Yugoslav Geçmişin Hayaleti: Hafıza, Yugo-nostalji ve Tüketim

Abstract

Yugo-nostalji Yugoslav geçmişe yönelik özlemin hafıza, aidiyet ve tüketim üzerinden yeniden anlamlandırıldığı çok katmanlı bir fenomen olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Yugoslav geçmişe ilişkin semboller, popüler kültür imgeleri ve gündelik tüketim nesneleri metalaşarak piyasa içinde dolaşıma girmekte, çoğu zaman yüzeysel, ticarileştirilmiş ve içi boş göstergeler olarak değerlendirilmektedir. Bu araştırma post-Yugoslav alanda Yugo-nostaljik tüketim nesnelerinin kolektif hafıza, aidiyet ve tüketim ile ilişkisini incelemekte, Yugoslav geçmişe ait tüketim nesnelerinin postmodern dönemde nasıl maddileştiğini ve popüler tüketim pratiklerinin bir parçası haline geldiğini anlamlandırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu çerçevede araştırmanın temel sorusu post-Yugoslav coğrafyada sıklıkla reddedilen Yugoslav geçmişe dair tüketim pratiklerinin aşağıdan yukarıya gelişen, tarihsel ve kültürel karşılığı olan aktif bir hatırlama biçimine işaret edip etmediğine yöneliktir. Bu nedenle araştırmanın kuramsal çerçevesi Velikonja’nın “nostalji kültürü” ve “nostaljik kültür” ayrımına dayanmaktadır. Araştırma nitel araştırma desenine dayanmaktadır. Bosna-Hersek, Sırbistan, Hırvatistan ve Slovenya özelinde amaçlı örneklem yoluyla seçilen Yugo-nostaljik tüketim nesnelerine dair görseller göstergebilimsel analiz yoluyla incelenmektedir. Bulgular, Yugo-nostaljik tüketim nesnelerinin postmodern tüketim pratiklerinin karakteristiğine uygun biçimde işlediğini göstermekte ancak Yugo-nostaljik tüketimin Yugoslav geçmişin özgün sosyalist sistemine, tarihsel arka planına ve kolektif hafızasına dayalı “Yugoslav Dream” idealini tüketim pratikleri üzerinden kurma potansiyeli olduğunu göstermektedir. Dolayısıyla Yugo-nostaljik tüketim sadece geçmişin piyasaya sürülmesinden ibaret olmadığı gibi post-Yugoslav toplumlarda bugünün politik ve ekonomik hoşnutsuzluklarından hareketle geçmiş ve gelecek ile ilişki kuran çok katmanlı ve ironik bir ilişki olarak okunabilmektedir.

Keywords

• Yugo-nostalji
• Tüketim
• Hafıza
• Yugoslavya

Ethical Statement

Bu araştırmanın yürütülmesi sürecinde tüm etik ilke ve sorumluluklara uyulduğunu ve etik kurul izni gerektirmediğini beyan ederim.

The Ghost of the Yugoslav Past: Memory, Yugo-Nostalgia, and Consumption

Abstract

Yugo-nostalgia is defined as a multidimensional phenomenon through which longing for the Yugoslav past is reinterpreted through memory, belonging, and consumption. Symbols associated with the Yugoslav past, images of popular culture, and everyday consumption objects become commodified and circulate within the market, often being regarded as superficial, commercialized, and empty signifiers. This study examines the relationship between Yugo-nostalgic consumption objects, collective memory, identity, and consumption in the post-Yugoslav space. It aims to understand how consumption objects related to the Yugoslav past materialize in the postmodern period and become part of popular consumption practices. In this context, the main research question asks whether consumption practices related to the Yugoslav past, which is frequently rejected in the post-Yugoslav geography, point to a bottom-up form of active remembrance with historical and cultural significance. Therefore, the theoretical framework of the study is based on Velikonja’s distinction between the “culture of nostalgia” and “nostalgic culture.” The study adopts a qualitative research design. Visual materials related to Yugo-nostalgic consumption objects, selected through purposive sampling in the cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia, are examined through semiotic analysis. The findings show that Yugo-nostalgic consumption objects operate in line with the characteristics of postmodern consumption practices. However, they also indicate that Yugo-nostalgic consumption has the potential to reconstruct the ideal of the “Yugoslav Dream,” grounded in Yugoslavia’s distinctive socialist system, historical background, and collective memory, through consumption practices.

