(WESTERN) BALKANS AS PUER AETHERNUS: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE READING OF A MYTH

Dr. Sanja Lazarević Radak

Abstract

Until recently, the controversial concept of the archetypes of the collectively unconscious has become relevant again within the framework of political psychology. According to Agnes Horvath and Darren Kelsey, archetypal situations dominate the world political scene, and thus, archetypal figures should be identified. Drawing on the concept of affective mythologies proposed by Darren Kelsey in his book Media and Affective Mythologies: Discourse, Archetypes and Ideology in Contemporary Politics, different forms in which archetyse puer aethernus has appeared in the Balkans over the past century and a half were analyzed. The assumption that language, ideology and myth are inseparable allows the myth of puel/puella aethernus to be recognized both in internal and external discourse. Since the first reports from the Balkans linked with the independence of the states and the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire, the Balkans have been represented as a peninsula populated by ignorant and young people. During the interwar period, so called the liminal phase between tradition and modernity brought different form of this archetype although with similar semantics. Zenit magazine, imagining Barbarogenije, organizing the Sokolski savez Jugoslavije, affirming the myth of the St Sava is linked with the puer / puella aethernus myth. Beginning of World War II, and the construction of the socialist state, reveal that this myth was the backbone of Yugoslav socialism and its concept of non-alignment. The breakup of Yugoslavia followed a period of transition to its former republics. This process, internally and externally, is interpreted as the emergence/growth of young democracies. The Balkans, and today the Western Balkans ruled by the puer aethernus archetype, enter into a repetitive pattern of producing always new forms of youth, with new images, meanings, new rituals and renewed, modified grand narratives.

