The nonconformists
Subtitle: culture, politics, and nationalism in a Serbian intellectual circle, 1944-1991
By: by Nick Miller.
Publisher: Central European University Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 380
ISBN-13: 9789637326936
Subjects: Ćosić, Dobrica, -- 1921- -- Criticism and interpretation; Popović, Mića -- Criticism and interpretation; Mihajlović-Mihiz, Borislav, -- 1922- -- Criticism and interpretation; Intellectuals -- Serbia -- History -- 20th century; Serbia -- Intellectual life -- 20th century
Description: "Nick Miller argues in this study that to comprehend Yugoslavia's collapse, we must examine the development and nature of Serbian nationalism, and the typical approaches will not suffice. Serbia's national movement of the 1980s and 1990s, Miller suggests, was not the product of an ancient, immutable, and aggressive Serbian national identity; nor was it an artificial creation of powerful political actors looking to capitalize on its mobilizing power. In examining the work of three influential Serbian intellectuals, Miller argues that cultural processes are too often ignored in favor of political ones; that Serbian intellectuals did work within a historical context, but that they were not slaves to the past; that Serbian history is not a continuous reiteration of static themes. His subjects are Dobrica Cosic (a novelist), Mica Popovic (a painter) and Borislav Mihajlovic Mihiz (a literary critic). These three men were part of a circle of friends who began the postwar with (mostly!) open minds about the promise of the new communist order and who wound up by 1974 as inveterate opponents of the regime and nationalists. Together, the work of these men indicates that nationalism was more than a tool for cynical and needy politicians, and less an ancient bequest than an unsurprising response to real conditions in Tito's Yugoslavia."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Šimina 9a in a new Yugoslavia; title: Nonconformist initiations; title: Ćosić : engagement and disillusionment, 19561966; title: Drama and politics: Mihiz in the sixties; title: The suicide and rebirth of the painting: Mića Popović, 19591974; title: Fragmented Serbia; title: Ćosić and Popović return to Serbia; title: From principle to catharsis; title: The children of Cain; title: The limits of revelation; title: The legend of Šimina 9a in Serbia's modern history.