POR.~OGRAPHY, PRIMITIVES, AND POSTSOCIALIST SLOVAKIA James Quin, National University ofIreland at Maynooth

Introduction morality and purity developed into sexual nonns which were appropriated by nationalist The commodified sexual body is a politics. In particular, he traces the association particularly interesting site for the between these sexual nonns and the rise of examination of changes associated with Nazism in Germany. Mosse demonstrates postsocialist transition. In asking about the how the effeminacy of the homosexual was significance of bodies, Katherine Verdery seen as contrasting with a nationalist ideology tells us of an answer offered to her by Jean of manliness and thereby posed a threat to that and John Comaroff in a personal manliness and its role in the nationalizing communication: project. Mosse (1985: 11) discusses "the They [the Comaroffs] suggest that masturbator's presumed passion for secrecy" changes in the global economy have and points out the ways in which made the body (as raw labor power) the love of secrecy and the practice of the only salable commodity that vice not only made men and women everyone has, and that advances in the outsiders in respectable society but process of its commodification (the was a danger to the security of the sale of organs and sexual services, the state. At a time when conspiracy marketing of smiles, etc.) place it at theories of history were popular, the the forefront of capitalist masturbator was viewed as a development. (Verdery 1999: 135, n. readymade conspirator against the 13) state. (Mosse 1985: 11) Not only has commodification of the sexual This argument can easily be extended to other body been at the forefront of capitalist periods when conspiracy theories were development, but it also offers a way of popular, for instance, during the Cold War thinking about postsocialist transition, as when the "(American) national political suggested by Sascha Goluboff (2002) in identification of homosexuality with domestic saying that prostitution is a key metaphor for subversion" figured gay sexuality as "an alien postsocialist transfonnation. In this article, I presence, an unnatural because un-American want to suggest that gay pornography practice" (Edelman 1996: 158). A similar produced in Slovakia might offer some insight situation prevailed in the Soviet Union and its into the postsocialist transfonnations of satellites at the same time, as Laurie Essig images of Slovak primitiveness. Such points out: pornographic images can be read as a queering of traditional and more recent In Stalinist Russia, the pervert was figurations of Slovaks as primitives and of never a patriot. Queers were fascists, Slovakia itself as a primitive place, offering fascists were queers. Good citizens ­ instead a more postmodern image of always straight - must control, punish, flexibility and lack of fixity. and eventually eliminate treasonous desires. (Essig 1999: 5) Relationships between sexuality and nationalism have been the subj ect of much The fear of penetration from outside, and of recent discussion and can be traced back to undermining from within, is focused on the influence of George Mosse's figurations of the body of the homosexual, the groundbreaking work, Nationalism and national concern being to maintain state! Sexuality: Middle-Class Morality and Sexual bodily continence in the face of a threatened Nonns in Modem Europe (1985). Mosse laxity of statelbody boundaries. The fear in traces the ways in which middle-class ideas of nationalist ideologies is of being "buggered."

99 This national concern with continence and the Pet'ko told me he made contact with his maintenance of hard borders may cause models through Internet chat rooms, but difficulties for projects, such as postsocialist straight chat rooms, not gay ones. Online, he transition, which imply the necessity of an said, he tells the boys that he is interested in openness to change, a willingness to be photographing them naked and makes an flexible. Slovakia's nationalism after the end arrangement to meet them. If he thinks they of the communist party regime in 1989 are suitable, he often goes ahead with certainly seemed to partake of this hard­ videoing them more or less on the spot. An bordered and often belligerent attitude in its empty field or a patch of forest was all that antagonism towards domestic ethnic was needed to provide an undisturbed location minorities and towards some of its near for his videoing, though if the weather was neighbors. Changes of government since 1998 bad, he would use an indoor location, either have tempered that image and paved the way his own flat in Bratislava or a hotel in a local for Slovakia to become a member of the town. European Union in 2004. When I asked him about his models, Pet'ko In this article, I will examine first of all the repeatedly used the adjective primitivny ways in which a small-time professional (primitive) to describe the type of men he pornographer in Slovakia produces his preferred. He tends to video the type of boys material, giving an ethnographic account of he personally likes and these boys, he said, his production process. In particular, I look at have primitivny qualities. They are a bit rough the ways in which he constructs particular and imperfect, maybe even a bit stupid. He ideas of Slovakness and primitiveness in what does not want them to have the good looks of are primarily export materials. I will follow fashion models or the perfect bodies of gym­ that with a discussion of the ways in which trained athletes. What he liked, he said, were different figurations of Slovak primitiveness those who look quite ordinary, those who have evolved since the nineteenth century. might have a large nose, or bushy eyebrows, Starting with the romantic peasant of the or some other feature that made them nationalist movement, I trace the way in primitivny. In this sense, primitivny described which the idea of primitiveness changes from men who were ordinary, usual, or common: a being one of the peasant as untouched kind of "guy-next-door" look. It also repository of tradition to the more recent describes men who contrast with the manifestation of Slovaks as nationalist thugs. "cultivated" look of men in mainly American I then consider the ways in which this image and Western European videos, whose muscled has been queered in recent times and compare and toned bodies are more evidently the this to the image of the Slovak primitive as product of the gym and the beauty parlor, and produced by the pornographer. often the product of deliberate cultivation by porn company directors who invest heavily in Making Pornography developing the bodies oftheir models. The Pet'ko was a small-time professional most important thing for Pet'ko was that they pornographer capitalizing on the interest of have a good penis. It did not have to be distributors from Western European countries particularly big, but it should not have any and North America in pornography deformity or kink. A small penis, he said, can originating in Eastern European countries. be made to seem larger but you can do Apart from pornography, he also made nothing with a deformed one. advertisements for Slovak television stations. Pet'ko told me that he only uses straight boys He had trained as a professional cameraman and never gays. He said this was because and saw pornography as a perfectly viable straight boys are much better at getting and way of making a living, one that was far more maintaining an erection than gays who are lucrative than the advertising business. always worried about how they look on camera. He also had a preference for boys

