapers, and focuses on the way that readers are addressed in both tabloid and quality papers, regardless of their ideological position. According to the author, all of these papers address their readers as members of the British nation, and refer to their readers’ home as national homeland. Billig explains that these reminders are so subtle and constant, that people usually do not even recognize them, but these reminders instill a feeling of belonging to a particular nation, which is something people are often not aware of. This feeling of national loyalty can get used by political elites, especially during certain crisis, when citizens are expected to act in the name of nation.

34 Ibid, pp 8

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Billig’s work is of a particular importance for my thesis due to the fact that he focuses on the everyday media language and ‘banal signifiers’ of nationalism, to use Michael Skey’s term.35 Another important part of Billig’s work is his critique of a general opinion in academic and political circles according to which nationalism cannot be found in Western, established nations or states, but only in the countries on the periphery. Moreover, he emphasizes the tendency of each state and/or nation, regardless of their position on the East/West dichotomy, to see nationalism as something ‘others’ express, and never themselves. This process of ‘Othering’ can be analyzed through Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism36, which he used to describe the way countries commonly referred to as ‘the West’, often described by Said as imperialist countries, view and treat societies of ‘the East’. These representations of Eastern countries and their people are usually based on images of backwardness, inferiority, periphery, as well as primitive, and even irrational societies. Moreover, this Orientalist approach can be found even outside of what are commonly seen as developed Western countries. For that reason, I find Milica Bakić- Hayden’s concept of Nesting Orientalisms37 relevant, as it explains how all societies, even the ones who have been Orientalized by others, view and describe societies to their South and East as primitive, undeveloped and backward. Going back to the topic of perception of nationalist discourses, according to the concept of Nesting Orientalisms, it would imply that all societies, including countries of Southeastern Europe, and more specifically, Serbia as the most relevant for this thesis, perceive societies to their South and East as more conservative and often even aggressive. Here, the process of Othering lies in perceptions of others’ expression of their national belonging as violently nationalist, whereas their own is celebrated as benign expression of patriotism and national dignity.

35 Skey, Michael. “The national in everyday life: A critical engagement with Michael Billig’s thesis of Banal Nationalism”. The Sociological Review, 57(2). 2009. pp.334. doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.2009.01832.x. 36 Said, W. Edward. Orientalism. Pantheon Books. 1978. 37 Bakić-Hayden, Milica. “Nesting Orientalisms: The Case of Former Yugoslavia", Slavic Review, 54/4. 1995. pp. 917–931, OCLC 479320036

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Billig’s critique of this tendency led to the growing literature which questions the concept of ‘methodological nationalism’38, explained by Andreas Wimmer and Nina Glick Schiller as the idea which has been present in social sciences for over a century, according to which ‘nationally bounded societies are . . . the naturally given entities to study’39.

Another book that I will use as a theoretical background for defining nationalism is Imagined Communities written by Benedict Anderson.40 Some of the main concepts developed in this book will be used for explaining the way lyrics and images are used in the songs and movies which will be analyzed with the aim of imposing the feeling of communion on the people who belong to Serbian nation. He emphasizes that nationalism, or rather “nation-ness”41 as he refers to it, is a cultural creation, and defines nation as an “imagined political community - imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign”42. Anderson goes on to claim that a nation "is imagined because members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow- members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion”43. However, he stressed that, the fact that a nation is imagined, does not mean that its political effect is imagined as well. He emphasized the importance and strength of such relationship in whose name numerous people across the world are willing to sacrifice their lives.

By claiming this, Anderson argues that a nation is a socially constructed community, and this idea stands in contrast to the claims that have traditionally been present in history, international relations and political science, according to which nations have existed in the nature since the primordial times, and are seen as something undisputable and unchangeable, including its borders, citizens, and other features. Explaining its development, Anderson claimed that nationalism emerged due to the convergence of capitalism and print media, and emphasized that the development of vernacular newspapers led to the formation of nation, or imagined

38 Wimmer, Andreas; Schiller, Nina Glick. "Methodological nationalism and beyond: nation-state building, migration and the social sciences" . Global Networks 2, 4. 2002. 301–334. ISSN 1470–2266 39 Ibid, 304. 40 Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities. London:Verso. 1983. 41 Ibid, pp. 4. 42 Ibid, pp. 5. 43 Ibid, pp. 5. 16

communities, because people who read the same newspapers created a feeling of belonging to a collective, regardless of the physical distance that may exist between them. Following on the concept and idea developed by Anderson, the idea which is particularly relevant for my thesis is the view of media as a something that created imagined communities, by talking to and addressing the audience as citizens, or using the discourse of ‘us’ versus ‘them’. This way, media outlets contribute to creating homogenous public, which is gathered around the same feeling of belonging to a particular community. This is often done by using certain images, or narratives that aim to invoke or strengthen one’s relationship to an imagined community they relate to. This is particularly relevant when analyzing Serbian nationalism(s), because nationalist rhetoric has traditionally been spread by using images of mythical figures and myths of origin, as well as references to historical events, and times of success and glory.

The article called ''Everyday Nationhood“ written by John Fox and Cynthia Miller-Idriss44 offers another important and slightly different and innovative way of conceptualizing nationalism and analysing the ways it is experienced and expressed on a daily basis. The authors start by defining nationalism as ''the project to make the political unit, the state (or polity) congruent with the cultural unit, the nation.“45 One of the most relevant ideas for my thesis is the authors' claim that nationalism has been analyzed as a force that turns people into a unified national entity, but not much has been written about the people themselves, or 'the masses' as they refer to it. They criticize the literature in which human factor, or ordinary people, as opposed to the political elites, are neglected as important determinants of the popularity of nationalism in a given political context. They claim that, due to this gap in academic literature, the masses are assumed to be accustomed and adapted to the nationalist narratives, and that each individual is believed to accept and react to these narratives concerning nationhood in a uniform way.

The aim of the article is to analyse the ways people engage in and validate nationalism in their daily lives, through different practices and habits. The authors examine four ways in which

44 Fox, Jon E., and Cynthia Miller-Iriss. “Everyday Nationhood.” Ethnicities, vol. 8, no. (4), 2008. pp. 536– 560. 45 Ibid, pp. 536.

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people produce and reproduce nationhood in their everyday lives. The first objects of analysis are the discursive practices, or the ways people construct nationhood in interaction with one another. The second aspect is the analysis of the ways nationhood influences the choices people make on an everyday basis. Third, they analyse how people perceive national symbols, and what meaning they are given, as well as the feeling of national belonging that these symbols aim to to invoke in people. Finally, the fourth thing they explore are the preferences and tastes of people, and the extent to which one's nationality influences or shapes their taste when it comes to patterns of everyday consumption.

The authors of the article wrote about the ways in which nationalism managed to adapt to, and moreover to thrive in a changing world. Another reason why this article is relevant for my thesis is the my focus on explaining how nationalist narratives managed to remain in contemporary society in Serbia, more specifically in popular culture, even in the recent years when a strong national(ist) agenda had to be removed, or silenced, in order to continue with the EU integration process. Nationalism had to be re-invented, or rather to become modernized, in order to be appealing to mass consumers, especially to younger generations. This article is also relevant because it shows how popular culture and various discursive patterns are used to remind people of their nationhood, which results in strengthening the nationalist rhetoric.

Fox and Miller-Idriss claim that “To make the nation is to make people national”46,which also implies that nobody is born national, but becomes national during their lives. The part which says “…to make people national” could be read as the authors’ claim that the process of becoming national comes as a result of it being imposed on someone. The authors go on to claim that it is educational curricula, military conscriptions and other aspects that make people national in contemporary world. It is different aspects of their everyday, and social lives that make them national, or rather, that impose the feeling of belonging to a particular nation.

46 Ibid, pp. 536.

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In his article ''Banal Nationalism in everyday life“,47 John E.Fox writes about the correlation between the literature on banal nationalism, heavily influenced by Michael Billig, and the literature on everyday nationhood. He argues that scholars of everyday nationhood often take inspiration from Billig's work, but their work still takes different direction. While the aim of Billig's book is to explain the ways nationalism still survives in established democracies, and analyzing it from a top-down approach, the research on everyday nationhood is focused on the ways ordinary people reproduce ideas about the nation during their daily practices. Rather than seeing citizens as passive recipients of nationalist narratives transmitted by political elites, scholars of everyday nationhood analyse the ways these people actively produce and reproduce nationhood through their daily practices. The main difference between Banal Nationalism and everyday nationhood literature lies in the fact that in Banal Nationalism, nationalism is conceptualized as unremarked and often unnoticed by ordinary people, whereas everyday nationhood focuses on nationhood as something completely differently experienced by the ordinary people, who are seen as actively producing and even manipulating nationhood ”for their own purposes“.48

The article called “Affective nationalism: Banalities of belonging in Azerbaijan”49 written by Elisabeth Militz and Carolin Schurr is of a particular relevance for my thesis, as the authors write about the ways that nationalism is produced and reproduced through the use of images and music. They write about reproduction of nation through embodied and emotional practices of people, as well as through bodily encounters that include joyful and painful affections. They claim that in affective nationalism “the nation emerges in moments of encounter between different bodies and objects through embodying, sharing, enjoying or disliking what feels national”.50 The article is based on an ethnographic research in Baku, Azerbaijan, during a celebration of a national holiday. The introduction containing a brief description of the national dance and coordinated singing during a publicly staged ceremony is followed by a short analysis of Billig’s concept of banal nationalism. Militz and Schurr claim that what they have

47Fox, E. John.“Banal Nationalism in everyday life”. Nations and Nationalism 24 (4). 2018. 862-866. doi: 10.1111/nana.12458 48 Ibid, 864. 49 Militz, Elisabeth and Schurr, Carolin. “Affective nationalism: Banalities of belonging in Azerbaijan.” Political Geography 54. 2016. pp. 54-63. 50 Ibid, 54. 19

witnessed in Baku was not just a meaningless celebration, but a public expression of nationhood and national culture. The fact that most of the people present at the ceremony recognized the dance shown at the stage and immediately started performing the same dance moves, was explained by the authors of the text as recognizing that they belong to the same “we”. Recognizing their national dance as distinct from others, made them feel like they are a part of a bigger community, even though they might not have known each other. They go on to claim that even mundane national practices are brought into being through encounters between bodies and objects.

Ernest Gellner is one of the most influential theorists of nationalism, his work in general, and the book called “Nations and Nationalism” is focused on the idea of modern origins of nations, and the claim that the concept of nationhood and national ideology could only be spread and shared in a modern society. The idea that nations and national identity were formed in modern times is based on the concept of ‘high culture’, which he defined as ‘a school-mediated, academy supervised idiom, codified for the requirements of reasonably precise bureaucratic and technological communication’.51 This assumes an education system which is used to propagate the official or standardized knowledge. Gellner argues that it was the emergence of the official knowledge and the imperative for all members of a particular nation to adopt it, the period which clearly differentiated the modern world from medieval period, when people belonging to different socio-economic groups did not have to share the language or communicate among each other, as there was a clear distinction between those belonging to peasantry and elite parts of the society.

