CULTURE OF SERBIA IN THE JAWS OF MODERN LIFE
Keywords:
culture, tradition, modernization, globalization, transition, Southeast Europe, Serbia, cultural policy, cultural institutions, social developmentAbstract
This paper observes the Serbian culture in its last two centuries of existence, first within the context of modernization, and then globalization. Outside this historical context it would be impossible to explain the situation in culture hic et nunc. Since the Serbian culture shares the fate of other Southeast European cultures, its development and postsocialist experience is followed within this geopolitical entity. In the above cultural zone, modernization progresses with a number of difficulties since the Serbian society is burdened by its past, now as before. The Serbian culture responds to the challenges of modernization by closing off and isolating itself from the ”cultures of the world”. With the assistance from the antimodern forces, it exhibits powerful currents of retraditionalization and remythologization.
The paper pays special attention to the transitional prospects of the Serbian culture and Serbian society. The authors provide a critical insight into traditionalism which has found its way as an antibody into the culture of Serbia, hindering it in its modernization and Europeanization (the adoption of European values). Historically speaking, Serbia has skipped several phases in its development, unlike other Western European societies. It did not have the experience of Renaissance, and it lived through a difficult era of ”communist modernization” and totalitarian-authoritarian regime of the 1990s. Today, the Serbian culture is at the crossroads between retraditionalization and (post)modernization.
Finally, the attention is directed toward the current cultural policy in Serbia, and state and prospects of its institutions of culture. On the basis of the legal framework of the cultural policy and numerous examples which illustrate a cultural downfall of the contemporary Serbian society, it is concluded that culture is disregarded in Serbia through the negligence of the state, the absence of political will for cultural changes, the lack of clear awareness of the citizens of Serbia concerning the importance of culture and the misinterpretation of its importance for personal and general social development. The authors emphasize the necessity to encourage the development of cultural needs toward higher aesthetic, spiritual, and moral values, to create conditions for a social development which will be founded on the elite, and not elitist, culture, bearing in mind that modernization and social development of Serbia cannot occur without the understanding of the importance of cultural development and without raising the awareness for the acceptance of cultural diversity.
Downloads
References
Božilović, Nikola (2011): „Vulgarizacija tradicije popularne muzike u Srbiji”, u: Teme, XXXV (4), 1323–1352.
Božilović, Nikola (2012): „Otpori modernizaciji kulture srpskog društva”, u: Teme, XXXVI (3), 1117–1141.
Cassirer, Ernst (1944): An Essay on Man. An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture, Yale University Press, New Haven
Crespi, Franco (2006): Sociologija kulture, Politička kultura, Zagreb
Cvejić, Slobodan, Babović, Matija i Pudar, Gazela (2011): Studija o humanom razvoju – Srbija 2010: izvori i ishodi socijalnog isključivanja, UNDP Srbija, Beograd
Dragićević Šešić, Milena (2010): „Kulturna politika, nacionalizam i evropske integracije”, u: Katarina Tojić, Marijana Simu (ur.) Biti iz/van. Ka redefinisanju kulturnog identiteta Srbije, str. 104–121, Kulturklammer, Beograd
Dragićević Šešić, Milena i Stojković, Branimir (2011): Kultura – menadžment, animacija, marketing, Clio, Beograd
Dragićević Šešić, Milena, Brkić, Aleksandar and Mikić, Hristina (2012): Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe, Country profile Serbia, 13th edition 2012. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.culturalpolicies.net.
