Between Political Myths, Dormant Resentments, and Redefinition of the Recent History: A Case Study of Serbian National Identity (original) (raw)

Intellectuals as spokespersons for the nation in the post-Yugoslav context : a critical discourse study

2015

In contemporary post-Yugoslav societies, the ongoing processes of nation-building interact and intersect with the manifold challenges of post-socialist transition, post-conflict reconciliation, democratisation and European integration. Amid growing uncertainty and insecurity, public intellectuals may play a key role in ‘making sense’ of these complexities, in particular by shaping shared representations of the nation and by defining national identities in public discourse. Engaging in symbolic practices of nation-building, however, also enables intellectuals to legitimise their own authority and social status, as reflected in the concept of national intellectual practice elaborated by Suny and Kennedy (1999). This thesis explores the multifaceted power dynamics underlying post-Yugoslav intellectuals’ engagement in nation-building from the perspective of the Discourse-Historical Approach to critical discourse studies (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009; Wodak, 2011). Using an innovative methodolo...

Polish Aristocratic Identity as a Discourse of Ideology: A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach

2015

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) can be considered the contemporary, dominant approach to the study of national identity, which presupposes that a nation is an imagined community which is produced and reproduced discursively. Moreover, CDA denies the traditional dichotomy between political and cultural nations, which is viewed solely as a purpose-built consequence of power. With regard to the fact that most researchers who use CDA limit their approaches to the modern context of the 20th century, it is desirable to ask to what extent one can apply methods of CDA to pre-modern national identities. The clarification of this issue should be deemed the main aim of this study, which holds that the Polish aristocratic nation is a convenient case for this kind of research, because its elites had to reflect not only the loss of statehood, and thus the programme of future desired development, but also the causes of previous failure. The analysis of the conflicts between conservative national attitudes during the 19th century should therefore define who was considered a Pole and to what extent national identity was based on ideological and discursive assumptions.

Let's Work on our Serbian! Standard Language Ideology, Metaphors and Discourses about Serbian National Identity in the Newspaper Politika in 2015

Šarić, Ljiljana, and Mateusz-Milan Stanojević (eds): Metaphor, Nation and Discourse. (Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, Vol. 82). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2019, pp. 101–126., 2019

This chapter explores the use of metaphors in the column "Let's Safeguard Serbian" in the Serbian newspaper Politika in 2015. In this column, adherents of the standard language ideology offered advice about spelling, loanwords, and syntax as well as regarding the name of the language and preferred alphabet. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and metaphor analysis, I examine the link between prescriptivism and contemporary discourses on Serbian national identity. I argue that most metaphors appearing in texts that fall into "the complaint tradition" (Milroy and Milroy) do not reveal a clear-cut link between prescriptivism and nationalism. However, the complaint tradition also reactivates a rich repository of conventional(ized) metaphors and metonymies that reach back to Romanticism and have much more far-reaching implications ideologically.

Glisin, Vanja (2018): CONTINUITY OF THE DECONSTRUCTION OF THE SERBIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY FROM 1918 TO 2018 – CASE OF AP VOJVODINA, CHIVALROUS CULTURE (VII) no. 7, Belgrade, pg. 305-323

CHIVALROUS CULTURE (VII) no. 7, 2018

In the year that marks the 100th anniversary of the accession of Vojvodina to Serbia, besides the occasion fot the celebra- tion of the anniversary, it is necessary to make a brief review with the question „What has it brought us and what has been away taken over the past 100 years?“. The first part of the paper will bi devoted to defi- ning basic concepts such as: identity, nation, national identity, in order to understand the significance of these. Tehn, in second part of the paper, we will present the methods used in order to break the Serbian national identity in time continuity from 1918. This way we come to the third part where, with special reference to the AP Vojvodina, a series of examples will highlight the present state of national identity as well as the possible threat of the same struggle for a new identity of Vojvodina province. We are witnessing the methods used both by in- ternal and external factors in order to completely devastate the Serbian national code, regarding this it is necessary to point out that the traces of Serbian stability are being eroded, falsifying history in favor of synthetic ideas, identity and nations, censuring the truth about the cri- mes committed against Serbs, Serbian language and Cyrillic script are destroyed, Serbian culture, tradition and customs, Serbian Orthodox Church, as a cohesion factor of Serbian people, the territory of the state is fragmented, the national conscious intellectual elite is marginalized and media criminally imprisoned, the guilt which, as a heavy burden, nonexistent „I“, all in favor of fictitious identities, and at the expense of the Serbian one.

Commitment of Journalistic Discourse in Construction of National Identity

The study is a focused application on the imagology field. The thesis in whose direction it is argumented is the following: a) the concept of identity retrieved in psychology, sociology, philosophy; b) the vision of the Romanians about themselves sequential exposed in the pages of the magazine " Dilema Veche " (" Old Dilemma ") in the period September-October 2006. Recently appeared on the scientific scene, the concept of identity is an essential component of the social contemporary existence. Romanian masters discover with sadness that in 2006 elements of cultural and identity, tradition are still imported and that's why, badly understanding democracy and liberty, Romanians allow themselves anything: gregarious spirit, colloquial talking, violence, brutish, arbitrariness. According to N. Berdiaev the concept of liberty implies respects the other's liberty, namely: we are free as long as personal liberty doesn't defy the other's right to liberty. The chaos and haste are the two constants that control the Romanians amplifying stress, abridging them the deepness of things. It is to be remarked also the superficiality and indifferent attitude towards the people and rejecting the values to the new generation which, although wanting to be free, still remains stuck into libertinism.

Discursive Construction of Language Identity through Disputes in Croatian and Montenegrin Media [with Tatjana Radanovic Felberg]. Scando-Slavica 59:1 (2013) 7–31.

This article addresses various constructions of language identity in disputes in the Croatian media in 2006, and in the Croatian and Montenegrin media in 2010 and 2011. In Croatia, the language disputes during these periods were triggered by the publication of two linguistics books perceived to be threats to Croatian identity. In Montenegro, there were intensified efforts in 2010 and 2011 to standardize Montenegrin, which aroused animosity between promoters of Montenegrin and promoters of Serbian. During this time both Croatia and Montenegro were pursuing EU accession, which also implies implementing European values. These values include tolerance in various areas, including public discourse. Thus, one would expect tolerant and nuanced public debates about identity issues, including language. However, this article shows that the main narratives that underpin language disputes are realized through a metaphorical scenario of defensive war. The analysis also identifies discourse strategies of (de-)legitimization enacted through discrimination towards the Other on the basis of gender, ethnicity, and professional credibility. Despite some contextual differences, the structure of language disputes in the Croatian and Montenegrin media exhibit striking similarities. Keywords: Language disputes, media, Croatian, Montenegrin, language identity, delegitimization, othering, gender bias