Gellner argues that it is this process of creating a homogeneous high culture, which was consumed by entire population, and not just the elites, led to the creation of a ‘unit’, or community that all people, regardless of their position in a society or economic status, wanted to identify with. For that reason, Gellner claims that nations as social and political units are vital for maintaining the process of modernization,which includes transformation of the economy, culture, and overall society. One of the most relevant parts of Gellner’s work is the distinction he makes between ‘high’ cultures, and ‘low’ cultures, which he also calls ‘wild’, the cultures of the majority of people. Even though there have been attempts to create an

51 Ernest Gellner. Nations and Nationalism. Oxford:Blackwell. 1983, pp. 57 20

official, national and unified culture, which would be based on what Gellner and many other theorists of culture call ‘high’ culture, especially during the process of establishing nations, due to the development of the media as a mass phenomenon, and due to standardized language which enabled messages and culture to be spread, individual ‘cultures’ started to develop, far from the influence of the state bureaucracy and national elites.

1.4. Defining (Popular) Culture

Depending on the discipline, the term culture can mean many different things, but it usually refers to different ways that people express themselves, which is related to the spiritual, intellectual, mental and symbolic. In a wider sense it includes humanities and natural sciences, philosophy, religion and different forms of art, whereas in a broader sense it covers practices, acts and products of artistic expression. The term culture is also considered to involve different features of a particular community, like their habits and way of living, customs, values, ideals and behavioral patterns which are believed to be distinct to other communities. The word culture is also commonly associated with one’s individual behavior and the way one interacts with other people, mainly his eloquence, self-control, politeness, and respect towards other people. Depending on different ways we understand the term culture, it has multiple antonyms. Understood according to the first definition, its counter terms would be related to material world, such as profit, economy, interest, etc. If understood as described in the second definition, the opposite terms to it would be cultures of other communities. Lastly, culture can be understood as opposite to barbarity, instinct, savagery, and lack of reason.

Even though what we consider today as cultural content and products of culture exist since the beginning of human societies, the very term culture as we know it today did not exist until the second half of 18th century. The emergence of this term is connected to secularization of the dominant perception of the world and people in it.

The term “culture” emerged in academia and started being used in everyday discourse during the period of European modernity when people started questioning their everyday social interaction. Among many typologies of definitions of culture, the one that is the most relevant

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today is the one that distinguishes between culture in humanistic and culture in anthropological sense. The first, humanistic approach is very selective, as it claims that only certain activities and products belong to culture. It is also very normative, due to the fact that it claims that human acts and their results can only be analyzed in the lights of certain universal values, and they can only be evaluated either as good or bad, developed or backward.

According to the second, anthropological definition, culture is considered to include all the human activities, not just of one specific group, but of society as a whole. In addition to that, all the cultures, as comprehensive way of living of a particular nation or a group, are just as good. During the age of Enlightenment, culture started being viewed as a distinct feature of people, and a sum of all the experiences and knowledge that they, as humanity, had gathered, during their lives.

The term popular culture has changed throughout its historical development and changes in theories and social perception. Cultural studies as a discipline started analyzing contemporary culture from a theoretical point of view in the moment when popular culture gained unexpectedly large audience. During the 19th century, the term popular culture referred to folk culture, or authentic culture of specific nations or communities, and it meant the culture which emerged from below, expressed through myths, legends and customs. This idea emerged as a romanticist reaction to universal principles promoted during the age of Enlightenment, and it implied the co-existence of plethora of different cultures which were incomparable among themselves. This idea was incorporated into programs of the creation of nation-states during the 19th century and it is an inseparable part of all national, especially nationalist concepts of culture.

Later, during the 20th century, the idea of authentic, pure culture referred to the idealized past which disappeared with the industrial revolution and its consequence- mass culture. The emergence of mass culture led to what was later commonly used as a triad model of elite-mass- working class/people’s culture. At first, both right and left wing critics saw popular culture as opposed to elite culture, on one hand, and mass culture on the other hand. However, due to the change in political and social systems during the 19th century, after national liberation movements, the Paris Commune and the general democratic development, the term popular culture became much more complex. This happened mostly due to the lack of standardized

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meaning, and uneven use of the terms ‘common people’, ‘folk’ and ‘masses’. According to some, these terms referred to social groups seen as the source of real and authentic culture, but on the other hand, the same groups were seen as low, primitive, something that denies differences, and something that poses danger to ‘real’ culture and development. The term ‘popular’, meaning something that is enjoyed by many people, started to have negative connotation. Since the 19th century, the term ‘popular’ was used to point to something which is widely accepted by ‘common’ people, mostly popular press, popular songs, and popular music. In the cultural sphere of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, culture was considered to be in the domain of elites, and the word ‘popular’, meaning the lack of quality, stems from the elites’ intolerance towards masses. In addition to that, anything related to mass produced culture was associated with the idea that quantity necessarily means the lack of quality. Mass culture then started being understood as culture “from above”, because it depended on new technological inventions, new types of media and cultural industries. It was seen as destructive, degrading, and as a manipulative influence of American culture into high, elite, European culture. It was believed to lead societies towards general homogenization of knowledge and feelings, and degradation of ‘true’ values and good taste. Theorists of the Frankfurt School argued that mass culture is only an expression of mental and spiritual exploitation of passive masses by ruling classes. The term ‘mass’ culture changed in the second half of the 20th century, which was heavily influenced by the work of the British cultural studies, whose scholars emphasized the fact that mass culture is more than something that centers of economic power and the bourgeois class impose on the passive masses, because it had become clear that, over time, the very ‘masses’ started using artifacts or products of this culture in various ways.

“Notes on Deconstructing the Popular”,52 Stuart Hall’s seminal essay, was one of the first texts to present the view of the Birmingham’s Centre on popular culture, and analyses the term ‘popular’ as a highly important concept of the political and social struggle in the 1980s. Dynamics and transformation are seen as the main characteristics of popular culture, and Hall argued that popular culture leads to the active transformation of specific patterns and routines.

52 Hall, Stuart. “Notes on Deconstructing the Popular”. In: Samuel, R. (Eds.), People’s history and socialist theory . 1981. pp. 227–240). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 23

This work laid the basis for future analyses of popular culture and developed the main principle according to which popular culture is seen as the culture of the majority of people, regardless of the way they are called, but who are not just “cultural idiots”. Hall strongly argues against the idea that consumers of popular culture, or common people, are just passive recipients of ideas spread by the ruling classes through products of popular culture. Culture is considered to be a battlefield, a place of constant change, due to the constant struggle against the dominant culture. Similarly to Gramsci, Hall is led by Marx’s ideas that the class which has control over material power, also seizes power of ideas. In order to fight against this hegemony, it is necessary for the working class to organize and to promote the creation of a new culture. One of Hall’s essential views is that each class aims to take control over products and content of the popular culture, which is in fact a struggle for power. On the other hand, every social class which is subordinated in a particular system uses popular culture as a tool of resistance against the culture of the dominant class.

Stuart Hall’s work on popular culture is of particular importance for the development of cultural studies as a discipline because it provides a break from or discontinuation of the traditional image of media as an instrument of all manipulative strategies of the dominant class, the view which also implied the image of the audience as a passive consumer. For that reason, Hall emphasized the terms ‘coding’ and ‘decoding’, to explain that audience has evolved from a passive into an active participant of the process of transmitting messages.

When it comes to nationalism studies scholars’ conceptualization of (popular) culture, binary definitions of culture have been very present throughout the history of this discipline. An important work written by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger called “The Invention of Tradition”53 deals with different ways that actors create traditions, and culture, which are used to create an illusion of primordial roots of a particular community. Just like in his other works, Hobsbawm emphasized that a nation is not defined by certain “natural”, pre-existing characteristics of a particular community, or images of certain values and traditions that existed before modern times. Instead of the idea that nations exist in this primordial mythologized

53 Hobsbawm, Eric, Ranger, Terence, eds. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2000

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conception, he claims that nations are “situated at the point of intersection of politics, technology and social transformation.”54

Analyzing others classic of nationalism studies, it can be notes that scholars of this field often only empowered the existing dichotomies between high and popular culture. Even though certain scholars did acknowledge the importance of popular culture, it is still far from the attention that high culture has received. Tim Edensor was one of the scholars to address this issue, and he wrote about the fact that high culture traditionally occupied the attention of nationalism studies scholars even in early 2000s. The role of elites and the state in producing national culture is very often emphasized, and in many occasions scholars neglect the fact that national identity is also produced and reproduced on local levels, or from ‘below’. As Edensor writes, national identity is “enacted in homely settings, as well as at ceremonial sites and memory scapes; it is located in the familiar habits and embodies lifestyles that such practices bring about.”55 Furthermore, Edensor claims that popular culture often creates the idea that a feeling of belonging to a particular nation is decentralized from the official versions of identity, which emphasizes the fluid and hybrid character of identities.

Postmodern culture does not recognize the difference or clear distinction between high and popular culture anymore, which means that many scholars had to abolish their beliefs in the high normative values of the Western ‘high’ culture, but it also led to the expansion of relevant issues that need to be explored within the interdisciplinary area of cultural studies.

54 Hobsbawm, Eric J. Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. pp 10 55 Edensor, Tim. National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life. Oxford: Berg. 2002. pp. 86 25

Chapter 2

“Next year in Prizren”

2.1. Introduction

In this chapter I will analyse the song “Dogodine u Prizrenu” (Next Year in Prizren) by a Serbian rap group Beogradski Sindikat.56 The song was published in late 2018 as a reflection of the growing panic of the nationalist actors in Serbia regarding the current Kosovo issue, and its declaration of independence. Through this song and the video, the authors tried to express how they (and, according to the mass support that the group received, an alarmingly large portion of the public) feel regarding Kosovo’s declaration of independence, and how they perceive this as another attack from their “enemies” who simply want to seize Kosovo and destroy all the Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches built in 13th and 14th century. The song was deliberately recorded in the moment when the international community puts pressure on the Government of Serbia to accept Kosovo as an independent country, if they want to pursue their EU integrations.

This chapter and analysis is based on the theoretical background and concepts developed by several scholars, but here I will mention the concepts I find the most relevant. First of all, the analysis relies on the concept of imagined communities, developed by Benedict Anderson57 because it serves as a theoretical background for explaining how lyrics and images were used in this song with the aim of imposing the feeling of communion on the people who belong to Serbian nation. This analysis is also based on Bracewell’s idea of Serbian national masculinity as humiliated,58 which uses militarism as a way to regain national and individual dignity. Another important theoretical basis used in this chapter is Militz and Schurr’s concept of

56 Beogradski Sindikat i Etno Grupa ‘Trag’. Dogodine u Prizrenu. YouTube video. 6 Oct 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFH8lwX7eT4. English subtitles 57 Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London:Verso. 1983. 58 Bracewell, Wendy. “Rape in Kosovo: Masculinity and Serbian Nationalism,” Nations and Nationalism 6(4). 2000.pp. 563-590.

