FOLKLORE STRATEGIES OF FACING DISTORTED NORMALITY IN PRECARIOUS TIMES: A CASE STUDY OF FOLKLORE IN BELGRADE DURING THE YUGOSLAV WARS 1991–1999
FOLKLORE STRATEGIES OF FACING DISTORTED NORMALITY IN PRECARIOUS TIMES: A CASE STUDY OF FOLKLORE IN BELGRADE DURING THE YUGOSLAV WARS 1991–1999

Summary/Abstract: The last decade of the 20th century was marked by a political crisis that led to the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in a series of armed conflicts and interrelated wars. In Serbia and Montenegro – parts of the same state until 2006 – this period of recent history was additionally marked by economic and cultural sanctions imposed by the international community. The sanctions caused hyperinflation, economic dysfunction and adoption of a wartime embargo economy and culture, in which various forms of folklore responses to the external events and phenomena appeared. They had different communication functions: informative, expressing emotions, psychological tensions, or political and social critique, giving comments on the surrounding reality or transmitting knowledge. In some cases, this folklore had an important role in shaping survival strategies. The paper addresses the interrelation between the macro and micro social environment and the use of specific folklore forms which were dominant in that period of time in Belgrade, as well as the importance of both social and cultural capital for the creation, transmission and pragmatic dimension of this kind of folklore. It focuses on those forms which turned out to be important elements of the survival strategies developed during the ’90s.

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