Retracing Images: Visual Culture after Yugoslavia

The essays in this collection disclose cultural and political dynamics as they occurred before and in the wake of Yugoslavia's dissolution (1991-92) by analyzing visual data such as film, art, graffiti, street-art, public advertisement, memorials, and monuments. Within the vast field of Balkan Studies such visual materials have rarely been taken for important empirical evidence. Against the still widely held presumption that the cultural production of allegedly "totalitarian" states such as Yugoslavia can be neglected as they were penetrated by state ideology, the contributions offer a corrective image of the complex ideological dynamics and discoursive potentials in various artistic and cultural fields. Phenomena such as "Titostalgia", nationalist mobilization, nation-branding, rewriting of history, inventing of traditions, and symbolic violence that have surfaced in recent years are interpreted in the light of Yugoslavia's legacy. Contributors include: Zoran Terzic, Elissa Helms, Miklavz Komelj, Nebojsa Jovanovic, Isabel Stroehle, Sezgin Boynik, Gregor Bulc, Davor Beganovic, Robert Alagjozovski, Gal Kirn, Mitja Velikonja, Daniel Suber, and Slobodan Karamanic.