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affective nationalism59, which I will use to explain how the feeling of belonging to a particular nation is spread through the use of images and traditional music.

In this chapter I will try to elaborate how nationalist narratives were used by the rap group in order to teach younger generations the “truth” about Kosovo as the sacred land of the Serbian nation, and how they should look up to medieval heroes who died during the Kosovo battle. Moreover, the song implicitly aims to convince young people that they have to protect the land and fight in order to win Serbian dignity back and “resurrect” their nation. Using CDA and DHA, I aim to point to the specific political and social context that this song was recorded in, without which, the analysis of the lyrics itself would not make sense. By analyzing the lyrics, images and historical references used in the song, I will try to show that it includes the three topoi (topos of threat, topos of history, and topos of saviour), which are very commonly used as strategies of constructing or re-affirming national identities.

The very title of the song “Next year in Prizren” evokes the common saying “Next year in Jerusalem” which refers to a common theme among Diaspora Jews to return to Jerusalem. The saying can be heard as the last words of the traditional Seder, and it serves as a reminder of the experience of living in exile. After the Jewish temple was destroyed, the idea and wish for Jews to see it rebuilt became one of the main aspects of their religious consciousness, and it expresses their hope for redemption. The similarity between these two sayings lies in the “hope” for the return to “holy lands”, which are Jerusalem and Kosovo, respectively.

2.2. Analysis

Before I start with the analysis of the lyrics and images used in the song, it is important to give a little background on the rap group itself, its members and their social and political background. The group was formed in 1999, and its initial rhetoric was focused on something one could call ‘street nationalism’, and it included common narratives and opinion that could easily be heard in the streets, mostly directed against Slobodan Milošević, his police, the surrounding countries, and communism as a regime. In general, Beogradski Sindikat took

59 Militz, Elisabeth and Schurr, Carolin. “Affective nationalism: Banalities of belonging in Azerbaijan.” Political Geography 54. 2016. 54-63.

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advantage of the ideas that young people in Serbia had been fed since mid-1980s, and those are the images and perceptions of Serbs as a nation which is almost endangered, in a risk of extinction, in a danger of being occupied again, and this paranoia only grew stronger during the war of the 1990s. During such a state, there was a general belief that one of the solutions would be for the Orthodox tradition to retrieve its important place in the society, and that only Orthodox religion, and the way of life that it promotes, could help the Serbs overcome the social and political problems that they face. Beogradski Sindikat was heavily influenced by such propaganda, and it became famous as a rap group that promotes real, traditional values, which was considered to be refreshing and even revolutionary, especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Besides the very specific kind of nationalism which was not so much focused on the hatred towards other nations or countries, but rather centered around islamophobia, Beogradski Sindikat also emphasized other social and political issues, such as independence of courts, and corrupted politicians, thereby gaining support from various social and political groups. Even after the regime change and the 5th of October 2000, some of the main topics in the songs of Beogradski Sindikat continued to be the criticism of the newly established political elite. By doing this, they positioned themselves as the voice of common people, the voice that could rarely be heard in the official politics. Even though they did present the opinion of a certain portion of the public, especially considering the amount of support the group gained in early 2000s, the problem with it is that it tried to present itself as the representative of the dominant political opinion that could be heard anywhere in the streets. As a group of men, all of whom are born and live in central Belgrade, and most of them being well-educated even successful as lawyers and economists, they also tried to occupy the position of cultural and political representative of all young and educated people in Serbia. Even though they claim that they are not affiliated with any political party, even up to date, there were certain controversial events that lead to the assumption that they are associated with the Serbian Movement Dveri, a far right political party whose political program is focused on Serbian nationalism, and Euroscepticism60. However, throughout their career as a rap group, but

60 Televizija, Nasa, director. Emisija “Srbija Prijatelj porodice”, 19.04.2019, Škabo Beogradski Sindikat. YouTube, 19 Apr. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NbnwXAZ_LY

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especially in the last couple of years, the main topic of their daily-politics-oriented songs has been Kosovo.

Both the song and the video for the song “Dogodine u Prizrenu” use symbols and lyrics to show an imagined community61 of the Serbian nation. As Anderson argues, a nation "is imagined because members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow- members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion”.62 This is exactly what is shown in the video, and mentioned in the lyrics of the song. The main assumption of those who wrote the lyrics, just like many other nationalist actors, is that all people who belong to a particular target nation will, by default, feel the sense of communion and belonging to their imagined communities. In most of the cases, the tools used to provoke (or even to impose) this idea of community are images and music, which is also very well thought of and used in this video. Although in most of the song, the lyrics imply a strong connection between the people who identify as belonging to the Serbian nation and the territory of Kosovo, often referred to as the sacred land, there are also clear indicators of representation of the connection between individual members of this imagined community. Therefore, Anderson’s idea that all members of a particular nation share the feeling of their communion is explicitly shown in the part of the lyrics that say “Does it matter if I’m from Metohija or from Dorćol, to be able to feel the pain of injustice in my very soul?”63 By using these lyrics, the authors aim to make a clear connection between Serbs living in Serbia- in this case, central Belgrade- and people belonging to the Serbian national minority living in Kosovo. One could also draw a parallel here to the idea of indivisibility that Calhoun wrote about as one of the few features that describe the rhetoric of the nation.64 This concept of indivisibility comes from the idea that a nation is an integral unit, and that it cannot be divided or separated.

61 Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London:Verso. 1983. 62 Ibid, pp.6-8 63Beogradski Sindikat i Etno Grupa ‘Trag’. Dogodine u Prizrenu. YouTube video. 6 Oct 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFH8lwX7eT4. English subtitles

64 Calhoun, Craig. Nationalism. Buckingham: Open University Press. 1997: 4 29

Moreover, this distinction between Metohija and Dorćol is used in order to emphasize that their sense of communion and belonging to the same nation transcends all socio-economic differences that are usually linked with these two geographical terms. They might be trying to say that even though they come from central Belgrade, or may be “city kids” as they also mention, they nonetheless feel the same pain and grievance for their roots. Regardless of all differences, they insist on the idea of belonging to the same nation, having the same roots, and moreover, feeling the same “pain and injustice” that all members of an imagined community feel. They almost try to present themselves as serving a morally acceptable mission of protecting those members of their imagined community who are perceived as underprivileged or backwards, or feminized, as I will elaborate in the following paragraphs.

Even though I argue that, to some extent, Anderson’s explanation of the driving force behind imagined communities’ willingness to die in order to protect their nation was fairy unsatisfying, this was somehow mentioned in the song and the video. The authors are trying to say that it is this particular set of affects and feelings of belonging and shared values that make it possible for millions of people to be prepared to die (if not to kill) for the sake of their community, and more particularly, the territory that they believe represents their roots and foundations. This is also obviously presented especially in the video, which contains a very open call for violence, in the part of the lyrics which say “Even the worst one should be forgiven, but for your fatherland be prepared to die”.65

This logic of militarized protection does not have alternative. According to it, if a person is against it, it directly means that they taking the enemies’ side, because protection, even though militarized, is always considered to be benevolent. As Nagel writes “Patriotism is a siren call that few men can resist, particularly in the midst of a political ‘crisis;’ and if they do, they risk the disdain or worse of their communities and families, sometimes including their mothers“.66 Nagel also writes about the role that women are given in nationalism, and especially mentions

65 Beogradski Sindikat i Etno Grupa ‘Trag’ - Dogodine u Prizrenu. YouTube video, 3:50. 6 Oct 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFH8lwX7eT4. English subtitles

66 Nagel, Joane. “Masculinity and Nationalism: Gender and Sexuality in the Making of Nations.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 21, no. 2. 1998. 252.

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that they occupy “[a] distinct, symbolic role in nationalist culture, discourse and collective action…”,67 and in the case of this song and the video, I argue that women are highly instrumentalized with an aim of showing that they (themselves as women, the territory and the whole nation that they represent) are in need for protection, and therefore, they are inviting people to fight for them.

I would like to refer to the article written by Militz and Schurr,68 and their claim that the feeling of community and belonging to a particular nation can be produced and spread through the use of music, images and dance. This is obviously present in the song and the video, as the song contains elements of ethno music and traditional instruments. Although there are not any scenes of traditional dance in the video, we see images of icons and frescos which are carefully chosen with an aim of evoking the feeling of community in those who identify as belonging to the Serbian nation.

For conceptualization of affect, I find it important to emphasize that in this video, the affect comes as a result of images of the destroyed monasteries, photographs of devastated people and people who died, combined with the ethno sound present in the background. Also, in the video, I recognize the idea that different bodies have different capacities to affect and be affected. As McClintock argues in the opening sentence of her article, “All nationalisms are gendered…”69. The one present in the video is not an exception, as it clearly shows the difference in the ways men and women are portrayed in nationalist projects. Here, women are shown only as vulnerable, in need of protection, mournful and in tears. As argued before, female voices are heard only with ethno sounds, singing a song that mourns the loss of the territory they believe is sacred. On the other hand, men are predominant figures in the song and the video, as they are (mostly) the ones who sing, and the only mention of people in the song are those men who are considered to be the heroes of the Kosovo battle. The enemy is shown in the form of men destroying the churches, and, even though there are no images of

67 Ibid. 68 Militz, Elisabeth and Schurr, Carolin. “Affective nationalism: Banalities of belonging in Azerbaijan.” Political Geography 54. 2016. 54-63. 69 Anne McClintock, “Family Feuds: Gender, Nationalism and the Family,” Feminist Review 44, Summer 1993: 61

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grown up men who could clearly be identified as belonging to the Serbian nation, the song seems to be targeting men primarily, as it implicitly calls for violence (or, as they call it- protection) of their sacred land, which is, needless to say, considered to be men’s responsibility.

