War of Words and Words For

WAR OF WORDS AND WORDS FOR WAR Nationalism and masculinity in the field of Serbian literature in the 1970s and the 1980s By Dejan Ilić Submitted to Central European University Department of Gender Studies In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Professor Jasmina Lukić Budapest, Hungary 2010 CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This thesis identifies and critically analyzes the prevailing patterns of the cultural self-understanding of the Serbian society, and its members (that is, individuals who identify themselves as Serbs), in the last decades of the twentieth century. It focuses on value systems, symbols, memories, myths, and traditions that have been articulated within the field of Serbian literature, in order to answer the following question: How come that the Serbian political elite responded to the "national question," raised by disintegration of the Yugoslav federal state, in a manner that was thoroughly permeated by utterly ethnicized discourse with a strong notion of self-victimhood? Although it rejects a direct causal link between culture and politics, this thesis demonstrates that both national literature and its history at the same time produce and legitimize certain traditions as a possible subject of attachment and identification. Therefore, within my thesis, a field of literature is treated as an arena in which identity politics compete against each other. This competition is characterized as war of words; accordingly, works of literature and literary criticism are seen as arsenals of images, symbols, and concepts of belonging, which are used in a rivalry for political domination. The thesis approaches the late twentieth-century Serbian literature from the perspective of the collapse of socialist Yugoslavia and armed conflicts that proceeded it, claiming that the grave wrongdoings of the Serbian side in these wars give enough reasons to designate Serbian culture as a culture of accomplices. Therefore, although the thesis circulates across disciplines and uses various concepts tied to different fields and theories, the concept of transitional justice, with its specific cultural aspect, overarches the research. Categories of gender and ethnicity are used in depicting particular elements of collective self-understandings discerned in the works of Serbian narrative literature, literary criticism and historiography. The particular ethical dimension of these elements, that is, their inclusive and exclusive mechanisms, delineate Serbian culture and ethnicity as the objects of research in this work. In the first part of the thesis, I establish an analytical framework for interpretations presented in the second part. Feminists' discussions on transitional justice and analysis of the Yugoslav Truth and Reconciliation Commission case offer arguments that put forward cultural constraints in implementation of transitional justice's measures. Keeping this in mind, I suggest alternative conceptualization of context-specific categories of culture and identity that is more compatible with transitional justice's demands. In the second part of the thesis, I use these categories of culture and identity in analyzing particular works of Serbian literature and historiography, attempting to explain how Serbian identity, with its 'substantial', 'inevitable', and 'constraining' CEU eTD Collection qualities, was formed, and how it has been maintained in the last quarter of the twentieth century. These analyses may be seen as an inventory of identity patterns produced, reproduced, and sustained within the field of Serbian literature. ii For the knowledge and the unconditional support that they were giving to me while I was working on this thesis, I express my gratitude to Professor Jasmina Lukić and to Professor Nenad Dimitrijević. CEU eTD Collection iii INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: MORAL UNIVERSALISM, IDENTITY, AND CULTURE .......................... 8 1.1. Coming to terms with the evil past ............................................................. 9 1.2. Transitional justice: introductory notes .................................................. 13 1.3. "Realists" vs. "idealists" ........................................................................... 14 1.4. Looking back or reaching forward .......................................................... 20 Chapter 2 GENDER AND TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE ................................................ 25 2.1. Recognition or redistribution? .................................................................. 28 2.2. Three types of transitional justice ............................................................ 30 2.3. Twofold transition ...................................................................................... 34 Chapter 3 THE YUGOSLAV TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION .. 38 3.1. A historical prelude .................................................................................... 39 3.2. "Cognitive block" ...................................................................................... 43 3.3. Truth and reconciliation commissions: general frameworks ................ 47 3.4. The Commission's short prehistory ......................................................... 50 3.5. Chronology ................................................................................................. 53 March 29/30, 2001, beginning ................................................................ 53 April 15, 2001, two weeks later .............................................................. 54 April 17/December 10, 2001, nine months later ..................................... 55 January 15, 2002, ten months later ......................................................... 56 May 28, 2002, fourteen months later ...................................................... 57 November 28, 2002, twenty months later ............................................... 58 May 2003, twenty-six months later ........................................................ 58 Month – unknown, year – 2003, many months later .............................. 59 3.6. Four aspects of the Commission's endeavor ............................................ 59 3.7. Reconciliation as a foundational narrative .............................................. 63 3.8. Choosing identities? ................................................................................... 71 Chapter 4 CULTURE AND IDENTITY: FIELDS OF CONTINUOUS CHANGE ......................................................... 76 4.1. General framework .................................................................................... 76 4.1.1. Hard concepts of culture and identity ........................................... 76 4.1.2. Untangling culture and identity .................................................... 79 4.1.3. Culture's causal significance ......................................................... 83 CEU eTD Collection 4.1.4. Culture and morality: descriptive cultural relativism ................... 88 4.1.5. Right to interpret and judge .......................................................... 92 4.1.6. (Ethno)national identity ................................................................ 95 4.2. Literary criticism and historiography as elements of transitional cultural policy ......................................................................... 104 4.2.1. Conceptualizing a context ........................................................... 104 4.2.2. Trauma: an origin of a nation ...................................................... 107 4.2.3. What is on the horizon? .............................................................. 112 iv Chapter 5 MINISTRY OF PAIN: UNAUTHORIZED IDENTITIES IN A REPRESSIVE CULTURE ......... 116 5.1. Father and son .......................................................................................... 119 5.2. Images from hell ....................................................................................... 123 5.3. Homoeroticism as patriotism .................................................................. 127 5.4. The worst humiliation ............................................................................. 132 5.5. Ministry of pain ........................................................................................ 134 Chapter 6 TURKEY AND TOSCANA: CONTINUITY IN CHANGE ......................................................................... 140 6.1. An empty core as a guarantee of continuity .......................................... 140 6.2. Culture as legitimacy ............................................................................... 151 Chapter 7 "FORGOTTEN BLACK MAN" ................................................................... 159 7.1. Literature as a resource of identity patterns ......................................... 159 7.1.1. Style that is something else ......................................................... 160 7.1.2. Meaningful narrative formulas ................................................... 162 7.2. What is on the stock? ............................................................................... 166 7.2.1. Unanimous polyphony ................................................................ 168 7.2.2. Endangered vitality ..................................................................... 180 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................

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