Nationalism in Serbia at the end of the 20th century: Crime and turbofolk as a cover to autocracy

• Thesis title in Czech: Nacionalismus v Srbsku na konci 20. století: Zločin a turbofolk jako krytí autokracie
• Thesis title in English: Nationalism in Serbia at the end of the 20th century: Crime and turbofolk as a cover to autocracy
• Key words: nacionalismus|etnicita|turbofolk|hudba|válka|populární kultura|folklor|Jugoslávie|Srbsko
• English key words: Nationalism|Ethnicity|Turbofolk|Music|War|Popular Culture|Folklore|Yugoslavia|Serbia
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2016/2017
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Institute of Ethnology (21-UETN)
• Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Petr Janeček, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 29.06.2017
• Date of assignment: 29.06.2017
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 25.08.2017
• Date and time of defence: 27.05.2019 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 19.04.2019
• Date of proceeded defence: 27.05.2019
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: doc. PhDr. Marek Jakoubek, Ph.D., Ph.D.

Guidelines

The socio-political changes in the SFR Yugoslavia founded by the Constitution of 1974, gradually, after the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980, began to induce divisions and differences among nations and followers of different religions that lived on the territory of the six republics - constitutive units of the federation. In the second half of the 1980s, it became clear that survival of the common state is impossible, which was alongside accompanied by the rise of nationalism in almost all the republics. Slobodan Milosevic then came to power in Serbia. Since 1989 he gradually took a turn from his originally communist ideology to political nationalism. At that time, in more or less all other republics of the common state, came rise of nationalism and, in 1991, civil war started.
In this thesis it will be investigated how, by the influence of the politics of Milosevic, implemented by the political elite gathered around him, a rise of crime, war profiteering and the development of a new popular culture genre of turbofolk appeared in Serbia. Such socio-political conditions, supported by a strong media propaganda by the regime, turned out to be the key pillars of Milosevic's autocratic rule.
Special emphasis will be given to a new cultural phenomenon that struck this region in the period - the phenomenon of "turbofolk" as the dominant music genre of the time, that completes the picture of Serbian society during the 1990s. Overwhelmed with elements of kitsch and baroque, this popular music genre which originated in the restaurants of central Serbia suburbs, has become an unavoidable part of everyday life of young people, whose new idols were individuals who measured their success by the number and importance of their criminal ventures. The emergence of turbofolk, therefore, is considered in light of the birth of the new socio-political circumstances. But it is interesting to note that turbofolk, with some adjustments, remains the dominant musical genre in Serbia until today.
My research will focus on three main questions:
1) How turbofolk developed and how could we define this peculiar popucultural genre?
2) How does dynamics between turbofolk and criminal activities, both on emic and ethic level work?
3) How does dynamics between turbofolk and ethnic nationalism in Serbia, both on emic and ethic level work?

Methodology
Methodologically, this work will largely rely on participant observation. In this study I wanted to clarify, specify and define turbofolk through the position of insider in the community that it is "consumed" in. Another important method of research would be ethnographic interview. The study of this area (the popular, mass-disseminated music) is not only interesting because of its cultural aspects, but it is primarily an outstanding indicator for political, sociological and even philosophical questions, like the relationship between the global and the local, the ratio of elite and mass culture, the relationship between the political and cultural power, the question of permissible and desirable limits of state intervention in the sphere of cultural creativity. I will try to focus on those complex questions and their connection to national and cultural identity.

References

ANDERSON, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Verso, 2006 , London.
ČVORO, Uroš, Turbo-folk Music and Culutral Representations of National Identity in Former Yugoslavia, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2014, Farnham.
DANIEL Ondřej. Bigbít nebo turbofolk: představy migrantů z bývalé Jugoslávie v západní Evropě (případy Francie a Rakouska). Praha: AntropoWeb 2013.
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