There is a constant element of self-victimization throughout the video, which is also very common in nationalistic narratives. In order to show their victimhood, nationalists had to sacrifice the most important thing- their masculinity. The fact that their masculinity was incapable of protecting the land from being stolen, as the rap group says in the song, and therefore to protect women and children who are presented in the video from being attacked, they had to depict the enemy as barbaric, violent and unjust. Moreover, the enemy is not presented as only ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo who are destroying Serbian medieval monasteries and sanctities. The enemy is in fact the whole world represented in several scenes of the video as the United Nations and NATO. The concept of threatened masculinity as described by Bracewell could be used to explain this rhetoric of Serbian national victimization especially in regard to Kosovo. Even though Bracewell described the events that happened during the 1980s, the patterns of such narratives can be recognized in Beogradski Sindikat’s video. In her article, Bracewell70 writes about Serbian national masculinity represented as humiliated and passive, as unable to protect the land and itself from the enemies. The author also emphasizes that "[the] narrative of threatened masculinity offered militarism as a way of winning back both individual manliness and national dignity”.71 Even though there are elements of violence and aggression throughout the whole video, it seems like the solution proposed in this song is not open and immediate violence, but rather mobilization of younger generations who will defend Kosovo from the “hungry wolves” when the time comes. The authors of the song are insisting on the “truth” written about in school textbooks in Serbia, which contain very clear images of Serbs as morally superior, as free from any sins and as the ultimate victims of all the battles they have ever taken part in, but also, somehow, as the biggest heroes. These textbooks, which are used in primary schools, include stories and poems about the Kosovo myth and impose on elementary school students the idea of clear opposition

70 Bracewell, Wendy. “Rape in Kosovo: Masculinity and Serbian Nationalism,” Nations and Nationalism 6(4), (2000): 563-590. 71 Ibid, 567.

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between the Kosovo Serbs (and Serbian nation in general) as the victims of the aggressive Albanians who have violently taken away the holy part of the Serbian land. While, on one hand, these textbooks aim to “teach” students the historical struggle between Serbian “eternal honor” and “disgrace”72 of the evil enemy, songs like “Dogodine u Prizrenu” and other products of popular culture aim to show them that this struggle is still present, and that they should never forget their ultimate responsibility, and that is to protect Kosovo.

In order to mobilize these younger generations for war, the educational system and pop culture constantly try to evoke the image of the glorious past, but also the image of them as children without their mother, “[that were] left without her milk”73,because children are the most innocent and real victims of all conflicts. In this verse we can clearly see that the land (Kosovo) that they are referring to is feminized. This concept of embodiment and female bodies presented as material terrain is something that Martin wrote about focusing on the example of Ireland.74 Even though Martin wrote about Irish women, the idea that women symbolically represent the purity and tradition of a particular country can easily be applied in the case of Serbian nation and their connection to the territory of Kosovo. The authors of the song aim to show that this territory, as well as Serbian women (and children) need to be protected from the violence perpetrated by the aggressive enemy.

The nation is feminized as throughout the video it is presented only by using images of (unprotected) women and children who are devastated, hurt or forced to leave their homes. The territory of Kosovo is also presented as feminized as the video shows images of the intact nature that needs to be protected from being destroyed. The scenes of the video which show the beauty of the nature and the land, are the only parts of the song when we can hear female

72 Beogradski Sindikat i Etno Grupa ‘Trag’ - Dogodine u Prizrenu. YouTube video, 0:50. 6 Oct 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFH8lwX7eT4. English subtitles

73 Ibid., 1:50

74 Martin, K. Angela. “Death of a nation: Transnationalism, bodies and abortion in late twentieth-century Ireland.” In Tamar Mayer (ed.), Gender Ironies of Nationalism: Sexing the Nation (New York: Routledge, 2000): 65-86.

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voices singing in a very traditional, ethno style. The verse “I am praying so that I can return to my home75” and their gentle voices express pain and inability to do anything but to pray and lament the loss of their sacred land and their home. These female voices and images of the feminized land stand in a stark contrast to the rest of the song when we hear aggressive male voices and see images of destroyed monasteries, burning houses, and the “enemy” portrayed as masculine, violent men.

The song shows the opposition between the contemporary Serbian nation which is feminized due to its inability to protect its sacred land and its people, and the masculine enemy. On the other hand, the song and the video also contain images of contrast between, again, the feminized Serbs of today who allowed their sanctities to be demolished, and the fearless heroes from the past who fought against the invasion of the Ottoman army.

Even though the song and the video glorify the “heroes without fear”76 who fought the Ottomans, they seem to “forget” the more recent violent practices and campaigns of cleansing the territory of Kosovo of ethnic Albanians, conducted by those who are usually seen as heroic figures in Serbian nationalist discourses. This politics of amnesia is very clearly present in this song, as the authors fail to mention the atrocities done by Serbian police and military forces in the 1980s and 1990s which could be seen as a direct cause of the NATO air strikes which, on the other hand, are included in the song. Here, I would like to refer to Calhoun’s point about forgetting violence through the nation building processes. As he says: “What now seems settled, almost natural national identities are the results of symbolic struggles and both cultural and very material violence”,77 which is something that can easily be seen in the rap song, as the authors tried to avoid mentioning the violence used for the national unification, because it cannot be used for creating the image of the Serbian nation as the ultimate victims of the conflict.

Central to the Kosovo “sacred” status in Serbian history is the myth of sacrifice. According to a legend which was promoted by the Serbian Orthodox Church, on the eve of the Battle of

75 Ibid., 3:56 76 Ibid., 3:02 77 Calhoun, Craig. Nationalism. Buckingham: Open University Press. 1997: 4 34

Kosovo, a holy prophet offered prince Lazar, who led the army of Christians in the battle against the Ottomans, a choice: an empire on earth, or an empire in heaven. Prince Lazar, allegedly, chose heavenly empire, which meant that their army would lose the battle, but it would secure eternal life in heaven for the Serbian nation. This myth of sacrifice and the image of the Serbian nation as morally superior, and somehow a nation close to the god himself, is still very present in nationalist discourses, such as the rap song, and it serves as justification, or rather, explanation for the cause of many atrocities conducted by the “heavenly nation” throughout the history. The importance of this myth for Serbian nation-building project was in creating a historical continuity between the contemporary Serbian people and the “Serbs” of the Middle Ages, suggesting an eternal nation, and making the Kosovo territory a sacred and inseparable part of the nation’s collective memory. In her article, McClintock wrote how images of ancient history are used in order to create an image of superiority of a particular nation, and this is something that can be seen in the rap video as well. The images of medieval monasteries, the nature that transcends time and the lyrics that remind the audience about the fearless medieval “Serbs” who fought the same fight that the Serbian nation fights today, are used in order to create this historical continuity and claim legitimacy over the territory of Kosovo.

2.3. The use of topoi

The types of topoi that we can identify in this song rely mostly on certain socially constructed ideas, which are very widely spread in the society, and considered almost a common knowledge, or something that is not often questioned. Topoi are used to make an argument stronger and, as Wodak suggests, to connect premises with conclusions78.

Topos of history is something that can often be found in any type of nationalist rhetoric. It implies a common history and past of one unit, in this case all of those who identify as belonging to the Serbian nation. References to historical events and myths are very common in these cases, as they serve as a tool to legitimize or justify one’s actions or beliefs. If one argues that their political opinion is not based simply on his personal belief, but rather on events

78 Wodak, R. “The discourse-historical approach”. In R. Wodak and M. Meyer (eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis. London: Sage. pp. 75. 35

that took place centuries earlier, their arguments sound more relevant. Topos of history is also commonly used, because it shows that specific events which happened in history had specific consequences or results, and that should use that historical example and try to perform a similar action in a similar situation or context. In the case of the song “Dogodine u Prizrenu”, the historic event that is mentioned throughout the song is the Kosovo battle from 1389. The battle is mentioned as ‘Our starting point’, where the ‘Us’ obviously refers to the nation. The authors identify with the people who died during the battle of Kosovo so much, that they claim that “There are graves of our like peonies in the field”. They go on to ask “Did they feed the fertile land with their bones, so that we would be silent today, while the force robs us of it?”, which means that the authors aim to use history as a ‘lecture’, which should teach us responsibility and gratitude. The importance of history is emphasized in the verses which say “In this fight neither tanks nor planes matter, what matters are school books in which it’s clearly written who raised the temple, who desecrated the altar,[…]”. Just the mention of history textbooks, whose content is very problematic itself, shows that this song is aimed at younger population, and the authors are trying to say that they should blindly believe in what is written in the textbooks, because history is to be repeated. The motives of history and the events that repeat can be found in the part of the song where Beogradski Sindikat raps about obstacles that have been posed onto them, which prevent them from visiting the monasteries and seeing the frescos. Here they say “All those swindles I know, and have seen countless times when they break our crosses and define our Vidovdan”, which is used to emphasize the continuous suffering and despair of the Serbian nation, and the attacks which are presented as the attacks on Orthodox religion and tradition. These motives of continual torture and humiliation are used with an aim of re-affirming the self-victimizing images and legitimizing (upcoming) violence. “

When it comes to the topos of threat, this is particularly evident in the lyrics which say “But there, at the old place, where Miloš gave his life, led by the justice of Lazar, people will resurrect again”, which implies the readiness to give one’s life, or even kill, in the name of history and nation. Just the very title of the song “Dogodine u Prizrenu”, even though it is referred as a ‘greeting’ in the song, is actually a very open threat- a threat which aims to scare the ‘enemies’, and to suggest that Serbian youth is prepared to fight, next year in Prizren. The whole narrative regarding the future conflict is based on the idea that there is a constant treat 36

of the ‘enemy’, and the open call for violence is simply a response to the growing tensions between the two parties, and if it was not for the threat of losing the sacred territory, there would not be the need for such invitations.

The topos of saviour, or hero, is often intertwined with the topos of history, because it emphasized the relevance of certain heroic figures for the national history. These successful and heroic endeavors of these people are used as an example of various positive traits, and in the song they are used to teach the younger generations that they should be brave, fearless and ‘mighty’. As here all the heroic figures are soldiers and leaders of the army during the Kosovo battle, the call to look up to these figures only means that young people, in particular young men, should take up arms and fight the enemy, which, again, is a direct call for violence. The lyrics of the song mention the anonymous, silent heroes, who died on their feet, while defending the ‘holy land’, but there are also mention of Prince Lazar and Miloš Obilić, the two figures who have traditionally been used in rhetoric of Serbian nationalists. The role of the ‘warrior hero’ theme in nationalist discourse is very common, and it has been used especially during the wars of the 1990s, when the image of the warrior hero would be used as an image of the ultimate bravery and dedication to one’s homeland.

2.4. Conclusion

The song was made in a very specific political moment when the international community and the domestic public are waiting to see whether the government of Serbia will declare acceptance of Kosovo’s independence which is emphasized as one of the necessary steps on Serbia’s European integration process. Considering the fact that such nationalist narratives are not expected to be heard from state officials of a country which is on its way to become an EU member state, the discourse regarding the need to protect the “holy land of Kosovo” had to be moved to the sphere of popular culture. This way, it becomes much more available to the younger generations whose opinion on such important issues is formed through the (highly problematic) school curriculum and the popular culture. Both history textbooks used in elementary and high schools, as well as products of popular culture such as this song, include clear narratives of mythologisation of the Kosovo battle that impose the distinction of “us”

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versus “them”, or those who “raised the temple” and those who “desecrated the altar”.79 Both the textbooks and this song implicitly say that we should prepare the younger generations for their ultimate mission, and that is to fight and protect their “fatherland” from being “destroyed and burned down by cursed enemies”.80 The aim of this song is to reinforce the idea present in the nationalist narratives that Serbian national dignity and masculinity needs to be restored in order to regain control over the territory of Kosovo. In the present day Serbia, due to the political events, nationalism had to be moved to the sphere of popular culture, which made it just another product which became appealing to the urban city youth.