100 from outside Bratislava. The amount of well-built young men, especially those from money he offered for videoing might not seem the city who might well know the scale of a lot to someone living and working in the values in the local sex-business economy. In capital, but to someone from outside decrying the primitivny country men for their Bratislava, it often represented half or more lack of interest in investing in the future, than half of what they might earn in a month, Pet'ko glosses over his own lack of interest in he said. Country boys, he added, were less investing in them. He offers only short-term likely to pay attention to, or quibble with, the once-off contracts (though he does retain details of the contract they signed than the certain rights to act on their behalf), and has better-educated and street-smart city boys no interest in extending himself to the from Bratislava. In this sense, primitivny promotion of a "stable" of porn models in the described men who were naive, simple, even way that larger porn companies do. Even his stupid, gross or unintelligent. reinvestment in his own operation might be seen less as investment than as cutting costs. Pet'ko himself emphasized the stupidity of The digital video cameras that allowed him to these men. Most of them, he said, are doing it obtain high quality stills from video images only for the money: to pay a mobile phone are a way of avoiding the cost of having to bill, or buy a new pair ofjeans or trainers. take still photographs on location with the They have no idea of making a career out of extra time and money that involves. The new porn modeling. Everything was only short­ computer equipment meant that he could do term with them, he said. They had no sense of more work from home, reducing his reliance a goal or wanting to achieve something, no on costly facilities houses. Using outdoor sense of investing in their own future. On the locations also cuts down on the expense of other hand, he claimed that he himself was rental for studios or other indoor locations, as working hard towards the future, reinvesting well as reducing the need for expensive his money in his operation. He had recently lighting equipment and the additional cost of bought new digital video cameras which time in setting up lighting for individual shots. allowed him to use the images as stills, and he was investing in new computer software and Whilst one might look at Pet'ko's operation as hardware which would allow him to do more opportunistic, it can also be seen as a flexible of the work himself and cut down his use of response to an uncertain situation. His lack of expensive facilities houses. In their stupidity, investment in a "stable" of models meant that these men could not see the opportunities that he would not be encumbered with on-going were open to them, opportunities that Pet'ko commitments if business took a tum for the was happy to take advantage of. worst. Likewise, his investment in his own equipment and facilities meant that he was a Even in this short account ofPet'ko's self-sufficient video producer, capable of operation, it is possible to see something of doing almost all the production and Pet'ko's invention of himself. It would be postproduction work by himself~ thereby possible to view Pet'ko simply as an allowing him to offer potential clients a one­ opportunist, almost a scavenger. He does not stop shop for all video needs. He also waste money advertising for models and demonstrated his ability to tum even the most going through interviews or casting sessions. primitivny of models into something one He makes contact at no cost to himself might want to watch, an ability which through Internet chat rooms, and almost reflected both his professionalism and his always videos the men he meets regardless of knowledge of the market. Through his looks or any other criteria for suitability. The directions, his use of magazine porn, and his primitivny quality on which he laid so much editing, he turned reluctant, unsexy young emphasis might well be seen as making a men into porn performers. Most important of virtue out of a necessity. Though the money all, Pet'ko was well aware that image is vital. he offers is not insubstantial, most of the time The accounts he gave of himself and his work it is not enough to attract good-looking or

101 during our interviews gave the impression of a ensuring that no one pirated his sample videos professional operator in charge of a slick since it was almost impossible to remove the operation which can almost magically flashing title. He ejected the cassette and put transform primitivny Slovak men into pom on another, the same material as the first but models. this time markedly better quality and without the flashing title. I asked if it would be I asked Pet'ko if I could view some of his possible to see the material as he videoed it, material with him, and, on the day I went to without any postproduction editing or visit him at his flat in the PetrZalka suburb of dubbing. He said he could show me that, but Bratislava, I was accompanied by our mutual thought that surely I wanted to see the friend Robo. When Pet'ko arrived to meet us finished product. I said I did, but that I also at the bus stop, he was not in a good humor. wanted to be able to see the difference He was waving a piece of paper which tumed between what he shot on location and what he out to be an e-mail from a pom distribution finally produced. So he changed the cassette company in San Francisco to which he had again. This time we got a version which had sent his latest video offering, Masturbating been copied directly from the original tapes Boys. It seemed that they were not interested and had been left uncut and with original in what he was offering but, since Pet'ko's location sound. English was not very good, he wanted me to translate the e-mail for him. The distributors We had been watching this tape for only a few in San Francisco said they liked the material minutes when Robo announced that he did not but were unsure what he was offering. They find it at all sexy. We were watching a young did not distribute anyone else's material, only man masturbating beside a bush near the top their own. They were only interested in of a hill beyond which a television mast was material in which models had sex with each barely visible in the distance. Apart from the other and not the kind of solo masturbation sound of the wind buffeting the microphone, scenes in Pet'ko's video. Perhaps most there were only occasional words of direction frustrating for Pet'ko, they referred to the poor from Pet'ko behind the camera. Pet'ko told quality of the video he had sent them. Robo this was not supposed to look sexy, Annoyed at the imputation of unprofessional adding that it was "James' idea" to watch the and low-quality material, he called the uncut version. Robo said it was not just that, Americans kokoty (pricks) and shouted: but that he did not find guys masturbating "Don't they know that this is only sample very sexy, that he preferred something with a material? Do they think I'm stupid enough to bit more action. Out of deference to Robo, we send them good quality material?" fast-forwarded a little, Pet'ko telling us that this guy went on a bit long before taking his We made our way to his apartment which was pants down because he could not get an typical of the panetak pre-fabricated blocks in erection. Pet'ko said he did not like his models PetrZalka: a single room with a kitchen and to take their clothes off entirely and that he bathroom, tastefully if sparsely decorated. liked the viewer to be able to see some articles While Robo and I sat down on the couch, of clothing in each shot. This, he claimed, Pet'ko brought some mineral water and made it look a bit more realistic and natural, glasses, and a large bar of chocolate which not like they were only models. He added that remained unopened. Returning to a calmer, this also helped to hide things you did not camper tone of voice, he announced that first want shown, like a bruise or cuts, or an ugly we would have the entertainment and then I scar or tattoo. would help him write a response to the San Francisco e-mail. The first video he put on Another scene was in a room that Pet'ko told was the same as the one he had sent to San us was downstairs from his own apartment. Francisco. In the middle of the screen, the The downstairs apartment was up for rent and name of his company flashed every couple of Pet'ko had a set of keys for it, as he wanted to seconds. He said that this was a way of buy the apartment. The owners, however,

