Staging Socialist Femininity Balkan Studies Library

Staging Socialist Femininity Balkan Studies Library Editor-in-Chief Zoran Milutinović, University College London Editorial Board Gordon N. Bardos, Columbia University Alex Drace-Francis, University of Liverpool Jasna Dragović-Soso, Goldsmiths, University of London Christian Voss, Humboldt University, Berlin Advisory Board Marie-Janine Calic, University of Munich Lenard J. Cohen, Simon Fraser University Radmila Gorup, Columbia University Robert M. Hayden, University of Pittsburgh Robert Hodel, Hamburg University Anna Krasteva, New Bulgarian University Galin Tihanov, The University of Manchester Maria Todorova, University of Illinois Andrew Wachtel, Northwestern University VOLUME 1 Staging Socialist Femininity Gender Politics and Folklore Performance in Serbia By Ana Hofman LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011 On the cover: Village Gatherings in Trupale village, 1987. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hofman, Ana. Staging socialist femininity : gender politics and folklore performance in Serbia / by Ana Hofman. p. cm. — (Balkan studies library, 1877–6272 ; 1) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-90-04-19179-2 (hbk. : alk. paper) 1. Music—Social aspects—Serbia. 2. Feminism and music—Serbia. 3. Politics and culture—Serbia. 4. Serbia—Social life and customs. I. Title. ML3917.S4H64 2010 781.62’91820082—dc22 2010036409 ISSN 1877-6272 ISBN 978 90 04 19179 2 Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgements ....................................................... vii Abbreviations ....................................................................................... xi List of Music Examples ...................................................................... xiii List of Audio and Video Examples on CD ..................................... xv List of Photographs ............................................................................. xvii List of Figures ...................................................................................... xix Introduction ......................................................................................... 1 Chapter One Gender Performance in Southeastern Serbia ............................. 7 Concepts of Femininity in Rural Serbia ....................................... 7 Portraits of the Female Singers ...................................................... 12 Performing Femininity .................................................................... 17 Chapter Two Village Gatherings: The Politics of Representation ................... 35 Creating the New Folk Culture ...................................................... 35 The Ambiguity of Cultural Policy .................................................. 38 Village Gatherings in the Official Discourses ............................... 45 Village Gatherings in the Personal Narratives ............................. 54 Chapter Three Repertoire ........................................................................................ 65 Official Music and Local Taste ...................................................... 65 Indirect Intervention in the Repertoire ......................................... 69 Direct Intervention in the Repertoire ............................................ 73 Transgressing Gender Roles? .......................................................... 78 vi contents Chapter Four Singing Exclusion ........................................................................... 85 State Feminism ................................................................................ 85 Gender and Body Politics in Niško Polje ...................................... 89 Overstepping the Boundaries ......................................................... 94 Dangerous Profession ...................................................................... 97 Stage Performance as Performative Negotiation ......................... 100 New Concepts of Identity, Subjectivity and Self-Representation ...................................................................... 103 Concluding Remarks .......................................................................... 111 References ............................................................................................ 115 Appendix One List of Villages and Interlocutors ................................................. 123 Appendix Two The Constitution of the Competition of Serbian Villages ......................................................................................... 125 Pravilnik Takmičenja sela Srbije .................................................. 127 Pravilnik o radu ocenjivačkih komisija Takmičenja sela Srbije ..................................................................................... 135 Appendix Three Villages – Winners at Republic Level ......................................... 141 Appendix Four The Programme of Donja Studena and Gornja Studena Villages (1994) ............................................................................ 143 Index ..................................................................................................... 145 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The initial idea for this book came from the results of the project ‘Research and Presentation of the Traditional Music and Dance Heritage of the Niš Area.’ The study was supported by financial aid from the city of Niš and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. The first phase of the fieldwork was carried out by a research team from the Centre for Balkan Music Research in Belgrade, which consisted of ethnomusicologists and students of ethnomusicology. Systematized materials were transcribed and resulted in the book, The Vocal Musi- cal Tradition of the Niš area, published by the Centre for Balkan Music Research in 2005 (Hofman and Marković 2005). I embarked on my personal fieldwork one year later, shifting my focus to elderly rural women, to reflect my fascination with the drastic change in their lifestyle over the past sixty years. In contrast to the initial project, my individual fieldwork was carried out in a more informal way. It became a long-term research project, consisting of many short-term trips over a period of two years (from February 2005 through to March 2007). A specific aspect of this fieldwork was the fact that my family lives in the city of Niš and that relatives, neighbors and family friends strongly supported my work. They introduced me to their relatives and friends who were active within the amateur groups from the Niško Polje villages. In addition, at the time I was working as an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Niš, and many of my students also contributed to this project by putting me in touch with their grandparents and their friends. While collecting the data, I also consulted resources from the Archive of Yugoslavia, written resources on the Village Gatherings (Susreti sela) and other state sponsored cultural events that were organized in this area during the socialist period, using personal archives of the participants and organizers, local newspapers and magazines. Systematized documentation and video recordings of Village Gatherings consisted of just a few recordings of the stage performances made by a local TV station, participants, and their relatives, which made work on this project more difficult. viii preface and acknowledgements Since my relatives, friends and students were often indirectly involved in the research, I was presented as a cousin or a friend, which meant the relationship between my interlocutors and myself was closer and more intimate. Therefore, the present work has been created together with the people involved in the research, who have actively participated as collaborators and as co-authors of the project. I express deep appre- ciation to all of those involved in the research who made this work possible. Their warmth and openness inspired me both as a scholar and as a woman. I thank Aleksandra Marković, Iva Tarabić and Jelena Jelić, my colleagues who participated in the completion of the initial fieldwork and the systematization of the material. My gratitude goes to all the people who helped with the fieldwork: Milica Veljković from Niš, Dragiša Stojanović from Donja Studena village, Slaviša Mihajlović and Saša Milojković from Prosek village, Dragan Todorović from Vuk- manovo village, and Bata Belević from Niška Banja who kindly allowed me to use his personal video recordings. Most of the manuscript is a revised version of my doctoral dissertation, while the final draft of the book was completed during my postdoctoral Robert Bosch Regional Fellowship. I greatly appreciate the support of my dissertation advisers, Svanibor Pettan (Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana) and Mirjam Milharčič-Hladnik (Scientific Research

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