79 Ibid., 0:48 80 Ibid., 1:33 38

Chapter 3

“The last guard”

3.1. Introduction

In this chapter I will analyse the rhetoric and images used in the song “Poslednja straža“(The last guard) performed by a rapper called Milan Milenković, as known as Eldorado, featuring Nikola Stanoev, or Uncle Dzo, another Serbian rapper.81 This is a song about glorification of Yugoslav soldiers that took part in the armed conflicts that happened in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999. The song also contains strong self-victimizing narratives about Serbian nation, as well as images of the battle of Košare which is almost mythologized, or presented in a way similar to what the Kosovo battle has been presented in nationalist rhetoric over time. The song was recorded in the period when rhetoric around the battle of Košare started playing a big part in nationalist narratives in Serbia, and the memory of this battle started being used by the state officials as a way to legitimize their future actions towards (not) recognizing Kosovo as an independent country. To start with, I will include a short review of scholarship and theoretical basis that I find relevant for the analysis of this song, and then I will provide a short historical background of the events that took place in Kosovo in 1989 and 1999, which, I argue, is necessary for the analysis of the lyrics of the song. I will rely on critical discourse analysis and discourse historical approach for this task, and finally I will point to the ways that topoi of history, threat and saviour were used to strengthen the arguments and the rhetoric of the song.

3.2. Analysis

Ernest Gellner wrote that it is nationalism that reproduces nations, meaning that a nation exists only as long as people reproduce the feeling of nationhood.82 In the case of Eldorado’s song, nationhood is being reproduced by narratives that glorify the heroic battles

81 Uncle Dzo ft. Eldorado. Poslednja Straža. YouTube video, 19 Mar, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noDdDfkm3xE

82 Gellner, Ernest. Nations and Nationalism. Oxford:Blackwell. 1983. 39

of the soldiers who fought against the KLA in 1999, and which are used with an aim of evoking the feeling of national pride and empathy. Popular culture and other everyday practices of expressing nationhood are being used to remind people of their national belonging, especially in moments of particular political importance. In the case of Serbia, reminding people of the recent history of their country, and glorification of the war events that happened in the late 1990s is one of the ways that the nation has been reproduced in recent years, and it helps strengthen the connection between members of the same national community. The process of reminding people of their nationhood leads to the concept of a community which is imagined83 through images, narratives and, in this case, most importantly, through reminders of recent common historic events. The fact that it happened in recent history makes it easier for people to bond over, as they all share either direct or indirect experiences of these events. Glorification and celebration of recent events, even if they are war atrocities, of particular national importance makes it easier to identify with, which, Billig argues, in the long run, can be used for mobilizing people for wars, in situations of crises.84

Benedict Anderson’s concept of imagined communities is of particular relevance for the analysis of this song as it can serve to explain the reason why the two soldiers in the song talk about their fellow soldiers in such a way that they seem to be very close, almost like friends who have known each other for their whole lives, even though, in reality, the chances of them meeting before being deployed are very low. This feeling of connection, or even trust among people who have never met before can be explain by Anderson’s idea that a national community is imagined because in their minds people carry images of mutual origins or roots, mutual history, and in the case of the two soldiers- mutual goal and mutual enemy. This creates an imagined bond even between strangers, and this is what makes people empathize when they hear about the sacrifice and struggle of soldiers or feel proud about events or things that have not took part in themselves.

For the analysis of this song, I find it also relevant to mention the article written by Fox and Miller-Idriss, as they focus on explaining how nationalist narratives and practices manage to

83 Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London: Verso. 1983 84 Billig, Michael . Banal Nationalism. London: Sage Publications. 1995. pp 8

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remain present even in contemporary times, when nationalist rhetoric had to be silenced and removed from the sphere of official politics in Serbia.85 This analysis explains the historical background of the events referred to in this song, and shows that, even though certain nationalist rhetoric had to be re-invented in order to remain popular among the young audience, it still preserved some elements of narratives that have been used in nationalist rhetoric even during the 1990s.

To start with, it is important to note that Eldorado is not politically engaged or controversial in the public, as much as Beogradski Sindikat is. Another key difference between them is the language they use, which, in the case of Beogradski Sindikat is a bit more poetic, full of metaphors and a bit more refined. Eldorado, on the other hand, uses more slang expressions, and informal language. Eldorado’s song was recorded in 2016 and in the recent years it gained a lot of support and attention from the public, especially because it includes strong rhetoric about the importance of Kosovo in Serbian national imagery. Unlike the song “Dogodine u Prizrenu” whose main element is glorification of the Kosovo battle, this song by Eldorado contains strong militant narratives which mostly emphasize the struggle of the Yugoslav army during the battle of Košare which took place close to the border between Albania and Kosovo in 1999. Before I proceed with the analysis of the language used in the song, it is of crucial importance to give a historical background of the events that took place in Kosovo in 1999. The battle was fought between the army of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the latter being supported by Albanian Army, as well as the NATO. The aim of the KLA was to enter the territory of Kosovo from Albania, and even though, after several days of fighting, the Yugoslav army succeeded in their goal of stopping the KLA from advancing into the territory of Kosovo, the KLA managed to take the outpost of Košare, but failed in breaking the Yugoslav Army’s second line of defense. The battle ended with the Kumanovo Agreement in June 1999, which also ended the three month long bombing campaign of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, after Yugoslav Army withdrew from Kosovo. Today, this event is celebrated as a major success in Serbia, particularly as a heroic victory of young soldiers. In the recent years, we can notice the systematic campaign led by

85 Fox, Jon E., and Cynthia Miller-Iriss. “Everyday Nationhood.” Ethnicities, vol. 8, no. (4), 2008. pp. 536– 560.

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the state officials to remember and celebrate the battle of Košare as a heroic event. For that reason, in April 2019, on the 20 year anniversary of the beginning of the battle of Košare, Radio-Television of Serbia (RTS) premiered the state-funded movie showing the timeline of the events of this battle, or at least the way that Serbian state officials decided to present them. Minister of Defence, Aleksandar Vulin, stated that the movie will show the only truth about the battles of Košare and Paštrik, and, since the movie features soldiers that took part in the battle of Košare, this movie will serve as an example of what actually happened there in 1999, so that “nobody can tell another lie about those who defended this country at Košare, Paštrik, and wherever it was necessary at that time.”86 It is also worth mentioning that in 2017, a boulevard in Belgrade was renamed and dedicated to the “heroes of Košare”87, and in addition to the campaign of the state officials to emphasize the importance of the 1999 battle, Belgrade is expected to get a monument in honor of the soldiers who died during that event.88

According to the historian Milivoj Bešlin, this campaign of glorification of the battle of Košare can be seen as an attempt to rewrite some parts of history, which has been happening in Serbia in the last years. Bešlin claims that the aim of such a campaign is to present these criminal events led by the government of Slobodan Milošević as heroic acts and as a moral responsibility of the then Yugoslav army, and to change the way an aggressive conflict and terrible war atrocities have been presented in the last twenty years. He goes on to argue that, in order to present such acts of aggression and violence as positive and heroic, they had to give them an element of ethics and morality. Moreover, Bešlin stresses the political and social moment in which this campaign is happening, adding that presenting the battle as a heroic

86 “‘Ratne Priče Sa Košara’, Film o Hrabrosti Dečaka Koji Su Branili Otadžbinu.” Radio Televizija Srbije, 1 Apr. 2019, www.rts.rs/page/magazine/sr/story/411/film-i-tv/3474287/vulin-herojima-sa-kosara-filmom-kazemo-- hvala.html. (Available in Serbian)

87 ’’Beograd dobio Bulevar heroja sa Košara i Ulicu belog orla“, N1.rs, 7 Nov, 2017, http://rs.n1info.com/Vesti/a340330/Beograd-dobio-Bulevar-heroja-sa-Kosara-i-Ulicu-belog- orla.html.(Available in Serbian) 88 ’’Herojima sa Košara na leto spomenik u Beogradu.“ Radio Televizija Vojvodine, 22 Feb. 2019, http://www.rtv.rs/sr_ci/drustvo/herojima-sa-kosara-na-leto-spomenik-u-beogradu_994125.html (Available in Serbian).

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event serves to move turn the attention of the public away from the negotiations which lead to the Government adopting a more flexible attitude towards the Independence of Kosovo.89

Discussing the events that took place in Kosovo at the same time would be very relevant for contextualization of the narrative of heroic acts of the Yugoslav army, as well as for the analysis of the lyrics and images used in Eldorado’s song. During the battles of Košare and Paštrik, numerous crimes against Albanian civilians were happening in Kosovo, led by the high ranked Yugoslav military officials. These crimes resulted in forced migrations of hundreds of thousands of Albanian civilians, and mass murders of Albanians, whose bodies were buried in mass graves across Serbia. According to Ivana Žanić, executive director of Humanitarian Law Centre, the Centre discovered evidence that the operation which resulted in mass graves of Albanian civilians which were found in Serbia was in fact well organized and conducted from above, namely from the highest state and military officials. Žanić emphasized this in order to point to the fact that, although some of the mass graves were found as early as in 2001, this is something that has been a taboo in Serbian public, and state officials have never mentioned when talking about the events from the 1989 and 1999 Kosovo war.90

The way that the battle of Košare has been talked and written about leads to the creation of a new myth, similar to the one of the Kosovo battle that took place in 1389. The aim of glorification of these two events is to create a narrative of both self-victimization, as well as images of heroic struggle of the Serbian people, a battle of a small nation against a mighty enemy, which, in both cases led to the outcome that is nowadays perceived as victorious. Both of the events are presented as bright aspects and events in Serbian history, and battle of Košare is often seen as the highlight of Milošević’s regime and the armed conflicts that FRY has taken part in.

Glorification of these two battles leads to the reaffirmation of something that I will show in the analysis of the song, and it is the worshiping of the cult of warrior/hero, which leads to the creation of images of soldiers as the ultimate embodiment of morality and virtue, and as such

89“Istine i mitovi o Košarama.” Radio Slobodna Evropa, 29 Jan, 2018, https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/film- kosare-srbija/29004649.html (Available in Serbian) 90 “Kumanovo 1999-2019”. Peščanik, 8 June 2019. https://pescanik.net/kumanovo-1999-2019/ (Available in Serbian). 43

it is presented as something that everybody, especially young men should look up to and strive to become.