102 were adamant they only wanted to rent it out, that looking into the camera spoiled the and Pet'ko thought this was incredibly stupid, fantasy. Pet'ko answered that he was talking especially since he was willing to pay more rubbish and that any man would like it when a than the market price and it had already been nice boy looked at him. up for rent for some time without attracting The next scene had Pet'ko bouncing up and any offers. The scene showed a young­ down with excitement. Set in another forest, it looking blonde-haired guy in a short-sleeved showed a young man with a shaved head blue silk shirt. We watched for a while as he wearing jeans and a black T-shirt. He was massaged the crotch ofhis pants which he lying on the ground trying to massage an slowly opened and pulled down to reveal average-looking penis into an erection. Robo white underpants. He continued massaging his said straight out that it looked like the young crotch then pulled them down too to reveal a man was having trouble getting it hard, and still limp penis. Coincidental with his own . Pet'ko admitted that the boy was a bit shy and directions on the video, Pet'ko told us that this had taken a while to get an erection. The next guy had been unable to get an erection and shot showed the boy looking down to his right that he finally had to give him some porn where we could plainly see an open porn magazines in order to provide him with some magazine. Pet'ko said he always carried a few stimulation. The magazines were clearly magazines with him in the car for just such an visible in some of the shots, and Pet'ko eventuality, reminding us that any shots pointed out that these shots were edited out of showing the magazines would be edited out of the final version so no one would see the boy the final version. We watched as the young looking at the porn. man battered away at a half-hard penis and Several of the scenes were located in forests. finally managed an unspectacular ejaculation One of these scenes was set in a forest near with a lot of grunting. Pet'ko said this boy was Trnava and in it a young man approached a fantastic, but Robo, laughing, said there was car which had a rug thrown over the bonnet, nothing in it to impress him. lifted up his T-shirt and began to play with his Pet'ko let out a mock-horror gasp at the next nipples. Pet'ko let out a long sigh, saying that scene which, apparently, had been shot by this guy was just fantastic. Evidently Roma, another cameraman who, Pet'ko claimed, had Pet'ko said this might appeal to a German no idea what he was doing because he was audience who would think the young man was straight. The scene had been shot in the Turkish. On the video, there was little of the downstairs apartment and showed a rather direction from behind camera which was ordinary young man with a shaved head who, usual in the other scenes, and Pet'ko told us when he took off his T-shirt, revealed a bit of the young man did all ofit without any a paunch. Still gasping in horror, Pet'ko direction from him. As the young man pulled stammered out that this model was only down his shorts, Pet'ko was loudly smacking twenty and already he had a belly like a fifty­ his lips. He fast-forwarded through the scene year-old. Apart from the ugly model, Pet'ko promising us a climax like none we had ever pointed out a number ofbad camera angles seen before. Sure enough, the young man's which, he said, meant that the entire piece ejaculation came out in long streams rather could not be used and was a waste of good than short spurts. Still licking his lips, Pet'ko money. The following scene, videoed by the rewound the tape and played the ejaculation same cameraman, also induced horror in again. We watched as the young man pulled Pet'ko and he finally decided we had looked at up his shorts and looked around, as if there enough videos. might be someone watching, and then strolled off out of sight into the forest. Robo Pet'ko asked me if I would kindly act as commented that this was much more realistic secretary while he dictated what he wanted to than some of the other scenes where the write to the American distributors. As I sat at young men looked into the camera, claiming the computer, Pet'ko put on a CD of music he

