25696 - A Film Journey Through Former Yugoslavia and its Demise

Course contents

Numerous accounts of the Communist-era struggle for democracy and against the one-party state come to a sticky end when offering answers to the following questions:

How did the one-time undivided focus of Eastern European pro-democracy activists – on human rights and pluralism of political views – disintegrate so quickly in the aftermath of 1989? Why did it give way, so easily, it seems, to the dominance of exclusivist, mainly ethnonationalist political programs in many postsocialist states, amid the still fresh memories of the Communist era sacrifices for plurality of opinions and solidarity with the powerless? How did the notion of communal camaraderie as the basis of political action (against an oppressive state) get replaced by a market-style competition between political parties, and the celebration of materialist or nationalist values in defining one's lifestyle and human worth?

Nowhere has this trajectory of political transition yielded such tragic outcomes and paradoxes as in the region of former Yugoslavia.

 

Methodological Issues 

Given the weakness of social science methods in contesting nationalist explanations of the victory of ethnonationalism in the region, I propose that film - both documentary and fiction - be used, simultaneously as a document/ text and a visual ethnographic method in studies of culture and politics of diversity, exclusion (linked to state rules on citizenship and other), migration, human rights violation, and various nationalisms. Film thus becomes a vehicle of an actor-centered analysis of the social and political dynamics during socialism and what came after.

 

Filmography in the former Yugoslavia since the 1960s, when this non-Soviet-block socialist state started pursuing its path of liberal or quasi-liberal reforms, offers a particularly rich insight into the trajectory of political and social crises that prepared the collapse of socialism and the subsequent violent state-rebuilding. In contrast to Yugoslav "men of letters" whose contribution to the country and cultural space's breakdown is well documented (in this course syllabus as well), the ranks of ex- and post-Yugoslav film-makers, movie actors and screenwriters (including the youngest ones) had remained, to some extent, more diverse and critical vis-à-vis nationalist hegemonies. Further interesting questions can be raised about the continuities and discontinuities of such artistic autonomy (or the lack of it) in comparing film versus literature production. 

 

Narratives of betrayed hopes in a socialism more humane and free than the Soviet one, opaqueness of the political system versus grievances of ordinary people, joys of Yugoslavia's cosmopolitanism and consumerism of the 1960s and through early 1980s, followed by sorrows and anger of the 1990s generation at their own and their parents'  conformity in the face of nationalism and violence, and the failures of international (Western) actors – these themes will stir our discussions about the main questions of the course: Why nationalism, violence and apathy after socialism? What paths of continuity and dependence with the 'old regime' and which new transitional forms of power and powerlessness are conveyed in the more recent films from the region (and literature)?

Readings/Bibliography

Opening the course:

Hegemony, ideology and 'third dimension of power'

Excellent definitions and examples of hegemony (Antonio Gramsci , Steven Lukes' 'third dimension of power') and media framing (Todd Gitlin) are in this online article:

Mariko Tomita and Carl Bybee, "Theories of the news"

http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC34folder/TheoriesofNews.html

 

I am also attaching a short piece with definitions (Hegemony and Ideology)

 

 Ia

Popular and Academic Imagining of (Conflicts in) the Balkans – Reading

Backwards versus Reading Critically (ethnicization/ exoticization of "the peoples"; critique of culturalist and populist perspectives)

 

Views from the Outside

1. Kaplan Robert, Balkan Ghosts. 1994. New York: Vintage Books. Prologue: Saints, Terrorists, Blood and Holy Water, pp. xliii and Yugoslavia: Historical Overtures, pp. 3-77).
2. Todorova, Maria. (1997) Imagining the Balkans. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Introduction (pp. 3-20), and "Balkans" as Self-Designation (pp. 38-61).
3. Milica Bakic-Hayden, “Nesting Orientalisms: The Case of Former Yugoslavia,” Slavic Review 54: 1995, 917-931.