References

• Велмар Јанковић, Владимир. 1991. Поглед с Калемегдана: оглед о београдском човеку. Београд: Библиотека града Београда.
• Цвијић, Јован. 1991. Балканско полуострво. САНУ, Београд: Књижевне новине, Завод за издавање уџбеника.
• Дворниковић, Владимир. 1990. Карактерологија Југословена. Београд-Ниш: Просвета.
• Голубовић Видосава, Суботић Ирина. 2008. Зенит 1921-1926. Београд: Народна библиотека Србије.
• Јовановић, Бојан. 2002. Карактер као судбина. Краљево: Народна библиотека, Стефан Првовенчани.
• Јунг, Карл Густав, 1977. О психологији несвесног. Нови Сад: Матица српска.
• Стојановић, Дубравка. 2012. Калдрма и асфалт. Београд: Удружење за друштвену историју.
• Суботић, Ирина. 2000. Од авангарде до аркадије. Београд: Clio.
• Тасић, Ђорђе.1992. „Смисао и задаци демократије”. У: Срби и демократија, Београд: Видици-досије.
• Жикић, Бојан.1997. „Културни херој као морални трикстер: Свети Сава у усменом предању Срба из БиХ, Гласник Етнографског институтаСАНУ,( XLVI): 123-128.
• “Ako nas Evropa ne želi, postoje drugi savezi koji nas žele”, N1, 02.2019.м http://rs.n1info.com/Vesti/a480732/Vulin-Ako-nas-Evropa-ne-zeli-postoje-drugi-savezi-koji-nas-zele.html , Pristupljeno: 02.02.2020.
• Burr, Malcolm. 1935. The Slouch Hat. London: George Allen and Urwin, LTD, Museum Street, London, 1935.
• Chinota, Richard P. “How Democracies grow”? FP, October 2009. https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/09/how-democracies-grow-up/ , Pristupljeno: 12.01. 2020.
• Fanon, Franc. 2015. Crna koža, bele maske. Novi Sad: Meditarran Publishing
• Filding Edvards, Lovett, 1925. A Wayfarer in Yugoslavia. London: Robert McBride and Co. London.
• Fox, Frank. 1915. The Balkan Peninsula. London: Black LTD, Soho Square.
• Goldsvorti, Vesna. 2005. Izmišljanje Ruritanije. Beograd: Geopoetika.
• Helmut. 1998. Rečnik osnovnih jungovskih pojmova. Beograd: Dereta.
• Jafe, Aniela. 1989. Iz života i dela K.G. Junga. Beograd: Atos.
• Janjić, Dušan. 1994. From Etnicity to Nationalism. U: Kulture u tranziciji, ur. Mirjana Prošić Dvornić, 15-34. Beograd:
• Jezernik, Božidar. 2007. Divlja Evropa: Balkan u očima putnika sa Zapada. Beograd: XX vek.
• Kelsey, Darren. 2017. Media and Affective Mythologies: Discourse, Archetypes and Ideology in Contemporary Politics. London, New York: Pallgrave Macmillan.
• “Kina je naša najveća uzdanica i spas”, Telegraf, oktobar https://telegraf.rs/teme/vesti/politika/3110092-vucic-dogovorio-s-kineskim-ministrom-prilikom-naredne-posete-si-djinpinga-potpisace-se-ovaj-sporazum/komentari/svi/ Pristupljeno: 08.02.2020.
• Koolmeister, Heidi 2019. “The Growing Signs of Fragility and Resilence of Liberal Democracy”, ICDS, Маrch, 2019. https://icds.ee/the-growing-signs-of-the-fragility-and-resilience-of-liberal-democracy/ , Pristupljeno 12.01.2020.
• 2019. „EU treba mlada demokratija poput Crne Gore”, Vijesti februar, 2019. https//vijesti.me.politika/ , Pristupljeno 12.01.2020.
• Kristeva, Julija. 1989. Moći užasa. Zagreb: Naprijed.
• Kuligowski, Waldemar. 2012. A Relay of Youth of the 21st Century. A Re-enactment of Ritual or a Grotesque Performance? Cargo, 10 (1–2): 47–60
• Lazarević Radak, Sanja. 2011. Na granicama Orijenta, Pančevo: Mali Nemo.
• Lazarević Radak, Sanja. 2013. Otkrivanje Balkana. Pančevo: Mali Nemo.
• Lazarević Radak. Sanja, 2014. Nevidljivi Balkan: prilog proučavanju postkolonijalnih geografija. Pančevo: Mali Nemo.
• Lazarević Radak, Sanja, Tomislav Oroz. 2019. „Bolesnik u predvorju Evrope: patografije balkanskih svetova”, U: Između zdravlja i bolesti: pogled sa Balkana, ur. Sanja Lazarević Radak, 9-28. Beograd: Udruženje folklorista Srbije, Univerzitetska biblioteka „Svetozar Marković“.
• “Majka Rusija – stvar prošlosti”, Politika, 21.2019. https://www.blic.rs/vesti/politika/majka-rusija-stvar-proslosti-ruska-novinarka-o-bratskim-odnosima-osecanja-su-oslabila/tsd79vl , Pristupljeno 12.02.2020
• Marković, Duško. 2018. “Zbog toga što nemamo stepen sigurnosti i bezbjednosti svi zajedno patimo i kao države i kao pojedinci” Poreska uprava jun. http://www.poreskauprava.gov.me/pretraga/186076/Premijer-Dusko-Markovic-na-konferenciji-Europa-Forum-Wachau-Zapadnom-Balkanu-je-mjesto-u-Evropi-politika-prosirenja-EU-je-politi.html , Pristupljeno 28.01.2020.
• “Mi želimo da pripadamo Evropi”, Codex, 07.2018. https://codex.me/mi-želimo-da-pripadamo-evropi/ Pristupljeno 01.02.2020.
• Mirić, Jovan. 1996. Demokracija u postkomunističkim drutšvima, Zagreb: Prosvjeta.
• Odajnik, Vladimir. Jung i politika: političke i sociološke ideje K.G. Junga. Beograd: Esoteria.
• Portefield, Sally, Polette, Keith, French Baumlin, 2009. Perpetual Adolescence: Jungian Analyses of America Media, Literature and Pop Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Powell, Alexander. 1920. The New Frontiers of Freedom. New York: Charles Scribners Sons.
• Putevi i ciljevi Sokolskog saveza Kraljevine Jugoslavije. 1931. Ljubljana: Naklada Jugoslovenske Sokolske matice.
• Spenser, Edmund. 1851. Travels in European Turkey. London: Colburn and Co.
• Soderstrom, Ola. 2008. „Reprezentacija”, U: Kulturna geografija: kritički rječnik ljučnih pojmova, prir. David Atkinson, Peter Jackson, 35-40. Zagreb: Disput.
• Vranješ, Aleksandar, Vukojević, 2015. “The uses and abuses of participatory ideologies in the socialist Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.” Политеиа, 9 (6): 187-206.
• Vukasović, Dejana. 2018. “European Union and Otherness: The Case of Balkans”, Sprawy Narodowosciowe, Seria nowa 2018(50): 1-12.
• Wilson, Francesca. 1920. Portraits and Sketches from Serbia, London: Swarmore Press.
• Zelizer, Vivijen. 2004. „Od korisne do beskorisne i ponovo korisne dece? Nastupajući obrasci vrednovanja dece. U: Sociologija detinjstva, prir. Smiljka Tomanović, 77-95. Beograd: Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva.
• Zubak, Маrko. 2016. „Igor Duda, Danas kada postajem pionir: Djetinjstvo i ideologija jugoslavenskoga socijalizma”, Časopis za suvremenu povijest, 48(1): 241-244
• Žirarde, Raul. 2000. Politički mitovi i mitologije, Beograd: XX vek.