Saviours of the nation : Serbia's intellectual opposition and the revival of nationalism / Jasna Dragovi-Soso.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dragović-Soso, Jasna.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nationalism--Serbia and Montenegro--History--20th century.

Nationalism.

Intellectuals--Serbia--Attitudes.

Intellectuals.

Serbia--History--1945-1992.

Serbia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 293 pages)

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

An examination of the trajectory of Serbia's dissidence, from its origins in the 1950s to its consolidation in the early 1980s around the defence of civil and human rights. Yugoslavia's breakup in 1991 and the wars that followed in its wake have been widely blamed on Serbian nationalism. Most analyses, however, have not examined this nationalism in the years before Slobodan Milosevic's rise to power, when its principal articulators were opposition intellectuals. Jasna Dragovic-Soso asks why this strong and apparently democratic opposition movement subsequently turned towards an extreme form of nationalism and had by the end of the 1980s accepted Milosevic's undemocratic policies. Based on the author's extensive primary source research and interviews with key protagonists, Saviours of the Nation examines both the causes and the consequences of the opposition's transformation into a nationalist force. High-lighting the role of historical context, it argues that three main factors contributed to theintellectuals' elaboration of a radical nationalist ideology: abandonment of cultural "Yugoslavism" in conjunction with the post-Tito crisis of the state, difficulties in solving the thorny "Kosovo question, " and relationships between the dissidents and their Slovenian counterparts.

Contents:

Contents Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Forging of Serbia's Intellectual Opposition The forerunners: Djilas and Mihajlov, 1952-66 The critique of the Titoist system in the 1960s: the 'Black Wave' and the 'New Left' The emergence of 'nationalists' and 'liberals', 1967-71 The defence of civil rights, 1975-86 2. The 'Outburst of History' and the New Serbian Nationalism The crisis of the 1980s and the breakdown of official historiography 'De-Titoisation' and the revision of history in Serbia: Yugoslavia reconsidered The theme of genocide: the Second World War revi sited3. The Watershed: Intellectuals and Kosovo, 1985â€?8Defining the 'Kosovo question', 1981â€?5Defending the Kosovo Serbs, 1985â€?7Seeking solidarity: Kosovo and Yugoslavia, 1986â€?84. Serbs and Slovenes: 'National Interests' in Conflict, 1980â€?8Marching together, moving apart, 1981â€?6Repositories of the new nationalism: the draft 'Memorandum' of the Serbian Academy and 'Contributions for a Slovenian National Programme' The constitutional debate and the scramble for national programmes, 1987â€?85. The Victory of 'National Homogenisation', 1988â€?91Serbia's intellectual opposition and Slobodan MiloÅ¡ević, 1988â€?9Disintegration, multipartism and the end of the Belgrade critical intelligentsia, 1989â€?91ConclusionBibliographyIndex

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-7735-7092-6

OCLC:

243614274