Keywords

• Yugo-nostalgia
• Consumption
• Memory
• Yugoslavia

Ethical Statement

I declare that all ethical principles and responsibilities were observed throughout the research process and that ethics committee approval was not required for this study.

References

1. Alempijević, N. S. & Potkonjak, S. (2016). The Titoaffect: Tracing Objects and Memories of Socialism in Postsocialist Crotia. J. Frykman & M. P. Frykman (Der.), Sensitive Objects: Affect and Material Culture (s. 107-125). Nordic Academic Press.
2. Allcock, J. B. (2000). Explaining Yugoslavia. Columbia University Press.
3. Anspach, C. K. (1934). Medical Dissertation on Nostalgia By Johannes Hofer 1688. Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine, 2(6), 376-391.
4. Appadurai, A. (1986). The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge University Press.
5. Assmann, J. (2010). Re-framing Memory. Between individual and collective forms of constructing the past, K. Tilmans, F. van Vree, J. Winter (Der.), Performing Past: Memory, History, and Identity in Modern Europe (s. 35-40). Amsterdam University Press.
6. Banac, I. (1988). With Stalin against Tito: Cominformist splits in Yugoslav Communism. Cornell University Press.
7. Batcho, K. I. (2013). Nostalgia: The Bittersweet History of a Psychological Concept. History of Psychology, 16(3), 165-176. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0032427
8. Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and simulation. S. F. Glaser (Çev.), University of Michigan Press.

