Page 146 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 146
Ideology in the 20th Century: studies of literary and social discourses and practices
of Tito’s Yugoslav culture.1 However, Yugoslavia was an ambivalent ‘play-
ground’: its freedom was determined by the supervision and discipline of
the dictatorial state apparatus, the basic idea of ‘brotherhood-unity’ was
‘multiculturalism directed from above’ (Losonc 1999, 93). The question
we are interested in is whether and to what extent artistic creation (poet-
ry) could have secured autonomy in the contradictory Yugoslav (cultur-
al-)political sphere? To what extent could it have worked as depoliticized
play and sign? Or was this politics exactly what poetry fought for by po-
etical means on the Yugoslav cultural battleground?
We cannot evade these questions when analysing the cultural role
and possibilities of the periodical from Novi Sad called Új Symposion
(New Symposion, 1965–1992). According to Beáta Thomka:
146 Since the journal was launched in the last relatively harmonious period of
Yugoslavia, it was furnished with the atmosphere of this cheerful, Balkan,
Southern, Mediterranean ‘barrack’ (multilingual environment, playful-
ness, impulsivity, experimentation, laxity, spontaneity, healthy sense of di-
rection, openness) (2009, 133).
The playful aesthetic of the journal is characterized by avantgarde tinker-
ing and collage which proved to be a Yugoslav attribute:
Since the editorial principles and the imaginative graphic design of Új Sym-
posion were guided by tinkering and collage-like processes, it constantly
bore traces of leisure, improvisation, variability, renewing impulses, and to-
gether with these, traces of an already bygone period (2009, 138).
Various member states competed against each other on multiple issues
(agon); cultural contest fitted the economic one, which resulted in inspir-
ing interactions. Zoltán Virág discovers the Symposionist discourse to be
led by the principle of mixture:
The comprehensive utilisation of the experience of mixtura culturalis and
mixtura lingualis, self-presentation enhancing movement-like characteris-
tics, compelled one to encounter regional modes of action simultaneous-
ly pertaining to different systems of culture, and several regions and subre-
gions (2009, 19).
However, interaction as part of the play of contest was played by
the rules given from above. Governmental regulations and prohibitions
(1971, 1983) outlined the ideological borders of the journal’s free play-
1 Huizinga interprets the foundation and practice of law as part of play from the
perspective of contest. (Huizinga 1980, 76—88)
of Tito’s Yugoslav culture.1 However, Yugoslavia was an ambivalent ‘play-
ground’: its freedom was determined by the supervision and discipline of
the dictatorial state apparatus, the basic idea of ‘brotherhood-unity’ was
‘multiculturalism directed from above’ (Losonc 1999, 93). The question
we are interested in is whether and to what extent artistic creation (poet-
ry) could have secured autonomy in the contradictory Yugoslav (cultur-
al-)political sphere? To what extent could it have worked as depoliticized
play and sign? Or was this politics exactly what poetry fought for by po-
etical means on the Yugoslav cultural battleground?
We cannot evade these questions when analysing the cultural role
and possibilities of the periodical from Novi Sad called Új Symposion
(New Symposion, 1965–1992). According to Beáta Thomka:
146 Since the journal was launched in the last relatively harmonious period of
Yugoslavia, it was furnished with the atmosphere of this cheerful, Balkan,
Southern, Mediterranean ‘barrack’ (multilingual environment, playful-
ness, impulsivity, experimentation, laxity, spontaneity, healthy sense of di-
rection, openness) (2009, 133).
The playful aesthetic of the journal is characterized by avantgarde tinker-
ing and collage which proved to be a Yugoslav attribute:
Since the editorial principles and the imaginative graphic design of Új Sym-
posion were guided by tinkering and collage-like processes, it constantly
bore traces of leisure, improvisation, variability, renewing impulses, and to-
gether with these, traces of an already bygone period (2009, 138).
Various member states competed against each other on multiple issues
(agon); cultural contest fitted the economic one, which resulted in inspir-
ing interactions. Zoltán Virág discovers the Symposionist discourse to be
led by the principle of mixture:
The comprehensive utilisation of the experience of mixtura culturalis and
mixtura lingualis, self-presentation enhancing movement-like characteris-
tics, compelled one to encounter regional modes of action simultaneous-
ly pertaining to different systems of culture, and several regions and subre-
gions (2009, 19).
However, interaction as part of the play of contest was played by
the rules given from above. Governmental regulations and prohibitions
(1971, 1983) outlined the ideological borders of the journal’s free play-
1 Huizinga interprets the foundation and practice of law as part of play from the
perspective of contest. (Huizinga 1980, 76—88)
