The Nonconformists: Culture, Politics, and Nationalism in a Serbian Intellectual Circle, 1944-1991Nick Miller argues in this provocative study that to comprehend Yugoslavia's collapse, we must examine the development and nature of Serbian nationalism, and the typical approaches will not suffice. Serbia's national movement of the 1980s and 1990s, Miller suggests, was not the product of an ancient, immutable, and aggressive Serbian national identity; nor was it an artificial creation of powerful political actors looking to capitalize on its mobilizing power. In examining the work of three influential Serbian intellectuals, Miller argues that cultural processes are too often ignored in favor of political ones; that Serbian intellectuals did work within a historical context, but that they were not slaves to the past; that Serbian history is not a continuous reiteration of static themes. His subjects are Dobrica Cosic (a novelist), Mica Popovic (a painter) and Borislav Mihajlovic Mihiz (a literary critic). These three men were part of a circle of friends who began the postwar with (mostly!) open minds about the promise of the new communist order and who wound up by 1974 as inveterate opponents of the regime and nationalists. Together, the work of these men indicates that nationalism was more than a tool for cynical and needy politicians, and less an ancient bequest than an unsurprising response to real conditions in Tito's Yugoslavia. Book jacket. |
Contents
1 | |
Nonconformist Initiations | 39 |
Cosic Engagement and Disillusionment 19561966 | 83 |
Drama and Politics Mihiz in the Sixties | 119 |
The Suicide and Rebirth of the Painting Mica Popovic 19591974 | 149 |
Fragmented Serbia | 177 |
Cosic and Popovic Return to Serbia | 215 |
From Principle to Catharsis | 241 |
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The Nonconformists: Culture, Politics, and Nationalism in a Serbian ... Nick Miller Limited preview - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
Albanian Aleksandar Aleksandar Ranković Antonije Isaković artistic Autobiografija Banović Strahinja become believed Bogdan Borislav Mihajlović Mihiz Central Committee Četnik communism Čovek critical Crnjanski Croatian Croats death Djilas Djogo Djordje Djurić Dobrica Ćosić Dragović Dušan evil fact fate freedom friends Gligorijević goal Goli Otok Gvozden historical ideological informel Isaković Ivan Ivić Katić Književne novine Književnost Krleža League of Communists liberation literary Marković Martinović Memorandum Mića Popović Mihailo Mihailović and Krestić Miloš Milošević Miroslav Krleža modern Montenegrin movement nationalist NIN Belgrade Njegoš novel Novi Sad Novi Sad Agreement Odgovor painter painting party Pavle Pavle Ivić Pavlović Petar Piščevi zapisi Plenum political Politika Proposal Prosveta Ranković Razgovori republics revolution role Sajler Scenes Serbian culture Serbian intellectuals Serbian nation Serbian Writers Serbs Simina 9a siminovci Slikarstvo Slovene social socialist realism society speech Srpska Stojković Strahinić Ban student tion Tito's Titoism truth ukazivanja Vreme vlasti vremenu Vukašin Yugoslav Yugoslavia Zogović