Archive for: Jubilee of the Review Kultura (1968-2013)

Freud’s understanding of human nature is “pessimistic”; he emphasizes the dominance of the irrational, instinctive and unconscious motives over rational, conscious and moral. The man is a tragic and split creature within himself, with an intense conflict between the conscious and the unconscious, the instinctive and the spiritual, the pleasure principle and the reality principle. He is a creature prone to self-deception and one of the biggest self-deceptions and illusions is – religion. The creator of psychoanalysis seeks to systematically demystify its origin, substance, its social and psychological function in his in-depth critique of religion. The origins of religion lie in the response of feelings of guilt and remorse, as a result of the murder of the primal father. God is the idealized infantile omnipotent father figure, who protects rewards and punishes, while the comfort of religion is a collective illusion, a response to feelings of helplessness. This consolation is pleasant, but not real, says Freud. Careful study and analysis of the texts of letters of the first psychoanalyst, as well as testimonies of his closest associates, reveal that this uncompromising atheist has his own religion – Science, and that his hidden God is – Logos.

The aim of this paper is to show the cultural and intellectual relevance of thought of William Morris at the beginning of the third millennium. It is primarily exposed in his novel “News from Nowhere”, which is a utopian vision of a society whose main feature is concomitant aestheticism and simplification of life in an age that could be called post-post-industrial. The first part of the paper analyses elements of the intellectual biography of William Morris and points to a fundamental diversity of understanding of and reception of his work over the past hundred and fifty years. The paper then analyzes the main features of his utopian imagination and exposes arguments that speak in favor of their permanent relevance. The final part of the paper confirms the claim that William Morris was primarily a morrist – a term which denotes its original synthesis of romanticism, Marxism and utopianism.

This study explores the leadership style of a theater director, producer and manager, Mira Trailović (1924 -1989). Her personal story is one of professional development in the theatrical world of former Yugoslavia, but it is also a story about the social and cultural development of Belgrade and Yugoslavia from 1956 to 1989 (the period of her most intensive professional activity), to which she contributed a great deal. A major question of this essay is to what extent did Trailović’s leadership capacities contribute to the development of new organizational forms in culture and new managerial methods (adaptable quality management) as well as to specific organizational cultures (Dragićević Šešić & Dragojević, 2005). In addition, there is consideration of the extent to which those leadership capacities contributed to the changing horizons of expectations in culture, as well as their impact on the opinion-makers and political leaders in the Socialist Yugoslavia (specifically expectations regarding the aesthetical and ethical values of theater performances). In this study we would like to investigate the actual power of the arts when they are “managed” by a person with courage, vision and determination. We would also like to elucidate what qualities (values, knowledge, capacities, and skills) have distinguished Trailović and made her successful at a time when leaders were predominantly men, drawn from the ranks of the Yugoslav Partisans and the communist movement. The methods of research presented here will comprise archival analyses, bibliographic research (different publications on the history of the institutions she founded), interviews with key collaborators (34 interviews made and published by Feliks Pašić) and also the personal experiences of the author of this text (an internship “diary” in a form of ethnographic research according to the then university curricular demands).

This text considers the phenomena of social character and cultural pattern through a line of paradoxal statements on the topic. Relying on relevant antropological and philosophical world literature the author has determined the subject of his research and has approached the study of the social character of the Serbian people offering comprehensive supporting antropological, ethnological and literary material.