 

Ib 

Popular and Academic Imagining of (Conflicts in) the Balkans – Reading Backwards

vs. Reading Critical

 

Views from the Inside

1. Olivera Milosavljevic, “Yugoslavia as Mistake” (pp. 50-80) and “The Abuse of the Authority of Science” (pp.274-302), in Popov Nebojsa and Drinka Gojkovic, eds. 2000. The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis in Historical Memory. Budapest: Central European University Press. 
2. Colovic, Ivan. 2002. The Politics of Symbol in Serbia: Essays in Political Anthropology. London: Hurst & Company. Forrester. (Excerpts: make your own selection).
3. Devic, Ana. 1998. 'Ethnonationalism, Politics, and the Intellectuals: The Case of Yugoslavia'. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, Vol. 11, No. 3.

Start reading !

Goulding, Daniel. 2003 (1985). Liberated Cinema: The Yugoslav Experience, 1945-2001 Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Chapter: New Film and Republican Ascendancy, 1961–1972).

 

I I

Yugoslavia's Stability and Disintegration: In the Frames of Politics, Popular Culture

and Ordinary People

 

1. Valere Chip Gagnon, The Myth Of Ethnic War: Serbia And Croatia in the 1990s (Cornell University Press, 2004), Introduction, chapters 2, 3, & 4.
2. Schierup, C.-U., "Memorandum for Modernity? Socialist Modernisers, Re-Traditionalisation, and the Rise of Ethnic Nationalism" in Schierup, C.-U., (ed.) Scramble for the Balkans: Nationalism, Globalism, and the Political Economy of Reconstruction, Macmillan, London, 1997, pp. 47-80.
3. Gordy, Eric. (1999) The Culture of Power in Serbia: Nationalism and the Destruction of Alternatives. Pennsylvania State University Press. (Chapters: Introduction; Destruction of Political Alternatives, Destruction of Sociability).
4. Dubravka Ugresic, The Culture of Lies: Antipolitical Essays (Phoenix House, 1998). 

 

Recommended: 

Woodward, Susan L. 1995. Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution after the Cold War (chapters: The Bases of Prewar Stability, pp. 21-46; The Politics of Economic Reform and Global Integration, pp. 47-81; Interrupted Democratization and the Path to War, pp. 114-145; recommended the entire book). 

 

III 

Film Industry, Film Makers and Politics in Socialist Yugoslavia: Critics and

Conformists

 

1. Meden, Jurij. 'Paradise Lost: The Yugoslav Black Wave, a Brief Introduction

http://www.bam.org/docs/ParadiseLost-TheYugoslaveBlackWave.pdf

1. Goulding, Daniel. 2003 (1985). Liberated Cinema: The Yugoslav Experience, 1945-2001 Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Chapters: New Film and Republican Ascendancy, 1961–1972 and Accommodation and Resurgence: The New Yugoslav Cinema, 1973–1990).
2. Levi, Pavle. 2007. Disintegration in Frames: Aesthetics and Ideology in the Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Cinema. Stanford: Stanford University Press. (Chapters: 1. The Black Wave and Marxist Revisionism; 2. Yugoslavism without limits).
3. Iordanova, Dina. 2006. The Cinema of the Balkans. New York: Columbia University Press (chapter "Valter brani Sarajevo").

 

IV

Film in Yugoslavia's Successor States: The War and the Post-War ( Imagining and

Criticizing Nationalism, Internationals and Western Intervention, Multiculturalism

from Above and from Below

 

1. Goulding, Daniel. 2003 (1985). Liberated Cinema: The Yugoslav Experience, 1945-2001. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. (Chapter: The Breakup of Yugoslavia: Cinematic Reflections 1991–2001). Compare Goulding with Levi.
2. Levi, Pavle. 2007. Disintegration in Frames: Aesthetics and Ideology in the Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Cinema. Stanford: Stanford University Press. (Chapters: Hatred Explained, Hatred Legitimized; and ‘Contra Essentialism,' pp. 154-161 of the last section of Ethnic Enemy as Acousmetre).

 

Recommended:  

Woodward, L. Susan, 2000 ‘Violence-Prone Area or International Transition?: Adding the Role of Outsiders in Balkan Violence.' In Das, Veena, Arthur Kleinman, Mamphela Ramphele, and Pamela Reynolds eds.  Violence and Subjectivity. Berkeley: University

of California Press, pp. 19 – 45.  

