SKETCH OF THE SERBIAN POSTCOLONIAL CONDITION: SERBIAN, serbian AND SERBIAN

Dr. Đorđe Stojanović

Abstract

This study attempts to deconstruct the neocolonial status of Serbia. The paper claims that Serbia was selfcolonized through two cultural varieties: through the actions of Second Serbian, westernized liberal-democratic elites and through the actions of First Serbian, traditionalized elites. It is shown how both discourses favor neo-imperial imperatives and agendas. The decolonizing solution can be seen in the hybridization of culture through the concepts of “culture of the Serbian soul” and “super-Serb”.

The selfestablishment of decolonized Serbia is therefore only possible through a hybrid culture. It is a state in which both cultural diversity and cultural purity are rejected at the same time. The first because of turning Serbia into some exotic ” reservation”, the second because the acceptance of some other cultural register is immediately classified as a national infection/contamination/intoxication.

The hybridized narrative fable of the “culture of the Serbian soul” is a network of some “best” external representations/symbols/imaginaries and their explanations/reasons/arguments in the planetary (self)presentation of the Serbs, partially independent of personal expectations and feelings, i.e. the need to agree or disagree with them, partially corrected, filtered and supplemented by passing through the prism of internal beliefs, projections and meanings, and in the function of defending and creating the construct of an ideal, perfected, selfauthenticated and poeticized “super-Serb”. We are defending something that we simultaneously create and that creates us, an unlocked, non-restrictive “fairytale/alchemical patriotism” of the autonarratives of the best of Us in our own eyes and/or in the eyes of Others.

All in all, hybridity is an instrument of resistance to one-dimensional identities. Namely, through the introduction of a multitude of plural identities, it enables the creation of the Third Space, which is located between the domestic culture and the cultural algorithms/requirements of the neo-imperial masters (Bhabha 1994). The genuineness of hybridity lies in the manner of their amalgamation/fusion. Only in this way is it possible for the self-colonized Serbian subject to achieve a spontaneous/authentic cultural perspective/base. It is a space where Americanization (American-British-EU cultural dictation), Russification (Russian cultural dictation) and Sinoization (Chinese cultural dictation) are exposed/included in the discourse of Serbization. In a word, Serbia needs to be Serbified.

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