9. Bauman, Z. (1991). Modernity and Ambivalence. Polity Press.
10. Bauman, Z. (2005). Work, consumerism and the new poor (2. basım). Open University Press.
11. Bauman, Z. (2007). Consuming Life. Polity Press.
12. Berdahl, D. (2010). On the Social Life of Postsocialism: Memory, Consumption, Germany. Indiana University Press.
13. Berman, M. (1982). All that is solid melts into air: The experience of modernity. Simon & Schuster.
14. Bocock, R. (1997). Tüketim. İ. Kutluk (Çev.). Dost Yayıncılık.
15. Bošković, A. (2013). Yugonostalgia and Yugoslav Cultural Memory: Lexicon of Yu Mythology. Slavic Review, 72(1), 54-78. https://doi.org/10.5612/SLAVICREVIEW.72.1.0054
16. Boym, S. (2001). The Future of Nostalgia. Basic Books.
17. Burg, S. L. & Berbaum, M. (1989). Community, integration, and stability in multinational Yugoslavia. American Political Science, 83(2), 535–554. https://doi.org/10.2307/1962404
18. Calic, M. J. (2019). A History of Yugoslavia. D. Geyer (Çev.). Purdue University.
19. Campbell, C. (2004). I shop therefore I know that I am: the metaphysical basis of modern consumerism. K. M. Ekström & H. Brembeck (Der.), Elusive Consumption (s. 27-45). Routledge.
20. Cross, G. (2015). Consumed Nostalgia: Memory in the age of fast capitalism. Columbia University Press.
21. Davis, F. (1979). Yearning For Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia. The Free Press.
22. De Chalup, A. L. & Donceva, T. (2017, Temmuz 3). Tito Tourism Turns Yugonostalgia into Business. Balkan Insight. https://balkaninsight.com/2017/07/03/tito-tourism-turns-yugonostalgia-into-business-07-02-2017/btj/
23. Fritzsche, P. (2001). Specters of History: On Nostalgia, Exile, and Modernity. The American Historical Review, 106(5), 1587-1618. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/106.5.1587
24. Giddens, A. (1990). The Consequences of Modernity. Polity Press.
25. Gille, Z. (2010). Postscript. M. Todorova & Z. Gille (Der.), Post-Communist Nostalgia (s. 278-290). Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt9qd8t4
26. Guffey, E. E. (2006). Retro: The Culture of Revival. Reaktion Books.
27. Halbwachs, M. (1992). On Collective Memory. University of Chicago Press.
28. Harvey, D. (1989). The condition of postmodernity: An enquiry into the origins of cultural change. Blackwell.
29. Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.
30. Holbrook, M. B. & Schindler, R. M. (2003). Nostalgic bonding: Exploring the role of nostalgia in the consumption experience. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 3(2), 107-127. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.127
31. Hutcheon, L. & Valdes, M. (2000). Irony, Nostalgia, and the Postmodern: A Dialogue. Nuevas Poligrafias Revista de Teoría Literaria y Literatura Comparada, (3), 29-54. https://doi.org/10.22201/ffyl.poligrafias.2000.3.1610
32. Jagiełło-Szostak, A. (2013). The phenomenon of Yugo-nostalgia in post-Yugoslav countries. M. Anderson (Çev.). Idea narodu politycznego kontra etnonacjonalizmy. Od jugoslawizmu do jugonostalgii (s. 275–296). ATUT.
33. Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press.
34. Janney, M. (2017 Temmuz 3). The foreign fascination with Tito turning Yugonostalgia into profit. New East Digital Archive. https://www.new-east-archive.org/articles/show/8517/the-foreign-fascination-with-tito-turning-yugonostalgia-profit
35. Kideckel, D. (2002). The Unmaking of an East-Central European Working Class. C. M. Hann (Der.), In Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies, and Practices in Eurasia (s. 114-132). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203428115
36. Koselleck, R. (2004). Futures Past: On The Semantics Of Historical Time. K. Tribe (Çev.), Columbia University Press.
37. Kuljić, T. (2003). Tito u novom srpskom poretku secanja. Sociologija, 45(2), 97–116. https://doi.org/10.2298/SOC0302097K
38. Lowenthal, D. (1989). The Past Is a Foreign Country. Cambridge University Press.
39. Luthar, B., & Pušnik, M. (2010). The Lure of Utopia: Socialist Everyday Spaces. Luthar B. & Pušnik M. (Der.), Remembering utopia: The culture of everyday life in socialist Yugoslavia (s. 1-32). New Academia Publishing.
40. Made in Yugoslavia Shop. (t.y.). Women’s Jadran T-Shirt. https://www.madeinyugoslavia.shop/products/womens-jadran-t-shirt
41. Maksimović, M. (2017). Unattainable past, unsatisfying present-Yugonostalgia: an omen of a better future? Nationalities Papers, 45(6), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2017.1312324
42. Mandel, E. (1975). Late Capitalism, J. De Bres (Çev.), Verso Pub.
43. Mihelj, S. (2017). Memory, post-socialism and the media: Nostalgia and beyond. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(3), 235–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549416682260