103 had created for himself on the computer using the production and postproduction process is a new piece of software. The music had been no different from what is achieved by any dubbed over the visuals on the final version of filmmaker. The effect, in the fmal edited his Masturbating Boys video. In the end, the video, is one of ordinary-looking young men message sent to the American distributors masturbating unproblematically in ordinary­ pointed out that the material they had been looking locations such as forests and sent was intended only as a sample and that it bedrooms. was low quality to avoid any possibility of Yet what Pet'ko had achieved was also exotic. piracy as he had had experiences with By eliding difficulties and showing ordinary unscrupulous distributors before. If they were locations peopled by ordinary young men, not interested in the solo masturbation videos, Pet'ko is creating an especially exotic image he could make one with couples or group of Slovakia and of Slovak men, the kind of scenes using whichever young men from the exotic image which is typical fare in the gay Masturbating Boys video they wanted. They porn market. Pet'ko was not trying to create could then distribute this video under their anything particularly innovative or unusual: own label, or he could act as an agent on he is largely reproducing the kind of images behalf ofthe boys if the American firm that are common in the gay porn market, wanted to use them to make a video of their though adding a certain amount of additional own. sales potential by emphasizing the Slovak Throughout this account, it is clear that Pet'ko nature ofthe video. This is added to by the knows what image he wants to achieve and, fact that his original letter to the San even where his raw materials (the video Francisco company was headed with the word images from his locations) are imperfect, he SLOVAKIA knows how to achieve the desired product. His models' difficulties in achieving and in such a way that no reader could be maintaining an erection are glossed over with uncertain either about the country of origin of the assistance of magazine pornography the material or the idea that the material was, which makes no appearance in the final video. in some way, a representation of Slovakia. In The images used in the final video, then, this, however, Pet'ko is trying to capitalize on accord with Pet'ko's vision of young men able the fact that, through the 1990s, a great deal of to achieve and maintain erections interest had been generated in porn unproblematically. Likewise, their actions originating in Eastern European countries, and during the performances are not spontaneous the fact that there was a ready market for this but the result of direction from Pet'ko himself. material in America and Western Europe, a Pet'ko's directions have the effect of making market where the name Slovakia was not the men reproduce typical actions and poses unknown. from porn videos and probably not dissimilar Queering from what they were looking at in the magazines that Pet'ko supplied them with. I want to suggest here that Pet'ko is doing These directions were later elided by dubbing something queer, or, rather, that he is music over the edited images, which, along queering something. I am using the word with judicious editing out of any sign of the queer here as it is used in queer theory: magazines, gives the impression of Ifqueer culture has reclaimed "queer" as an spontaneity. The fact that models keep some adjective that contrasts with the relative clothes on during the videoing allows him to respectability of "gay" and "lesbian," then disguise the unwanted images of scars, tattoos queer theory could be seen as mobilizing or bruises, giving all the bodies an appearance "queer" as a verb that unsettles assumptions of a perfection they do not have. Without the about sexed and sexual being and doing. In use of purpose-built sets, location lighting, or theory, queer is perpetually at odds with the even make-up, what Pet'ko achieves through normal, the norm, whether that is dominant

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heterosexuality or gay/lesbian identity. It is parasitism. It can be seen as conducting raids definitively eccentric, abnormal (Spargo 1999: on the strongholds of everyday life by 39-40). undermining them, tunneling inside them, turning them inside out. It creates new and Emerging from a burgeoning of gay and troublesome juxtapositions between things, lesbian cultural studies and from new types of demonstrating possibilities and flexibilities, activism in response to AIDS in the 1980s, just as it weakens the bases of what is solid, i queer theory's embrace of a pejorative term fixed, and rigid. Queering is bending the rules marked a radical change in the perception of rather than breaking or remaking them, power politics. Queer theory makes extensive bringing out the flexibility that is masked by I use of elements of Derridean deconstruction, the appearance of rigidity. Indeed, playing and of Foucauldian analysis of the discursive with appearances is central to queering. Being construction of sexuality. The discursive something, or having an identity, is made construction of sexuality has been taken up by I troublesome by the possibilities created by queer theorists such as Judith Butler, Eve giving the appearance of something, of Kosofsky-Sedgwick and D. A. Miller who passing as something, or parodying, citing, or argue that identity (and sexual identity in I reiterating something. Queering is "fucking particular) is not essentialist but is produced with" something. in a material reality which itself is mediated through discourse. Thus, identity is a Queer theory might seem a long way from the I simulation, and, for Butler for instance, realities of life in postsocialist Slovakia and gender is perfonnative. yet queer was a word I heard often. The word most commonly used to refer to the men who Queer theory, then, participates in a troubling I go to public places (such as parks, forests, of accepted values and ofapparently natural public toilets) looking for sex was huzeranti. distinctions. Queer theory queers the issues Buzerant (pI. buzeranti) may be translated with which it engages, undermining into English as 'queer', 'faggot', 'homo', or I apparently stable categories and insisting on 'bugger'. It carries the same pejorative sense the simulated and perfonnative aspects of in Slovak as these nouns carry in English, identity. The appropriation ofthe pejorative though in Slovak, use of the word huzerant I term "queer" is part of this queering, an also extends to contexts where, in English, we appropriation that acts both to remind the might be more likely to use, for instance, reader of homophobic prejudice and to 'troublemaker'. Used in reference to each suggest a form of criticism that uses a other by men who frequent public sex sites, pejorative signifier of transgressive desire and buzerant loses most of its pejorative sense and sexual instability as a metaphor to describe a becomes somewhat more affectionate. Pet'ko category that goes beyond categories (Sim used these sites as locations for his videos and 1998: 345). I conducted interviews with him at these sites In disrupting accepted ideas about categories, on a few occasions. We would wander around queering raises questions about the proper with Pet'ko giving out in his mildly camp relations between things, about the very manner because there were not enough distinctions between proper and improper, buzeranti there (by which he meant queers), propriety and impropriety, appropriate and but he also frequently warned me against inappropriate. In doing this, it disrupts the bringing my wallet, or any money or proprietorial relations between things, jewellery when visiting such sites as they troubling notions of ownership and were frequented by buzeranti (by which he possession. Queering is about appropriation, meant troublemakers). These latter buzeranti or reappropriation, or even misappropriation. were often young men posing as sexually Mixing these two senses of the proper and the available who might be more inclined to rob proprietorial, queering can be seen as you or beat you up than to have sex with you. inappropriation, as a form of interference, of

