CULTURE OF REMEMBERANCE OF THE FIGURE OF JOSIP BROZ TITO IN POST-YUGOSLAV DOCUMENARY SERIES

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The aim of this paper was to analyze the policy of representation of the presidential figure of Josip Broz Tito in the most important TV series after 2000. Following a short review of the role which the audio-visual representation (in film and then television) has played in building the cult of his person in the SFRY period, the main part of the paper examines the thematic and narrative content of relevant TV series related to the discourses inherited from the socialist period which have undergone political and social transition. Critically summing up variable meanings of the presentations of Josip Broz Tito in the context of construction and reconstruction of the culture of remembrance, the main part of the paper examines different existing nationalist/patriotic and consumerist approaches.

NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY AND CULTURAL LOGIC OF LATE CAPITALISM

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Starting with the interrelated notions of globalization, postmodernism and neoliberalism, relying on their theoretical overlap, we suggest possible directions of inquiry that would clarify some aspects of the specific and today omnipresent “New Age” spirituality. Individualistic and eclectic, New Age spirituality arose in the context of countercultural movements of the sixties. It includes various kinds of metaphysical syncretisms combined with elements of modern science and humanistic psychology. We will try to show how this type of spirituality corresponds with the dominant cultural logic of the late capitalism (which we understand as global, postmodern, neoliberal, multicultural, multinational, etc). We proceed from the assumption that there is a number of points of correspondence and that it is possible to create a New Age genealogy that would clarify them. That would create prerequisites for the analysis of transposition of countercultural legacy in the neo-liberal narratives, and enable us to address the role of spirituality as a mediator in this process and as a specific mechanism of interpellation. In this way, we will deal with the reproduction and social functions of specific ideological forms in the dominant motifs of contemporary spirituality. Distributed across the growing market of the mind-body-spirit literature, the New Age worldview appears as a specific technology of the self and as an ideological aggregation point. In this point, the boundaries between market ideology and conception of reality as a hidden order/conscious self-organizing equilibrium disappear. The deification of being as „a market ontology“ results in theodicy and produces self-accusing subjectivity. This opens the door to engaging in political neoliberalism theology within an already wide-ranging discussion that replaces the secularization theory with the idea of history of political societies as a succession of different forms of sacralization.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DISCOURSE OF FRUGAL MEASURES AND THE CAPITALISTIC HEGEMONY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CULTURAL STUDIES

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Basic aim of this text is to try to give a critical analysis of the discourse of austerity measures which is manifested in intensified production of a specific type of media, public and political narratives and symbolic metaphors such as painful cuts, tightening of belts, alleged necessities in enforcement of different social diets etc, as well as similar syntagms like favourable or unfavourable business climates or devastating stormy crisis which, in the end, result in ideological and hegemonic perpetuation of the political enomy of capitalism and its pertaining power. Such discourse is approached as ideologically fabricated naturalistic discursive formations which use seemingly benign metaphors to create an illusion of alleged non-ideological crisis of recent capitalist economy and its political and social aspects. A prevailing disciplinary/case approach in analysis of the given problem motif is in the domain of rich arsenal of conceptual culture studies ie theoretical schools (structuralism, semiotics, neo-Marxism, critical discourse analysis, theory of ideology, critical social theories etc) and authors (Bahtin, Gramsci, Hall, van Dijk, Barthes, Foucault …) that were significantly used in cultural studies both substantially and methodologically. In conclusion, examples of given syntagms provide evidence that hegemony cannot simply remain in the framework of the predictable and controlled language of technocracy, and is therefore unsuccessfully searching for a way out, for an escape into the connotation, symbolic allegory, metaphor, hidden meaning.

POLITICAL ASPECT OF CULTURE STUDIES – WAYS AND SIDEWAYS

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This paper proceeds from an assumption that culture studies are impregnated with political meaning. It examines basic theoretical presumptions of culture studies whose original role was to discover new means of interpretation and methodologies in order to explain the big changes in the society and culture in the 1960ies. Opposed to the elitist culture concepts, they aim to democratize the understanding of culture by the common man, carry out a multidimensional criticism of the capitalist culture starting from leftist ideas and experiences. The aim was to pave new ways for education of “public intellectuals” outside official institutions. Under strong influence of post modernism and related theories, they have advocated radical culturalism and, paradoxically, became hostage to globalism and neoliberal ideologies. This study examines the concepts and ideas that culture studies relied on, leading to such transformation.

EDITOR’S NOTE

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TRANSITION

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LOGIC OF THE EMBODIED SUBJECT AND CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

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The body’s emergence from theoretical anonymity offers a possibility for a different rethinking of contemporary culture. A need arises for a polyvalent thinking that follows the logic of the embodied subject of contemporary culture, as opposed to the binary thinking of modernist culture. The text will fuse the post-generic constructions of the body in anthropology and philosophy with the cyborg techno-bodies of digital culture.

ROLE OF CREATIVITY IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY OF NIKOLAI BERDYAEV

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In introduction, the paper determines an anthropological propositions of Nikolai A. Berdyaev’s philosophy underlying his teachings on creativity. According to him, a man is not just an object of nature, but its supernatural subject. He is a measure of all things, a microcosm. Next follows deliberation about the nature of cognition where Berdyaev equates a gnoseology with the creativity act, because only acting can provide knowledge. Further on, in the section about creativity, Berdyaev diverges from the patristic, negative anthropology based on atonement of original sin, and directs toward a positive man’s mission that is not only to create, but to enrich „life“ of the God Himself. Finally, his learning about philosophy of history is presented: people preparing for the coming of the „Kingdom of God“ through creativity (in the form of a metahistorical order) are also created as free persons. Therefore, the process of world „objectivization“ is canceled, and the „second coming of Christ“ is prepared.

ATTITUDES OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS TO ART CULTURE

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The paper presents results of a research aimed at determining how students evaluate Art as a school subject and how they assess Arts teachers’ traits. The research was based on a questionnaire given to a sample of 220 primary and secondary school students. The research results indicate that a quarter of students classify Art classes among favorite subjects, those often being the students with lower general success rate than students with the higher one. There are no statistically significant differences when comparing the results of research in relation to variables: students’ gender, the mark in Art, age and educational institutions. Art teachers’ traits are a critical factor for students who put Art classes in the group their favourite subjects, followed by the contents of the subject and the teacher’s approach to work. Results of the research on the Art teachers’ traits raise questions of teachers’ competences and motivation for work. More than a half of the respondents considered that Art as a subject is less valued when compared with other subjects, and they recognized the role of art teachers as a crucial one in encouraging the youth interest in visual arts. Concluding remarks indicate that the characteristics of the subject can be viewed through the competences of teachers to make the planned contents more accessible and interesting to each individual student. It is believed that the results of the study indicate that the subject of Art requires complex scientific research with the aim to create a solid and broad scientific basis and provide the social support for its further improvement. Key actors in encouraging the youth interests in visual arts and the promotion of multiple functions that Art has in the overall development of personality, and thereby in improving the status of arts in relation to other subjects, are not only school and Art teachers, but education policy-makers as well.