Đukić-Dojčinović, Vesna (2003): Tranzicione kulturne politike: konfuzije i dileme, Zadužbina Andrejević, Beograd
Eagleton, Terry (2002): Ideja kulture, Jesenski i Turk, Zagreb
Fukujama, Frensis (1997): Sudar kultura. Poverenje, društvene vrline i stvaranje prosperiteta, Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, Beograd
Geertz, Clifford (1973): The Interpretation of Cultures, Basic Books, New York
Godelie, Moris (1989): Analiza tranzitornih procesa, GEI SANU, knj. XXXVIII, Beograd
Golubović, Zagorka (2003): Izazovi demokratije u savremenom svetu, Centar za kulturu, Požarevac
Golubović, Zagorka i Jarić, Isidora (2010): Kultura i preobražaj Srbije (Vrednosna usmerenja građana u promenama posle 2000. godine), Službeni glasnik, Res publica, Beograd
Hobsbom, Erik i Rejndžer, Terens (ur.) (2002): Izmišljanje tradicije, Biblioteka XX vek, Beograd
Inglehart, Ronald (1997): Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in Forty-Three Societies, Princeton University Press, Princeton
Jovanović, Đokica (2012): Prilagođavanje – Srbija i moderna: od strepnje do sumnje, Sven,Niš, Institut za sociološka istraživanja Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu, Beograd
Jovanović, Slobodan (2005): Kulturni obrazac, Stubovi kulture, Beograd
Koliopoulos, John i Veremis, Thanos (2002): Greece. The Modern Sequel: From1831 to the Present, Hurst, London
Lečner, Frenk Dž. i Boli, Džon (2006): Kultura sveta: začeci i ishodi, Clio, Beograd
Marks, Karl i Engels, Fridrih (1976): O književnosti i umetnosti, Rad, Beograd
Martinović, Dragana i Jokić, Biljana (2009): Muzeji Srbije – aktuelno stanje, Zavod za proučavanje kulturnog razvitka Srbije, Beograd
Maširević, Ljubomir (2011): Postmoderna teorija i film na primeru kinematografije Tventina Tarantina, Čigoja štampa, Institut za sociološka istraživanja Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu, Beograd
McLuhan, Marshall & Fiore, Quentin (1968): War and Peace in the Global Village, Bantam, New York
Mojsi, Dominik (2012): Geopolitika emocija. Kako kulture straha, poniženja i nade utiču na oblikovanje sveta, Clio, Beograd
Naumović, Slobodan (1994): „Upotreba tradicije – politička tranzicija i promena odnosa prema tradiciji u Srbiji 1987–1990”, u: Mirjana Prošić-Dvornić (ur.) Kulture u tranziciji, str. 95–121, Plato, Beograd
Opštine i regioni u Republici Srbiji, 2011, Republički zavod za statistiku, Beograd
Prošić-Dvornić, Mirjana (1994): „’Druga Srbija’ – mirovni i ženski pokreti”, u: M. Prošić-Dvornić (ur.) Kulture u tranziciji. str. 179–199, Plato, Beograd
Raković, Aleksandar (2012): Rokenrol u Jugoslaviji 1956–1968. Izazov socijalističkom društvu, Arhipelag, Beograd
Rot, Klaus (2012): Od socijalizma do Evropske unije. Ogledi o svakodnevnom životu u jugoistočnoj Evropi, Biblioteka XX vek, Beograd
Skledar, Nikola (2012): Sociologija kulture: pojmovi, teme, problemi, Zaprešić: Plejada, Visoka škola za poslovanje i upravljanje s pravom javnosti „Baltazar Adam Krčelić”, Zagreb
Spasić, Ivana (2012): „Jugoslavija kao mesto normalnog života: sećanja običnih ljudi u Srbiji”, u: Sociologija, Vol. LIV (4), 577–594.
Statistički kalendar Republike Srbije 2012, Republički zavod za statistiku, Beograd
Stojanović, Dubravka (2010): Ulje na vodi. Ogledi iz istorije sadašnjosti Srbije, Peščanik, Beograd
Turza, Karel (1998): Luis Mamford. Jedna kritika modernosti, Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, Beograd
Vučetić, Radina (2012): Koka-kola socijalizam. Amerikanizacija jugoslovenske popularne kulture šezdesetih godina XX veka, Službeni glasnik, Beograd
Williams, Raymond (1965): The Long Revolution, Penguin, Harmondsworth