105 The use of buzeranti in these twin senses new language was used by many of the poets reflects the meanings of the verb buzerovat' in the group around Stur to write poetry from which the noun buzerant is derived. expressive of the simplicity of an idealized Where buzerovat' appears in Slovak-English Slovak peasant life. dictionaries, it is usually translated as 'to Stur and his associates (Sturovci or Sturites) ride'. This translation corresponds with the took the opportunity of the revolutionary year English passive use ofthe verb 'to ride' of 1848 to try and push forward their whereby one might be 'ridden' with guilt, or nationalist aims. With backing from Austria, 'ridden' with anxiety, for instance. Buzerovat' they joined Slav fighters against Hungary, but has a number of synonyms, in particular met with little success. As a result of his obt'aiovat' and suiovat'. Obt'aiovat' may be involvement, Stur was kept under surveillance translated as 'to accost', 'annoy', 'intrude', for the rest of his life. According to Wallace 'molest', 'tease', 'trouble' or 'worry'; (1976), Stllr "took to writing Slavdom and the obt'aiovatel'translates as 'molester', and World of the Future, which was really a obt'aiujuci as 'meddlesome'. Suzovat' may be testament of despair. For the Slovaks he saw translated as 'to affEct', 'badger', 'harass', no prospect within the Habsburg Empire and 'lacerate', 'obsess', 'rack', or 'vex'. These their only hope lay in an ultimate link with senses correspond closely to the troublesome Russia" (68). Though he died at the age of nature of the English "queering." forty-one in a hunting accident, Stur had Slovaks as Primitives become the father ofthe Slovak language and forefather of the Slovak nation. He was buried So what is it that Pet'ko is queering in his at Modra just outside what is now Bratislava. videos? I want to suggest that what he is queering is the very notion ofprimitivny The Sturite romantic image presents the which he used so often in describing the kind Slovak peasant as primitive in the sense of of men he wanted to video. To understand this being "virgin," unsullied by centuries of a little better, I want to examine briefly ideas domination and oppression. In important about Slovak primitiveness that have been ways, this pristine state ofthe peasant has used at various times, both before and since been maintained over centuries by living in the fall of the communist party regime in remote mountain villages, remote from the 1989. penetration ofthe non-Slav Hungarians. Thus, the Tatra Mountains become something of a Many Romantic nationalist movements of national romantic symbol, emphasizing this nineteenth-century Europe sang the praises of remoteness and persistence. The romantic the idealized peasant, and the Slovak image of the peasant is also a figuring of movement of the time was no different. The Slovakia and of the Slovak nation which, like movement was led by ~udovit Stur (1815­ the peasant, has remained unsullied by 1856) who was born into a country that was domination, maintaining its essential integrity known only as the Upper Provinces of and now ready for awakening. The Slovak Hungary, as it already had been for hundreds nation, then, was embodied in these imagined of years. Increasing magyarization, romanticized peasants and their peasant accompanied by political and cultural lifestyle. However, despite the development oppression in the 1830s and 1840s, provided of a national language and the beginnings of a the impetus for Slovak cultural renewal, and, national movement, Hungarian domination as a student, StUr became involved in continued until the establislunent of the first organizations promoting Slovak language and Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. culture. He codified one of the dialects of Slovak and his new language was soon While the establishment of Czechoslovakia accepted as "the" Slovak language,and represented some independence for Slovakia, became the basis for a national movement Slovaks began to feel increasingly dominated against increasing Hungarian oppression. This by Czechs. Czechs and Slovaks had been

106 brought together in a cormnon cause against construed not just as ungrateful but also as Austro-Hungary, yet the fraternal relations typical. As Holy puts it: were never entirely balanced. Czechs "Slovak" frequently evokes the image considered Slovaks not simply as "brothers" of the well-built lad in folk costume ­ but as "little brothers," an attitude that wide white trousers, a wide leather reflected the Czech sense ofsuperiority and belt with strong brass buckles, and a which developed into an antagonistic relation short linen shir1 which leaves his bare which continued up to and even after the stomach exposed - brandishing an break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Ladislav ornamental long-handled axe and Holy quotes from Karel Kalal, writing in singing a mournful folk-song. This 1905, on this "brotherhood": image is the creation of a whole range The Czech is the elder and the Slovak of artists, filmmakers, and journalists, the younger brother. The younger many of them Slovaks, aimed at brother is usually inclined to believe demonstrating their appreciation of that the elder aims in his advice only ordinary Slovak folk. However, I at his own advantage. He rejects your among Czechs it perpetuates the belief helping hand, he kicks you...And that if it were not for their own what about you, elder brother? Your civilizing efforts, the Slovaks would I duty is to look after the younger still be walking around with their brother even more carefully, to make bellybuttons exposed. In this imagery, sure that when alone he will not lose the Slovak is an exotic Other living in his way or drown. (Kalal cited in Holy a traditional and picturesque mountain 1996: 104) village, and Slovakia is an exotic and unspoiled wild country epitomised by Holy's concern is with the development ofthe the rocky mountains of the High idea ofthe Czech nation and he details the Tatra, slivovitz, and ethnic dishes ways in which Czechs developed their image made of sheep cheese. (Holy 1996: of themselves and their nation largely through 103) a sense of difference from Slovaks. Thus, The antagonism of Slovaks towards this brand The image of the healthy Slovak lad in of Czech paternalism continued throughout his folk costume correlates not only the first Czechoslovak Republic. Right-wing with an image of an exotic Other but nationalist parties in Slovakia, such as the also with an image of youth and HSr:S party of Catholic priest Andrej Hlinka connotes a more general image of the capitalized on the perceptions of young Slovak as against the old Czech mistreatme~t by the Czechs at the same time as they drew nation. (Holy 1996: 104) their voting strength from the rural areas of This image of the "healthy Slovak lad" is Slovakia. derived from the Sturite nationalist romantic However, Czech fears of the Slovak peasant image but, here, Slovaks are imagined inclination towards authoritarianism seemed by Czechs as "people without history" (see to be confirmed by the declaration of Slovak Wolf 1982) in a primitivization or independence in March 1939 which led to the infantilization of the "little brothers." The imposition of the Nazi Protectorate of image ofthe Slovak peasant lad comes to Bohemia-Moravia in the Czech lands. The embody an unalterable essence which defies wartime fascist regime in Slovakia seemed to Czech efforts at civilizing it. Slovak emphasize the thuggish nature ofthe peasant inexperience and the inclination toward image, at once traitorous and welcoming of authoritarianism, embodied in this image of authoritarianism. Even under the communist the Slovak lad, were then used to justify the party regimes from 1948, the antagonism application of Czech paternalism, and between Czechs and Slovaks continued with resistance to that paternalism could be