44. Milivojević, M., & Müller-Suleymanova, D. (2022). (Post)-Yugoslav memory travels: National and Transnational Dimensions. F. Krawatzek & N. Friess (Der.), Youth and Memory in Europe, Defining the Past, Shaping the Future (s. 181-190). De Gruyter.
45. Palmberger, M. (2008). Nostalgia matters: Nostalgia for Yugoslavia as potential vision for a better future. Sociologija, 50(4), 355-370. https://doi.org/10.2298/SOC0804355P
46. Palmberger, M. (2016). How Generations Remember: Conflicting Histories and Shared Memories in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina. Palgrave Macmillan.
47. Patterson. P. H. (2011). Bought & Sold: Living and Losing the Good Life in Socialist Yugoslavia. London: Cornell University Press.
48. Petrov, A. (2018). Yugonostalgia as a kind of love: Politics of emotional reconciliations through Yugoslav popular music. Humanities, 7(4), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/h7040119
49. Petrović, T. (2013). The Past that Bind Us: Yugonostalgia as the Politics of Future. S. Pavlović, S. Pavlović, M. Živković (Der.), Transcending Fratricide: Political Mythologies, Reconciliations, and the Uncertain Future in the Former Yugoslavia (s. 129-147). Nomos.
50. Pine, F. (2002), Retreat to the Household? Gendered Domains in Postsocialist Poland. C. M. Hann (Der.), Postsocialism: Ideals, Ideologies, and Practices in Eurasia (s. 95-114). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203428115
51. Preece, C., Rodner, V., & Rojas-Gaviria, P. (2022). Landing in Affective Atmospheres. Marketing Theory, 22(3). 359-380. https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931221076561
52. Ramet, S. P. (2006). The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918-2005. Indiana University Press.
53. Rasmussen, L. V., & Beard, D. S. (2020). Reclaiming the Legacy of Yugoslav Popular Music. D. S. Beard & L. V. Rasmussen (Der.), Made in Yugoslavia: Studies in Popular Music (s. 1-13). Routledge.
54. Red History Museum. (t.y.). BAG / TOTE BAG ‘Yugo’. https://redhistorymuseum.com/proizvod/bag-tote-bag-yugo/
55. Reynolds, S. (2012). Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past. Faber & Faber.
56. Robertson, J. (2021). Small Socialism: The Scales of Self-Management Culture in Postwar Yugoslavia. Slavic Review, 80(3), 563–584. https://doi.org/10.1017/slr.2021.147
57. Rosen, G. (1975). Nostalgia: a "forgetten" psychological disorder. Psychological Medicine, 5(4), 340-354. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329170005697X
58. Sambanis, N. & Shayo, M. (2013). Social identification and ethnic conflict. American Political Science Review, 107(2), 294-325. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055413000038
59. Sedikides, C., Whildschut, T., ve Stephan, E. (2018). Nostalgia shapes and potentiates the future. Joseph P. Forgas ve Roy F. Baumeister (Der.), The social psychology of living well (s. 181-199). Routledge.
60. Spaskovska, L., Calori, A. (2020). A Nonaligned Business World: The Global Socialist Enterprise between Self-Management and Transnational Capitalism. Nationalities Papers, 49(3), 413-427. https://doi.org/10.1017/nps.2020.27
61. Tannock, S. (1995). Nostalgia Critique. Cultural Studies, 9(3): 453–464. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502389500490511
62. Todorova, M. (2010). From Utopia to Propaganda Back. M. Todorova & Z. Gille (Der.), Post-Communist Nostalgia (s. 1-17). Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt9qd8t4
63. Trošt, T. P., & David, L. (2021). Renationalizing Memory in the Post-Yugoslav Region. Journal of Genocide Research, 24(2), 228-240. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2021.1968852
64. Ugrešić, D. (1999). The Museum of Unconditional Surrender. C. Hawkesworth (Çev.). New Directions.
65. Velikonja, M. (2008). Titostalgia: A Study of Nostalgia for Josip Broz. Peace Institute.
66. Velikonja, M. (2009). Lost in Transition: Nostalgia for Socialism in Post-Socialist Countries. East European Politics and Societies, 23(4), 535-551. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325409345140
67. Velikonja, M. (2013). ROCK’N’RETRO: New Yugoslavism In Contemporary Popular Music In Slovenia. O. Vukovic (Çev.), Sophia, Ljubljana.
68. Volčič, Z. (2007). Yugo-nostalgia: Cultural memory and media in the former Yugoslavia. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 24(1), 21-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393180701214496
69. Westad, O. A. (2007). The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of our Times. Cambridge University Press.
70. Willett, J., Saunders, C., Hackney, F., ve Hill K. (2022). The Affective Economy and Fast Fashion: Materiality, Embodied Learning and Developing a Sensibility for Sustainable Clothing, Journal of Material Culture, 27(3). 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591835221088524