Contested Anniversary – Celebrating November 29, Republic Day (of Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia) in Present-Day Slovenia Cover Image

Contested Anniversary – Celebrating November 29, Republic Day (of Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia) in Present-Day Slovenia
Contested Anniversary – Celebrating November 29, Republic Day (of Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia) in Present-Day Slovenia

Author(s): Mitja Velikonja
Subject(s): Politics, Anthropology, Media studies, Recent History (1900 till today), Nationalism Studies
Published by: Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze
Keywords: socialist Yugoslavia; Slovenia; post-socialist transition; political holidays; Yugonostalgia; ideology; anti-fascism;

Summary/Abstract: The article is based on the study of informal features of celebrating the former national holiday, the Republic Day (of the SFRY), in post-socialist Slovenia: Yugonostalgic parties, concerts, political graffiti and street art, songs, various public events, news in the media and internet events (holiday greetings, Facebook groups, blogs, virtual Yugoslavias etc.). In the research I applied a combination of the usual cultural-studies methods (urban ethnography, sociology of time and critical visual semiology), which deals with these phenomena from the point of its production (top-down) and from the point of its reception (bottom-up). These celebrations are, on the one hand, increasingly commodified (in the sense of pop-resistance, painless provocation, pure entertainment or profitable market niche), while on the other hand, they present a critique, challenge, opposition and symbolic alternative to contemporary Slovenian dominant ideological currents and politics (ethno-nationalism and neo-liberalism).

  • Issue Year: 58/2019
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 71-85
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: English