107 constant Slovak pressure for proper Pridham notes that, in international relations, federalization which, despite several efforts, "the tenn 'pariah states' is more or less was never achieved. The propagation of the interchangeable with 'rogue states'" (Pridham "New Socialist Man" under the communist 2001: 69). A key part ofPridham's definition party regimes emphasized the easternness of of pariah states is the issue of national image. the Sturite peasant ideal, though giving quite a He notes, for instance, that "Rightly or different twist to the actuality of Slovak wrongly, Slovakia was perceived abroad as peasant life. Under communism, Slovakia was being more at fault [in the split-up of resolutely eastern-facing, participating in the Czechoslovakia], as the home-wrecker in the authoritarianism to which Slovaks were prone velvet divorce" (85). In this figuration, the according to the earlier Czech models. body politic and the politician's body become Interestingly, both Alexander Dubcek, who interchangeable. MeCiar was proud of his led the efforts to change communism from background as a boxer, and this pugilism, within, and Gustav Husak, who replaced added to by his anti-democratic tactics, Dubcek and oversaw the period of engendered an image of him, as a Slovak, as "normalization" which lasted up until the end being a bully, an image that was easily of 1989, were both Slovaks. devolved onto Slovakia itself which then becomes a "home-wrecker," a rogue or pariah The end of the communist party regime in state. MeCiar's appearance and behavior 1989 and the subsequent elections polarized during election campaigns compounded this the arguments between Czechs and Slovaks. Image: The antagonistic relations between Vladimir MeCiar, leader of the largest Slovak political In the election campaign MeCiar, like party, and Vaclav Klaus, leader ofthe largest a mountain of flesh, held the anabolic­ Czech party, increased thc likelihood of a filled American body building world split. MeCiar's lack of compromise in his champion 111 his anns, opened dealings with Klaus may have seemed the incomplete motorway sections only way forward for Slovak nationalism, but accompanied by film stars like a it was also an indication of things to come. super-bull, and chopped wood on Perhaps not surprisingly, Meciar's position as television like a woodcutter until he father of the Slovak Republic after 1993 gave broke the axe's handle. (Zajac 1999: him a new arrogance, and his authoritarianism 300) grew over the following years. Having refused This image of the bull-necked bully has clear to bend in his dealings with Klaus, Meciar resonances with Kalal's depiction ofthe was not about to bend in dealing with anyone Slovak "younger brother" quoted above and else either. National continence could only be Zajac extends it to the competing images of maintained by a refusal to bend, a refusal to "old nation" and "young state" which have the newly independent nation bow to resonates clearly with earlier Czech demands either from ethnic minorities figurations of Slovaks: (particularly Hungarians and Roma) within Slovakia, or from others outside Slovakia The rhetorical figure of the "young (particularly the European Union). Thus, state" became an institutional excuse having successfully opened negotiations with for every problem of state offices the European Union (EU) and the North from the bad performance of a clerk at Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a post office counter to governmental Meciar's anti-democratic actions and instructions that diplomats should increasing authoritarianism resulted in both improve the Slovak Republic's organizations suspending negotiations with reputation by serving sausages at Slovakia, and Slovakia became a "pariah" receptions. In this context, to be state. young means "adolescent," "pubertal" and "immature." Someone who can

108 ------...... not control himself. Someone who "success in sports, high performance in a field throws his arms about, behaves like a that is more understandable for people than bull in a china shop. Who has spots of politics" (301). In the election campaign of awakened sexuality on his face. September 2002, when there appeared to be a Someone who easily gets stressed and real chance that MeCiar would return to even more easily offends. It is not a power, attempts continued to try to undermine young, blushing "blossoming girl," the bullish image of Slovakia. but a clumsy fighter, who Queer Primitives overestimates his strength and learns a hard lesson, a "lout," who gets drunk The Slovenska Demokraticka a Krest'anska for the first time in a pub, mixes his Unia (or SDKU: the Slovak Democratic and drinks and the next morning has the Christian Union), the party of out-going prime first hangover of his life ... minister Mikulas Dzurinda, took Modra je dobra (Blue is good) as its slogan for the 2002 But this biological metaphor does not election campaign, though no one seemed to work in today's highly structured world of be quite sure what the slogan meant. The labels. At home it leads to the inability to SDKU started its official campaign a month deal with basic institutional problems, before polling day in the town of Modra abroad it led to negative promotion, (Blue) just outside Bratislava where they oscillating between the position of a pupil released five thousand blue balloons, ran asking for praise from his teacher and a competitions and provided entertainment, and tearaway who throws stones through the ended the day by painting the house in which classroom windows and complains that I3udovit' Stur had died blue. As a piece of no-one likes him. (Zajac 1999: 290-1) political theater, painting Smr's house blue The bully image gained currency not just caused no small amount of outrage, and within the government but on the streets as bewildered many onlookers and well. The sense that the country was commentators who asked if such a national deteriorating under the MeCiar regimes was monument was a suitable requisite for added to by increasing violent crime and political campaigning. For most, it was an "gangsterism" on the streets. Slovak entirely inappropriate thing to do, almost a "gangsters" go by a variety of names and desecration of national property: an nicknames, one of which is hlavohrud. This inappropriation of Still. Yet, in symbolic translates directly into English as 'head-chest' terms, it can be seen as an attempt to shift though we might render it better as 'no-neck' away from Sturite nationalism towards entry or 'bullneck.' It describes the almost unifonn into the European Union and NATO. appearance of the bodies of these men as a In the wake of the revolution of 1848, Still shaven head attached to a thick-set muscular had believed that the only hope for Slovak body in such a way that they appear not to nationalism lay in Russia to the east and in a have any neck at all, just a head stuck on a unified Slav opposition to Austria-Hungary. chest. (The Slovak word rychod translates as 'east', The bullish image of Slovakia did not go 'sunrise' and 'exit'.) In 2002, many now felt unchallenged. In his article, Zajac notes the that this view to the east had been thoroughly way in which the boxer image promoted by discredited by successive communist party Meciar was contrasted in the 1998 election regimes from 1948 to 1989, and by the campaign with the marathon runner image of authoritarianism of the MeCiar regimes. the opposition leader, Mikulas Dzurinda, Looked at in this way, what the SDKU were emphasizing the differences between attempting in repainting Smr's house blue was autocrats and democrats, between symbols of nothing less than a symbolic reorientation of roughness and endurance. Zajac also wryly Stur and Slovakia from east to west, from red points out what both leaders have in common: to blue, from the red flag of communism to