 

Nebojsa Jovanovic “Nebesa iznad Bosne”

 

KinoEye: New Perspectives on European Film (selected readings from “Post-Yugo Film in

Kinoeye”)

http://www.kinoeye.org/03/10/celluloidtinderbox.php (Also see review at:

http://www.kinoeye.org/02/03/monroe03.php).

 

Films (including recommended):

 

1. Zaseda (The Ambush), Zivojin Pavlovic, Yugoslavia, 1969.
2. Rani radovi (Early Works), Zelimir Zilnik, Yugoslavia, 1969.
3. Skupljaci perja (I Even Met Happy Gypsies), Aleksandar Petrovic, Yugoslavia, 1967.
4. Misterija organizma (WR: Mysteries of the Organism), Dusan Makavejev, Yugoslavia, 1971.
5. Okupacija u 26 slika (Occupation in 26 Tableaux), Lordan Zafranovic, Yugoslavia, 1978.
6. Stefica Cvek u raljama zivota (Stefica Cvek in the Jaws of Life), Rajko Grlic, Yugoslavia, 1984.
7. Tako se kalio celik (How Steel Was Tempered), Zelimir Zilnik, Yugoslavia, 1988. 
8. Savrseni krug (The Perfect Circle), Ademir Kenovic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1996.
9. Tito po drugi put medju Srbima (Tito's Second Time among the Serbs), Zelimir Zilnik, FR Yugoslavia (Serbia-Montenegro), 1994. 
10. Marsal (Marshall Tito's Spirit), Vinko Bresan, Croatia, 1999.
11. Outsider. Andrej Kosak, Slovenia, 1997.
12. Ljeto u Zlatnoj dolini (Summer in the Golden Valley), Srdjan Vuletic, Bosnia-

1. Herzegovina/ France/ UK/Slovenia, 2003.

1. Sasvim licno (Totally Personal), Nedzad Begovic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2005.
2. Gori Vatra (Fuse), Pjer Zalica,. Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2003.
3. Remake, Dino Mustafic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2003.
4. Grbavica, Jasmila Zbanic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2005.
5. Vukovar, posljednji rez (Vukovar, the Final Cut), Janko Baljak and Drago Hedl, Serbia-Montenegro, Croatia, 2005.
6. Slijepa pravda (Blind Justice), documentary, Aldin Arnautović & Refik Hodžić, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2004.
7. Ne moze da traje vecno (This Cannot Last Forever), documentary, Nenad Vukosavljevic, Serbia-Montenegro, 2006.
8. Kenedi se vraca kuci (Kenedi Goes Back Home), Zelimir Zilnik, Serbia-Montenegro, 2002.
9. Zene u crnom (Women in Black), Zoran Zolomun & Helge Reidmeister, Germany, 1998.
10. Ta divna splitska noc (A Wonderful Night in Split), Arsen A. Ostojic, Croatia, 2004.
11. Na putu (On the Path), Jasmila Zbanic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2010.

Teaching methods

Students should attend all classes and film screenings. According to the MIREES rules, attendance will be taken at every class meeting, and you may not be able to finish the course if you are absent more than what is permitted.

The lecturer will open each class with a presentation of the main questions for each set of topics, likely in addition to summarizing the previous session, which will lead to the discussion moderated by students.

Students must fulfill the following requirements:

1) Take-Home Film Reports (one or two)

2) Short Outline of the Final Essay

3) Student Presentations lasting 15-20 minutes, individual or group.  Presentations must establish critical links between chosen reading materials and a selection of films. Presentations must be distributed one day in advance.  

6) Final Essay (12-15 pages) incorporating material from course readings and a comparative analysis of several films.

Assessment methods

Students will receive their grade based on the evaluation of their final take-home essay (12-18 page long = 4000-5000 words, double-spaced).  Essay topics should be chosen from the themes in the syllabus and the list of possible topics provided by the lecturer. After submitting the paper outline, students will receive a feedback from the lecturer.

Office hours

See the website of Ana Devic