The song Poslednja straža (The last guard) is written and sang in first person, and tells stories of two fictional characters of real, historic event, that is, the battle of Košare. The singing subjects tell stories of two Serbian soldiers, who left their families and homes in order to fight in a war against the KLA. Lyrics are written in such a manner that, in cases of both soldiers, it seems as if they are talking either directly to their families, in particular one’s wife and one’s mother, which could be understood as the authors’ aim to present the soldiers as sensitive, emotional, human, which aims to deconstruct the image of soldiers, especially soldiers of the Yugoslav army that took part in many war atrocities during the 1990s, as cruel, inhumane and aggressive. The soldiers in the song are openly talking about their feelings and fears, but also show that there is no fear strong enough to stop them from showing their loyalty, courage, and dedication to the final goal of preventing the KLA from penetrating the territory of Kosovo. It is important to note that there is a clear distinction in the way that the KLA soldiers are being addressed, as opposed to the Yugoslav soldiers, the former being called ’’Albanian terrorists“, whereas the latter are ’’brothers“, which contributes to the rhetoric of unity, family and brotherhood, although they might not know each other, but what keeps them together is the perception of a shared goal and, more importantly, mutual enemy.

The first verse of the chorus, and the main part of the song which is repeated several times says ’’Our weapon is on the defense of the truth, and the Third Army rose from Priština“, which means that the authors are trying to imply that there is only one truth that they accept, which is the one they sing about. The fact that they defend the truth with weapons means that they are not ready for compromises, which, considering the current political context in which the international community puts pressure on the Government of Serbia to accept Kosovo as an independent country, could mean that the authors are trying to say that they are ready to take up arms and fight for Kosovo once again. Additionally, if we consider the overwhelming support that this song and its authors gained since 2016 when it was first published, could imply that there are people who share this view, or believe that the status of Kosovo cannot be compromised, but rather fought for. The mention of the Third Army is particularly relevant, as it refers to the Third Battalion of the Yugoslav Army led by Nebojša Pavković, who was later

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convicted of war crimes and is currently serving his 22 year sentence for war crimes against Albanians in Kosovo. The second part of the chorus say “If we have to, we will defend the country forever, ignore the Shiptars (Shqiptar), we are not afraid of the KLA”. The word “defend”, is often used in militant and war rhetoric, with an aim of presenting violence and armed conflict as inevitable, and in order to show the distinction between ‘Them’ who are attacking, and ‘Us’ who are simply defending the territory and people. The fact that the authors decided to use the verse “…we will defend the country forever” in this very political moment, can be seen as their way to say that even today, 16 years after the battle of Košare and the Kumanovo Agreement, there are still people who believe that the status of Kosovo can only be resolved with an armed conflict.

3.3. The use of topoi

When it comes to the use of topoi in this song, the topos of history is the most obvious one, as the whole story of the song is based on a historical event. Additionally, the fact that the authors decided to write this song in the moment when the recognition of Kosovo as an independent country is still contested in Serbia, and the state officials are trying to find a balance between the requirement of the European Union which would enable them to continue the process of European integration, but also to satisfy the public in Serbia, which is still overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of accepting Kosovo’s independence. As the battle of Košare has become an important part of the memory of the Kosovo war in 1989 and especially 1999, it seems as if the authors of the song are implying or predicting that, in case that in case that the Serbian Government accepts Kosovo as an independent country, it would be followed by another armed conflict, similar to the one in 1999. Topos of threat is present throughout the song, and images of threat and danger are constantly interwoven with elements of bravery, courage and fearlessness. Therefore, there are verses which are used to describe the nature around the soldiers, the cold in the mountains of Kosovo, the dark, loud noises, and all of it creates an overall atmosphere of danger and fear. In addition to that, the authors mention the “Albanian terrorists” who “want their heads”, and this is followed by descriptive images of beheaded soldiers, and grenades and planes flying above them. The aim of such rhetoric to reinforce the image of cruel, aggressive enemy, or the Other, which is used to justify or legitimize certain actions of the Yugoslav army, or even to convince people that, should such

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event occur again, they should be prepared to act in a similar manner, because the threat still exists, and such narratives are only reproduced by songs similar to this. Lastly, the topos of saviour exists in the song as a whole, as it contributes to the reproduction of the cult of warrior, and glorifies the sacrifice of the Yugoslav soldiers and presents it as the ultimate sign of virtue and morality. By using the topoi of threat and history, the acts of actors of this event are presented as heroic and their struggle is shown as an inevitable and as a reaction to aggressive attacks of the enemy. In the moment when war criminals are celebrated and honored, and given public space and even political positions, recording songs that glorify the acts of soldiers and the Third Army did not come as a surprise.

3.4. Conclusion

The song Poslednja Straža provides an insight into the discourse around the battle of Košare that has been very present in the Serbian public in the recent years. The narratives that glorify the battle of Košare and present it as a victorious event in which the Army of the FR Yugoslavia prevented the KLA from penetrating the territory of Kosovo have, in part, been spread by the state and military officials. This campaign of glorification and mythologization of the battle of Košare is important for the public in Serbia in the times when the Government is under pressure to accept the independence of Kosovo, and when anti-Albanian and warmongering narratives can often be heard from high state officials, most of whom were politically active during the regime of Slobodan Milošević.

The song itself contains strong rhetoric whose aim is to, on one hand, present the young soldiers from the battle of Košare as heroes who gracefully died protecting their homeland, but also as victims of the barbaric KLA army which tried to invade the territory of Kosovo. The aim of the song is to remind people of the sacred status of Kosovo in Serbian national imagery, and the authors do so by telling stories of young people who sacrificed their lives in order to defend what is perceived as the cradle of their nation and culture.

The topoi of threat, history and saviour have been used throughout the song to support the main idea, especially the authors’ idea that Kosovo has to be fought for, and provides two imagined stories whose aim is to persuade young people to follow the lead of the heroes of Košare and to be ready to be deployed, in case the occasion calls for it. I argue that the song was created

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as a response to the growing nationalist and warmongering discourse that has been present in the Serbian public, and to adapt these narratives so that they can be understood and accepted among younger population.

Chapter 4

“Terrier Blood”

4.1. Introduction

This chapter includes an analysis of the song Terijerska krv (Terrier blood) by Vukašin Jasnić, a famous rapper from Belgrade, better known by the name Marlon Brutal. The song is based on the rhetoric of historic heroism of the Serbs, who have defended the nation for centuries, with the author’s emphasis on the narrative of the heroic battle against the aggressive enemies that lasts even today, and will last for generations to come. The dominant narrative shifts between the images of the Serbs as victims of constant attacks, who may have lost wars, but always stayed proud and never subservient to those who are in power, whereas on the other hand, the dominant images present Serbs as fearless, strong and the ultimate heroes of all battles, regardless of their outcome. In the following subchapters I will interpret the lyrics and rhetoric used in the song, but I will also focus on the images used in the video, explaining their symbolic meaning and the way they have been used in Serbian nationalist discourse(s). Moreover, my goal is to explain how the images and rhetoric used in this song fits into the political and social context in the moment when it was recorded. In the last subchapter, I will show the way that topoi of threat, saviour and history were used in this song, and show that, although, the song is does not contain any lyrics or images that are directly aimed against a particular nation or a country, placing the song into the relevant political and social background, helps us understand the meaning behind the symbols and images.

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4.2. Analysis

Vukašin Jasnić, or Marlon Brutal, is one of the most famous rappers in Serbia today, who started his music career in 2005. Similarly to Beogradski Sindikat, in his early career he used to rap about life of average young people in the Serbian capital, and their everyday problems, which eventually evolved into narratives of ethnic superiority of the Serbs above other nations, self-victimization and over-emphasizing the importance of Orthodox Christian tradition and heritage. Apart from the abovementioned similar nationalist narratives that exist in songs by Beogradski Sindikat and Marlon Brutal, they represent and rap on behalf of two different social groups or cultural groups. Beogradski Sindikat, although controversial for its strong nationalist and conservative rhetoric, is a group consisted of men who are well educated and successful businessmen, lawyers and economists, and as such represents the voice of those emancipated, politically engaged and interested in issues such as rule of law, democracy, corruption, and independence of courts. On the other hand, Marlon Brutal raps on behalf of those who identify with the gangster subculture in Belgrade, and who are concerned about getting caught by the police for selling and using drugs, but also about the loss of traditional, family values in the Serbian society of early 2000s. Marlon Brutal somehow managed to create a distinctive style characterized by the paradoxical combination of religious symbols and narratives about Orthodox Christian tradition, and the street culture and the slang of local criminals from Novi Beograd. The main feature of Marlon Brutal’s songs is the fact that they are heavily “inspired” by nationalist sentiment, as well as Dizel subculture and Orthodox Christianity.

As a theoretical background for this analysis, I find it particularly important to refer to Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism91, and Maria Todorova’s concept of Balkanism92. These two concepts are relevant for explaining the ways that binary images of barbaric versus civilized, and rational versus irrational have been formed with regards to the Serbian nation. Milica Bakić

91 Said, W. Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Book, 1978. 92 Todorova, Maria. Imagining the Balkans. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1997

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Hayden and Robert Hayden have written about the ways that these Balkanist images have been internalized and accepted by those who have been subjected to it93.

The song ''Terrier blood“ has more references to religion and Orthodox Christian tradition than the two songs previously analyzed in this thesis. For that reason, it is particularly important to explore the relationship between religion and nationalism, and in order to do so, Here, I refer to Rogers Brubaker's approach to studying the relation between these two elements, and focus on the first approach which sees religion and nationalism as analogous phenomena.94 For that reason, I argue that religion is used as an identification tool, and it helps construct a comprehensive identity of a particular (national) group, and has a great impact on nationalist rhetoric.

According to the author of the song, generations of people belonging to the Serbian nation have experienced daily struggles and fought in numerous wars and battles, against different enemies. Throughout the song, the author expresses his regret for being too young to fight in the war during the 1990s, but he also emphasizes that the conflict(s) is not over, and that he will eventually get a chance to take up arms and defend his nation. Although it is not clear who this assumed future war would be fought against, due to the use of such strong militant and threatening rhetoric, it is important to ask why would he write such a song in 2017, and whether there are any particular political or social moments that could have “inspired” Marlon Brutal to record this song.

However, I argue that the political dynamics on national level are directly influencing the popular culture and, in this case, rap music as a part of it. The year 2017 is a specific year in which nationalist discourses and political tensions reached their peak. One of the best examples for that was the opening of the new train line from Belgrade to Kosovska Mitrovica95. The fact that the train was stopped, and prevented from traveling further in Kosovo led the Belgrade

93 Bakić-Hayeden, Milica, Hayeden, M. Robert. “Orientalist variations on the theme “Balkans”: symbolic geography in recent Yugoslav cultural politics”. Slavic Review, Vol. 51, 1992. pp 1-15. 94 Brubaker, Rogers. “Religion and Nationalism”, Nations and Nationalism. 2011 95“Serbian Nationalist Train Halts at Border With Kosovo.” The New York Times, 14 Jan. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/world/europe/kosovo-serbia-train.html.