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the blue flag of the European Union. Turning their fiction with modern Theory, Stur blue was also an attempt to reorient the especially French varieties ... Sturite romantic imagining of the Slovak Furthermore, the Genitalist may not peasant, turning it from a drunken, home­ mention genitals at all. Female wrecking Slav to a sober, cooperative genitalia constituted a "daring" topos European. It was an effort to show how of the 1980s and early 1990s. The inappropriate the ideals of nineteenth-century Genitalists' concern with male romantic nationalism were to the early genitalia manifests the impact of twenty-first century situation of Slovakia feminism (they ironize maleness, and, within Europe, corresponding with European indeed, male insecurity faced with notions of nationalism as anachronistic. feminism); they probably also ironize the "phallicity" of Slovakness. Similar efforts at undermining the bullying (Pynsent 1999: 22) peasant image can be seen in the writings of Slovak novelist Peter Pist'anek. The central The ironization of phalli city can be male characters in his novels are depictions of considered as another extension of efforts to uncouth hlavohrud types which Pist'anek deal with manifestations ofthe Slovak satirizes: peasant, in particular, to undermine and subvert such manifestations, and we can see a Probably the most popular of the further extension ofthis in what I suggest writers to emerge after the Changes Pet'ko is doing with his primitivny young men was Peter Pist'anek, the target of in his videos. whose satire is constantly one variant or other of Sturite easternizing. The Perhaps the most significant part ofPet'ko's grotesque, the slapstick parody images ofprimitivny Slovak men has to do gangster novel, Rivers of Babylon with the sense that he produces them as an (1991), tells of the postcommunist rise advertisement. This is not just an to riches of a muscular, uneducated, advertisement about Slovakia, but an greedy bully of a country boy. advertisement to fantasize about these young Although this country boy is of men's sex. In the images that are presented to Magyar background and Balkan name, the viewer, these young Slovak men are Racz, he embodies the Upper depicted not as sexually continent but as Hungarian peasant sweetly besung by incontinent: ordinary-looking young men are Stur and loudly bemoaned as a presented as masturbating in forests, on the stinking sot by (anti-Sturite) Launer. .. sides ofhills, in rooms, on the bonnet of cars. The eponymous Slovak peasant of the In fact, it seems as ifthey are masturbating title of Mlady Done (Young Done, everywhere and anywhere. In addition, these 1993) constitutes an even more young men are ordinary-looking enough to grotesque satirical embodiment of the give the impression that it is all Slovak men Stur ideal than Racz. (Pynsent 1999: who are like this. Despite claiming that some 18) of the men were downright ugly, Pet'ko included them all in the final video on the Pist'anek's satirizing of the contemporary assumption that someone might fmd them manifestation of the Sturite peasant also begs attractive and therefore purchase the material. the question of what it means to be a man in These men are not particularly handsome, or contemporary Slovak society, and this well-built, and most of them have very question is taken up by the so-called average penises, thus adding to the fantasy "Genitalist" school of writers which sprang up that this is not studio-based, that these are not in Pist'anek's wake: "cultivated" models, that, in fact, they are just Two things characterize the Slovaks. Yet it remains a fantasy, one that is Genitalists, an ironization of male created primarily in Pet'ko's postproduction genitalia and an explicit concern in

110 processes, and this play between fantasy and lesson that identity is not serious (as if the reality has queer aspects. what he is imitating never existed before it was imitated). (Bersani Pet'ko's particular enj oyment of the skinhead 1995: 17-18) he had videoed, and his contrasting horror of the skinhead videoed by another cameraman, Bersani develops this ar6'1lment with reference seems to me to indicate the ways in which to D. A. Miller (1992) who argues that there is Pet'ko reveled in the possibility of a difference between the macho straight male undermining, of fucking with, the image of body (as "the body that can fuck you, fuck the hlavohrud. There is nothing particularly you over") and the gym-body of gay male new in queering the skinhead image. Murray culture, and goes on to add: Healey's work (1996) gives an interesting Even the most macho gay image tends account of the ways in which the skinhead to modify cultural fantasy about the image has been appropriated by gays. male body if only by suspending the Following the theories of performativity main response that the annored developed by Butler, and the ways in which (macho straight male) body seems drag has been exemplified as a form of developed to induce: if this is still the perfonnativity, the appropriation by gays of body that can fuck you, etc., it is no the skinhead image is seen as an example of longer ~ quite the contrary ~ the body queer theory in practice. The fact that gay you don't fuck with. (Miller 1992: 31) men "pass" as skinheads undermines the notion that all straight men are straight. That Pet'ko's production ofprimitivny young is, if a skinhead who appears to be straight is Slovak men does something similar. PeCko in fact gay, then, chances are, there are other remakes the continent and impenetrable body skinheads and straight men who are not of the primitivny peasant as a flexible and straight either. (These ideas have not gone ambi6'1l0US body. Yet these are not presented unchallenged even among queer theorists: the as images of gay men: they might be gay men relations between "passing" and racial passing as straight, or straight men passing as oppression in particular are hotly debated. See gay. What matters is the ambif,'1lity, the fact Lloyd (1999) for one discussion of this.) that they are not essentialized as one thing or another. The fact that he advertises his video Leo Bersani demonstrates that a similar fear as being from Slovakia emphasizes the of "passing·' is behind the American debate on representative nature of the material: it is gays in the military and the compromise intended to show what Slovakia is like. Yet policy that was reached: his use of t)l)ical romantic, touristic locations perhaps the most serious danger in is an inappropriation of these sites, an gay Marines being open about their inappropriation that plays with the traditional gayness is that they might begin, like romantic significance of rurality in images of some of their gay civilian brothers, to Slovak peasants. The locations and even the play at being Marines. Not that they men may appear stereotypical, but what they would make fun of the Marines. On are doing and how it is presented are not only the contrary: they may find ways of not stereotypical but also undennine the very being so Marine-like that they will no meaning of the stereotypical images, longer be "real" Marines... What rendering them useless. passes for the real thing self-destructs Significantly, in his offer of services to the from within its theatricalized American distribution company, Pet'ko does replication. The imaginary negates the not limit his or their options but offers the real to which it purportedly adheres. widest range of possibilities, demonstrating In imagining what he presumably his openness to negotiation: he is willing to already is (both gay and a Marine), the offer whatever they want to buy, and both his gay Marine may learn the invaluable products and his young men share this

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flexibility. On the other hand, Pet'ko's in which notions of communist inflexibility reaction to the e-mail he received from San are undermined by workers' i1exible practices Francisco showed that he was not willing to in a Polish factory. Such f1exibility is not suffer the possibility of being treated as ifhe unique to postsocialist transition: it has were in some way primitive as a producer. In resonances with the kind of flexibility Martin particular, he found the accusation that his (1994) sees in contemporary American material was poor quality offensive, since he society, and the kind of flexibility that is prided himself on the up-to-date technology associated with contemporary postmodern he used in his productions. In his e-mail back theories of identity. Zygmunt Bauman, for to them, he seemed keen to emphasize the instance, sees the lack of fixed identity as a flexibility of his services but also to make the strategy in postmodern life: Americans aware that he was not about to be And so the snag is no longer how to exploited or manipulated. Ifhe was queering discover, invent, construct, assemble primitive images of Slovaks, presenting the (even buy) an identity, but how to body you don't fuck with as at least offering prevent it from sticking. Well­ flexible possibilities, he was also keen to constructed and durable identity turns present himself, as a Slovak, as someone who from an asset into a liability. The hub was not to be fucked with at the same time as of postmodern life strategy is not offering flexibility. He puts into circulation identity building, but the avoidance of images of men without fixed identities, fixation. (Bauman quoted in Miles images that are flexible because ambiguous. 2001: 96) Conclusion Likewise, Colwell (1996), discussing the In her work on the political uses of dead work of Deleuze and Butler sees the bodies, Katherine Verdery demonstrates the maintenance of fluidity as a way of subverting ways in which the traumatic dislocation of the the categories of subject positions and the end of communist party regimes required the essentializing forms of the politics of the self. reordering of meaningful worlds (Verdery Pet'ko uses images of young Slovak men that 1999). This reordering is often accomplished give the appearance of romantic peasants of through the manipulation of dead bodies, the Sturite type, even locating them in the through the movements of statues embodying same kind of rural environment praised by the particular histories or through the movements Sturovci. Yet the images he produces are far of dead bodies, disinterred and reinterred. The from being stereotypical of the kind of circulations of dead bodies that she describes essentialized Slovak peasant that became are attempts to fix a new order of things, Other to the Czech self. Indeed, what he primarily by establishing dead bodies in new produces are images of de-essentialized young national genealogical orders. Yet, in important men. Pet'ko, in demonstrating the ambiguity ways, it is less the fixing of these bodies in a of his models and the f1exibility of his new order than their adaptability and production operation, queers older ideas of ambiguity that is useful. The fact that they can Slovak primitiveness, and resists new be resignified in particular ways to suit attempts to primitivize or to impose particular needs makes their ambiguity primitiveness. apparent. And this has resonances with areas of contemporary critical thinking in relation to References Cited: postsocialism and identity. Elsewhere, Batt, Judy. 2002. "'Fuzzy Statehood' versus Verdery discusses the "fuzzy" nature of Hard Borders: The Impact ofEU Enlargement property which undermines commonly-held on Romania and Yugoslavia" Working Paper notions of property (1999a) and a similar 46/02, ESRC "One Europe or Several?" concern about the "fuzziness" of citizenship Programme, Sussex European Institute, and ofborders can be seen in Fowler (2002) University of Sussex, www.one-curope.ac.uk and Batt (2002). Dunn (1999) shows the ways

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