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regime’s nationalist and aggressive rhetoric, followed by threats and warnings to prepare the military for armed conflict.96This action and Serbian political elite’s openly nationalist discourse regarding this issue have contributed to radicalization and militarization of the public, and to creating an image of constant tensions and frozen conflict that will eventually escalate and transform into another war.

Over 4.1 million people have heard verses such as “Let the fight be never ending, everyday struggle for generations to come”, and “I will fight and I won’t be afraid, warriors’ blood runs through my veins”. The reason why the author decided to write these verses which openly call for violence and aim to invite young people to prepare themselves for a fight which is and will be never ending, but chose not to explicitly mention who the song is directed against remains unknown. Perhaps it is the author’s aim to express a dominant belief that the Serbs are constantly being attacked from various sides, especially nowadays when the international community puts pressure on the state officials to change their politics of denying the atrocities committed in the wars of the 1990s. Without paying attention to the specific political dynamics that have been happening in the recent years, and in the moment when the song was published, the song could be interpreted as yet another product of popular culture which aims to glorify and create a myth of the historic struggle and sacrifice of the Serbian nation to preserve their freedom and their tradition. On the other hand, it is important to note that the song was recorded in the political context in which high ranked politicians in Serbia are publicly talking about Kosovo with an aim of deliberately creating narratives which would increase tensions of the public towards Albanians. Stories about poor living condition of Serbs in Kosovo, who are constantly attacked, discriminated and mistreated by Albanians every day, together with narratives about the European Union and the Brussels Agreement, whose aim is to “force” the Government of Serbia to give up on its holy land, contribute to the overall atmosphere in which citizens are indirectly being told that they have to counteract the terror that the Serbs are experiencing on a daily basis. Popular culture reacts to these narratives that have existed in the public discourse, and as results we can see the growing number of songs such as Terijerska

96‘If Serbs Are Killed, We'll Send Army to Kosovo’ - President.” B92, 15 Jan. 2017, www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2017&mm=01&dd=15&nav_id=100237.

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krv, Dogodine u Prizrenu or Poslednja straža, which simply reflect the dominant ideas and the social and political dynamics of the given moment.

The very term Terijerska krv (Terrier blood) and the verses such as “I have terrier genes, and terrier blood, I live a terrier life and dream a terrier death”, and “People like me are prepared for death, because people like me have terrier blood” means that the author wants to be seen as an animal used to hunt down or kill his enemies, and whose main trait is his cruelty, fearlessness and readiness to risk his life fighting against those perceived as his opponents. These lyrics, combined with lyrics such as “I will fight, I won’t be afraid, warriors’ blood runs through my veins” and the narratives about the author’s grandfathers who died in various battles in defense of their nation can be interpreted as the author’s suggestion that it is a personality trait of all Serbs to, by default, feel the urge to take up arms and fight whomever they see as enemies. These kinds of narratives, according to which aggressive and violent behavior is a natural characteristic of a particular nation lead to the reproduction of discriminatory and stigmatizing stereotypes which are often internalized, and become an integral part of the way that one group sees itself, emphasizing even the negative traits as their distinctive characteristics. This idea leads me to the concept of cultural intimacy developed by Michael Herzfeld, which refers to the aspects of a group or community’s identity which the group might externally be embarrassed of, but they serve to assure the members that they have something in common, and that their group identity is, in part, formed around that aspect.97

Apart from the strong militant rhetoric that is used throughout the song, and the explicit calls for people to stand up against what is presented as terror and constant attacks on the Serbian nation, it is the narrative stressing the importance of the Orthodox tradition that is used to justify the calls for violence and the necessity to engage in another armed conflict. Orthodox Christian tradition has been an inseparable part of the Serbian national identity, especially due to the belief that the Serbian state and nation developed concurrently with the autocephalous church, both by members of the dynasty Nemanjić, in the twelfth century. Additionally, there are various ways that Marlon Brutal includes elements of the Church in representation of Serbian nationhood. The first and the most obvious way is visually, in the segments of the

97 Herzfeld, Michael. Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State. 2nd edition, 2005. New York: Routledge. 51

video in which we see a young boy standing in a house, which we assume was destroyed during a war, as the chorus of the song suggests (“I wish I hadn’t been so young when my grandmother’s house was mined”), and the only remaining objects in the, otherwise empty, house are an icon on the wall and a burning candle next to it. The empty house could be a symbol of the nation, which is often described as attacked in nationalist narratives, and the only thing that remained intact, in spite of the numerous threats is the Orthodox tradition, and the Church is perceived as the only force that still manages to unite all of those who identify as Serbs, regardless of their distance, political and ideological differences.

4.3. The use of topoi

Topos of history is used here to emphasize that the struggle and the terror that the Serbian nation has faced can be traced back to medieval times, and here we can notice the element of repetition, especially in the author’s aim to prove that Serbs have fallen victims to numerous regimes throughout history, but still managed to preserve their honor, which is well expressed in the verses “We’ve fallen on our back a hundred times, but we’ve never fallen on our knees”. Topos of history is also evident in every mention of the historic events, such as battles in Herzegovina, Dalmatia and Kozara that the author claims he “has in his blood”, which is used not only to argue that members of the nation have taken part in numerous battles before, but also to claim that the author aims to continue the struggle of his ancestors who fought in these armed conflicts.

When it comes to the topos of threat, it cannot be found in an explicit way in any of the verses of the song. However, the style of narration used in the whole song which the author uses to invite others to defend the nation is outlined in such a way that we are convinced that Serbian nation as whole is in constant threat of being destroyed. The fact that the author claims that he is ready to fight and to die in the name of the nation, as well as the verses in which he directly invites his listeners to join him in the armed conflict, especially in the political moment in which state officials are directly or indirectly claiming that Kosovo is being violently taken away from them, and that it has to be defended, contributes to the overall atmosphere in which people believe that there the whole nation is under a serious threat. The verses such as “A black raven lands on the golden cross again to announce evil; Dark times, and even darker ones are

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ahead of us, I see that we shall keep chasing each other”. A black raven is a very common symbol of threat and even tragedy which, together with prediction of dark times serves to impose the feeling of fear and insecurity, and the need to protect oneself. On the other hand, the last verse which goes “…we shall keep chasing each other” is a clear reference to the poem and the book of the same name, written by Matija Bećković, Serbian intellectual known for strong ethno-nationalist motives in his poems. The poem Ćeraćemo se još (We shall keep chasing each other) was published in the homonymic book in 1996, right after the end of the bloody war that ended in Dayton Peace Agreement. Considering the political dynamics of the time period when the book was published, it is worth noting that, although the poem was written in an ironic and sarcastic language that is presented in such a way that it looks like the author simply collected and expressed the narratives of common people, the verses contain some clear implications that the bloody war that had happened before the poem and the book were published was simply a preface, as the author refers to it, to what will happen in the future. He talks about ćeranje (chasing each other) as something inevitable, as something that has no end, and will be happening in years to come. Moreover, he claims that “It is up to younger generations to keep chasing each other”, which can be read as the author’s opinion that fighting in a war and defending the nation should be the ultimate goal of each young person. In addition to that, the way that the verse “…we shall keep chasing each other” was used in Marlon Brutal’s song almost sounds like a warning about the never-ending war and the need to protect the nation.

Topos of saviour can be found in the verses that glorify warriors, or soldier who dedicated their lives in any of the heroic battles in order to protect the land and interests of the (Serbian) nation. Most importantly, the verses in which the author claims that the days of fighting are awaiting us, and that “I will need the wisdom of the Prince of Raška, and the strength of the Tsar of Prizren“, referring to the two powerful historical figures, namely Saint Sava, and Tsar Stefan Dušan, known as Dušan the Mighty, under whose rule the Serbian state doubled in size, and allegedly, was one of the major powers, with its capital in Skopje. By referring to these two particular historic figures, the author implies that it takes another hero, or a leader such as the two previously mentioned, to save the nation and lead it to victory and glory, just like Dušan the Mighty did centuries ago.

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4.4. Conclusion

The song “Terrier blood” is a song that contains strong militant, nationalist and self- Orientalist narratives, that are expressed in the ways that the author presents himself and, therefore, the whole nation. The rhetoric used in this song, mainly focusing on images of the Serbs as natural warriors, always ready to fight in order to protect their land and the nation, but also images of the historic struggle and victims of numerous Serbs who sacrificed their lives to defend the ideals of the nation, reinforces the Orientalist, or rather Balkanist narratives according to which Serbs are seen as backwards, irrational other. The song emphasizes the role of Orthodox religion, and its tradition, and it is closely intertwined with nationalist rhetoric of the song. The main narrative of the song is based on the self-victimizing images and the imperative to defend the nation, of whomever one perceives as enemy. The song contributes to the growing tensions between Serbs and Albanians, which are only strengthened by state officials’ rhetoric of ‘Us’ versus ‘Them’, and the discourse about the ‘Frozen conflict’, which, allegedly, has no end, unless the borders of Kosovo are demarcated. The song fits well into this public discourse, because it emphasizes that the conflict that Serbs are taking part in is never-ending, and will be fought even by future generations. Such narratives only contribute to the negative images of the Serbian nation, which is already perceived as barbaric, backward and violent. It also leads to the radicalization of the militant and violent narratives that exist among the youth, which are spread by employment of such rhetoric in the public and popular culture.

Regardless of the reason for that, it is important to note that he recorded the song in the period when the Republic of Serbia still refuses to accept the war atrocities that it took part in during the wars in the 1990s, and in the moment when it is on the crossroad between complying with the requirements of the European Union, especially with regards to the status of Kosovo, and accepting responsibility for numerous war crimes, and on the other side its own politics of

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celebrating war criminals as heroes and preserving support of the part of the voting body that shares such views98.

Conclusion

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the ways that popular music, especially rap music in Serbia, responds to the growing nationalist tendencies that exist in the public. My aim was to show that, unlike the 1990s when hip-hop culture belonged to the sphere of political and cultural alternative and mostly used the public space to express their pro-European, progressive opinion, nowadays hip-hop culture has been hijacked by conservative, right-wing musicians. Regardless of their socio-economic status, most of these musicians use their position to campaign against the independence of Kosovo, which is often followed by open warmongering rhetoric, and calls for the return of Orthodox Christian values. I argue that such trends in popular music, and popular culture in general, are just a reflection of similar discourse that exists in the public, which is, in part, influenced by the Government’s campaign of anti- Albanian politics. Regardless of the current Government’s official pro-EU politics, this warmongering campaign could be explained by the fact that political elite of contemporary Serbia is consisted, in large part, by people who held high positions during the government of Slobodan Milošević, and who, therefore, took part in the then regime's nationalist and pro-war politics.

In order to place the analysis of the products of popular music into relevant academic context, the first chapter of the thesis includes an overview of the scholarship on the relation between popular culture and nationalism. The main methodology used in the thesis is Critical Discourse Analysis, and Discourse Historical Approach, with a special focus on the use of topos of threat, topos of history and topos of saviour. This is particularly important, and I argue that these three topoi can easily be recognized in most of the popular songs that contain nationalist rhetoric, as it helps the authors support the arguments and opinion expressed in the songs, both verbally and visually. This particularly refers to the parts of the songs which contain strong anti-

98 Ratni Zločinci U Političkom životu: Uzajamna Podrška Osuđenih Ratnih Zločinaca I Političkih Elita U Srbiji.Report. December 26, 2017. Accessed August 09, 2019.http://www.yihr.rs/bhs/publikacija-ratni-zlocinci- u-politickom-zivotu/.

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Albanian narratives, as well as images of Serbs as both victims and heroes, and rhetoric about the nation's medieval roots, all of which are used to legitimize and justify the aggressive and warmongering discourses.

The thesis is focused on analyzing three songs, recorded in 2016, 2017 and 2018 by famous artists, most of whom have been present at the hip-hop scene in Serbia since early 2000s. In order to explain the meaning and interpret the symbols used in the songs, each chapter includes an overview of a specific political and social context that each song refers to. The main findings of the thesis are in line with the hypothesis, as they point to the fact that products of hip-hop culture in Serbia nowadays predominantly include nationalist narratives which are directed against the declaration of independence of Kosovo, and both internal and external enemy, the first one being the current regime, which is often considered to be responsible for allowing such events regarding the status of Kosovo to happen, and the latter one being the EU, NATO, the US, Albanians, KLA, and others, depending on the context of each song. I argue that, similarly to the products of popular culture of the 1990s, mainly folk music but also other genres, products of popular culture nowadays which include nationalist and militant narratives, are particularly important to explore, because they both reflect the dominant opinion of the society, but also influence the formation of social norms and attitudes. Therefore, it is important to analyse similar products of popular music, as they reflect the trend of radicalization of the public, especially the younger portion of the audience, who are constantly being reminded, both by the state officials and by authors of popular culture, of their national identity which is based on the images of self-victimization and ethno-national superiority. This is particularly alarming as it can lead to renewal of the conflicts and recurrence of the patterns that existed in the 1990s, especially due to the fact that the old nationalist elite re-gained power in 2012, but now disguised as EU supporters.

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Appendix 1

“Dogodine u Prizrenu”

Kuda bih da ne znam gde je naša tačka polazna -

Gde je naših grobova kao u polju božura

Nemih svedoka svih vekova silnih podviga

Junaka koji radije su stradali na nogama?

Zar su plodnu zemlju nahranili oni kostima

Da danas bismo ćutali, dok nam je sila otima?

Zar je bitno da li sam s Metohije il s Dorćola

Da bi me zbog nepravde sama duša zabolela?

U ovoj borbi ne vrede ni avioni

Vrede udžbenici školski u kojima jasno stoji:

Ko je uzdigao hram, ko skrnavio je oltar

Koje nasleđe je čast večna a šta je sramota

Ni bombe, ni glasanja ne izbrisaše Lazara

Dokle generacija nova na njemu stasava

Izgubljeno nije nikad ono što je sveto

U nadi rasti, crven cvete, da braće te opet neko

Moj kompas je tvoj koren, u grudima srce moje

Bez njega sam, za novcem, bez Milosti putem proklet

I ko lađe od papira, koje brode laži morem

U suštini samo tonem...

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Stalno pitate vi mene šta mi znači Kosovo

Nije vam jasno? Objasniću vam ponovo:

Kosovo je seme iz kojeg sam ja ponik'o

Izvor i korito iz kog je narod poteko

Kažu nam zli jezici da Kosovo je propalo

Neverni i slabi kažu Kosovo je gotovo

A ja vam svima kažem samo Kosovo je oteto

Rušeno i spaljeno od dušmanina prokletog

Čudno vam što gradsko dete nema neke druge teme

Jer sad je takvo vreme – svako gleda samo sebe

Živimo bez vere, bez nade i bez želje

Zidamo kule a zaboravljamo temelj

Jer narod bez porekla to je presušena reka

Bez majke mi smo čeda, što su ostala bez mleka

Al' tu na mestu starom, gde je Miloš život dao

Vođen Lazarovom pravdom, opet vaskrsnuće narod

Jer u nama i dalje živi predskazanje –

Kosovski zavet koji trajaće zanavek

Zato učimo decu da znaju pravu istinu

I nek nam pozdrav bude: „Dogodine u Prizrenu!“

A ja molim se

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Ognjištu svom da vratim se

Duša tebe cjeliva

Zemljo sveta od Neba kupljena

Oj, Kosovo, Kosovo, zemljo moja voljena

Orao si moga neba al' krila su ti slomljena

Moja gorka suza, u mojim grudima praznina

Srce otadžbine moje, moje ličnosti suština...

U polju božuri nikli, iz krvi junaka bez straha

Na mestu gde se moja zemlja uzdiže do neba

Pokazao nam vladar za šta valja da se strada

Za Kosmet nas je Lazar vez'o i mitom i kletvom

Đavo tada nije stao, pa je zla i dalje slao –

Gadne dušmane i bagru, na ovo što ostade nas malo

Samo nekad bili Turci, onda došli gladni vuci

Juče bio nam je kolac, sad nas muče u žutoj kući

I još brane mi da ne smem da gledam moje freske

Jer će za čas da me sete na ponosne nam pretke

Da ne čujem nikada pesmu Dečanskih monaha

U srcu, Miloša junaka, da ne probudi se snaga

Sve te podvale ja znam i bezbroj puta vi'do sam

Krstove kad lome nam i skrnave nam Vidovdan

Al' nije prvi put nam, ovde, da smo u zbegu i seobi

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Al', kad vreme prođe, seljak svojoj njivi dođe

Jer mi ginuli smo svuda, za slobodu stalno

Da junaku bi se, sutra, Srbin dete zvalo

Zato dobro slušaj, sine: I najgorem se prašta

Al' za otadžbinu gine

Kosmet večno zemlja naša!

A ja molim se

Ognjištu svom da vratim se

Duša tebe cjeliva

Zemljo sveta od Neba kupljena

Božuri da nam vaskrsnu

Slavu, dogodine u Prizrenu

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Appendix 2 ‘‘Poslednja Straža“

Gori u plućima, hvata me strah. kući su deca, ostao sam sasvim sam. U novčaniku slika moje žene, "Brzo se vrati, znaš da ne mogu bez tebe" I pitam se da l' ću sutra biti živ? Menjamo položaj, ja vidim gusti dim. Pogledi čudni, niko ne zna gde nas voze, kosovske planine, tako hladno mi je, Bože. Pakleni oganj, oko mene sve je tama, sedimo u rovu, u daljini je galama. Šiptarski teroristi hoće naše glave, čujem prvi vrisak, brat pao je sa strane. Trčim ka rovu, oko mene mrtve glave, jedan po jednom pada, srce mi se cepa brate, odvlačim tela, krvave suze. Zašto ga uze, bili smo k'o jedan, "Druže, je l' me čuješ!?"

Naše oružje na braniku je istine A treća armija se podigla iz Prištine I ako treba zemlju branićemo doveka Ma pusti šiptare, ne bojimo se OVK!

Naše oružje na braniku je istine A treća armija se podigla iz Prištine I ako treba zemlju branićemo doveka Ma pusti šiptare, ne bojimo se OVK!

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Gori karaula dok OVK nas napada, linija se pomera dok telo mi se raspada, A nebo gori, nadleću nas avioni, granate lete ali ja se hrabro borim, I gubim svest, tlo pod nogama mi nestaje, najopasniji je metak koji ne čuješ, Čuvaj mi decu to su bile zadnje reči, padam bez predaje, ali ne bežim. Naše oružje na braniku je istine A treća armija se podigla iz Prištine I ako treba zemlju branićemo doveka Ma pusti šiptare, ne bojimo se OVK!

Naše oružje na braniku je istine A treća armija se podigla iz Prištine I ako treba zemlju branićemo doveka Ma jebeš šiptare, ne plašimo se OVK!

Strane armije su plaćene da drže stražu, mi nismo dali da u našoj zemlji dignu bazu, A politika od naše želje sad je jača, a da se pitamo očistili bi sve do drača, Služe vojsku ali ovde sam na produženju, javljam porodici opet sam na terenu, A kevo ne brini se, ovde mi je sve u redu, a preko noći mobilisali su celu zemlju, Ljubi sestru, neka čuva vas na selo idi, majko moja vratiću se čim se ovo smiri, Nema plakanja ne prizivajte krvav temelj, pitaj oca da li ponosan je sad na mene.

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Naše oružje na braniku je istine A treća armija se podigla iz Prištine I ako treba zemlju branićemo doveka Ma pusti šiptare, ne bojimo se OVK! Naše oružje na braniku je istine A treća armija se podigla iz Prištine I ako treba zemlju branićemo doveka Ma pusti šiptare, ne bojimo se OVK!

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Appendix 3 “Terijerska Krv”

Crni mačor, beli rep Ja sam, mala, pit bull terijer Nisam Bane Sunshine, al' neću da se predam Nisam Saša Matić, al' ne mogu da vas gledam Imam terijerski gen, nosim borbu u krvi Hercegovinu, Dalmaciju, Kozaru i dva'es' prvi I moj prađed bio je "solunac" Raniše ga, pa je vraćen u Bratunac

Žao mi je što sam bio mali Kad su moga đeda napadali Žao mi je dete što sam bio Kad se zaratilo

Terijerski gen, terijerska krv Živim terijerski život, sanjam terijersku smrt Neka bude borba neprestana Generacijama borba svakog dana

Ovakvi kao ja spremni su na smrt Jer ovakvi kao ja nose terijersku krv Ima da se borim, nema da se bojim Ratnik do ratnika u venama su mojim U grudima nam ljubav, u genima nam bitka Na leđima sto puta, na kolenima nikad Jer ovakvi kao ja spremni su na smrt Jer ovakvi kao ja nose terijersku krv

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Carska loza, plava krv Častan život, slavna smrt Opet sleće na zlatan krst Zlo da najavi gavran crn Crno vreme, a još crnje nam se sprema Vidim ja da još ćemo se ćerat Ima dana za megdana, a ti dani su pred nama Trebaće mi mudrost raškog princa i snaga prizrenskog cara

Žao mi je što sam bio mali Kad su babi kuću minirali Žao mi je dete što sam bio Kad se zaratilo Mi smo ratnički narod Nismo pokorni k'o komšije - vampirski narod Kasno shvatiće narod, debelo platiće narod Pa hrabre junake od blata praviće narod

Ovakvi kao ja spremni su na smrt Jer ovakvi kao ja nose terijersku krv Ima da se borim, nema da se bojim Ratnik do ratnika u venama su mojim U grudima nam ljubav, u genima nam bitka Na leđima sto puta, na kolenima nikad Jer ovakvi kao ja spremni su na smrt Jer ovakvi kao ja nose terijersku krv

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