Forrester, Sibelan E.S.

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Swarthmore College Works Russian Faculty Works Russian Summer 2013 Review Of "Retracing Images: Visual Culture After Yugoslavia" Edited By D. Šuber and S. Karamanić Sibelan E.S. Forrester Swarthmore College, sforres1@swarthmore.edu This work is brought to you for free and open access by . It has been accepted for inclusion in Russian Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact myworks@swarthmore.edu. Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-russian  Part of the Slavic Languages and Societies Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits you  Recommended Citation Sibelan E.S. Forrester. (2013). "Review Of "Retracing Images: Visual Culture After Yugoslavia" Edited By D. Šuber and S. Karamanić". Slavic And East European Journal. Volume 57, Issue 2. 321-322. https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-russian/28 Reviews 321Daniel Súber and Slobodan Karamanic, eds. Retracing Images: Visual Culture after Yugoslavia.Balkan Studies Library, vol. 4. Leiden: Brill, 2012. List of figures. Index, xvi-l-349 pp.$176.00 (cloth).This smart and informative volume of studies and analysis of visual culture in various regions.Retracing Images: Visual Culture after Yugoslavia, addresses art and images of different kinds,tending towards non-elite genres (billboards, graffiti, and posters), with references to the his-tory, literature, and politics that form the interpretive background. For readers most interestedin the breakup of Yugoslavia, some pieces refer to this period as well (Elissa Helms's "BosnianGirl" in particular). The contributors are specialists in Anthropology, Art History, Comp Lit,Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Media and Communication, Philosophy, Political Science,and Sociology. This makes for a fertile variety of approaches to visual culture—but also to in-evitable, unevenness among the chapters, which sometimes contradict one another in their as-sumptions and assertions. The volume includes mostly European scholars, and largely scholarsworking outside their places of origin but well informed in Westem theory, theory from the Yu-goslav period, and work by Soviet scholars and postcolonial intellectuals.The introduction by editors Suber and Karamanic is incisive and engaging, establishing theproject's importance and Cultural Studies direction. They give a positive but not sentimental orsimplistic evaluation of the former socialist system—which looks quite different now that it hasbeen replaced (as elsewhere in Eastem Europe) by nationalist plutocracies, áuber and Kara-manié assert that, "In fact, the wars in Yugoslavia resulted from the withdrawal of the socialistproject" (60).The first section concentrates on still images. Zoran Terzié's '"Image Games': PoliticalImagology and the Mimicry of Power," one of the best pieces in the collection, is tough and re-freshingly frank in its leftist orientation, connecting politics with films, novels, and various fi-nancial discourses. Miklavz Komelj's "Function of the Signifier 'Totalitarianism' in the Consti-tution of the 'East Art' Field" considers the ideas that illuminate the art scene and its rhetoric allover Eastem Europe, then focuses on the situation of former Yugoslavia and its successorrepublics. Sezgin Boynik's "New Collectives: Art Networks and Cultural Politics in Post-Yugoslav Spaces" traces some of the new collectives that have emerged under capitalism, some-times with aid from foreign foundations, and the different handling of management that is re-quired. Gregor Bulc's "Spraying on Gallery Walls: Graffiti and the Art Scene in Slovenia"examines the status of graffiti, especially in Ljubljana, and the persistenee of elite expectationseven in galleries that now mount exhibitions of graffiti.Opening a second section, devoted to film. Davor Beganovic offers a prequel to the book'sstated topic in "The Role of the Hero in Yugoslav Cinema in the Early and Late Sixties." He ex-amines this era of film with regard to movies from the USSR and the emergence from SocialistRealism; most Yugoslav literature, famously, did not languish under that obligatory style, butfilm did for a few decades (as a higher-stakes, more effective vehicle for shaping public opin-ion?). Nejbojsa Jovanovic, in "Futur Antérieur oíYxigos\iíV Cinema, or. Why Emir Kusturica'sLegacy is Worth Fighting for," offers interesting readings of Kusturica's When Father WasAway on Business, problematizing Kusturica's own presentation of the import of his pastmovies, and objecting to scholars or viewers who now distort the meaning of Yugoslav cinemaby referring to directors or actors, as well as films, only by the names of their current republics.This is not just an ahistorical revisionism, but also willftil misreading of the way films continueto exeri their influence, re-presenting the past (cityscapes, clothes, cars, political references) inthe present. The mere title of Robert Alagjozovski's "The Nationalistic Tum and the Visual Re-sponse in Macedonian Art and Cinema" tacitly questions the previous article's insistence onconsideration of Yugoslav cinema. The place of Slovenian and Macedonian cultural productionin Yugoslavia raises a number of questions, and the book's introduction could have made thistension more productive.322 Slavic and East European JournalThe final section looks at images as sites of negotiation of memory and history, opening withElissa Helms's '"Bosnian Girl'; Nationalism and Innocence through Images of Women." Helmsdiscusses billboards about Srebrenica and artists' posters in Sarajevo, though she includes no in-terviews with individuals in or from Bosnia about their own views of what meanings these im-ages convey and how. Though her readings are thought-provoking, it is a shame that an anthro-pologist has not tapped local people's opinions about the images d-scussed. This objectionmight apply even more to the following article, "Reinventing Kosovo; Newborn and the YoungEuropeans," by Isabel Ströhle. It describes an advertising campaign financed by the governmentof Kosovo (spelled, without an explanatory note, in Serbian, not "Kosova" as in Albanian,surely the spelling used by the govemment she is considering since 2007) in terms of what ithopes to project versus the reality—but unsupported by interviews with anyone in or fromKosova/o. Ströhle interprets graffiti on a billboard or two featuring this ad campaign, but thereis a long local fradition—not only in Kosova/o—of writing or drawing on posters and bill-boards, and one might argue how much graffiti or additional writing represents a widely heldopinion. If the point is to read graffiti's public commentary as opinion that emerges onto thesame surfaee as the eampaign itself—out of the kitchen or some other private space—then thisis not made explicit. Gal Kim's "Transformation of Memorial Sites in the Post-Yugoslav Con-text," limited to Croatia and especially Slovenia despite its title, is marred by the quality of theEnglish; Kim emerges as a passionate proponent of the Partisan cause and its monuments,highly critical of memorials to anyone who might have been a fascist collaborator, but seemsunable to explain his own position. Mitja Velikonja's article, "Titostalgia. On the Post-YugoslavCognitive Map," is a highlight of the collection, fiill of detail reflecting a long process of field-work as well as archival research. Velikonja's warm tone does justice to the humor in some ofthe juxtapositions he presents, but it never condemns or condescends to individuals who haveereated the images of Tito or provided information. The volume's final pieee is written by theeditors. "Symbolic Landscape, Violence and the Normalization Proeess in Post-Milosevic Ser-bia" brings Serbia into the list of topics and examines violence as a component of current soci-ety, then steps back to look at the Milosevic period. Here Suber and Karamanic look at graffiti(especially that on official signage), the renaming of streets, and the mobilization of earlier "he-roes" of the Serb people in attempts to compel certain kinds of behavior.The eoUection is enriched with copious illustrations, essential to work on visual topics, andthe list of figures itself may be read with interest. Most of the chapters, unfortunately, are badlyin need of proofreading. A volume published in English should be readable as English; other-wise, we might argue, it risks implying secondary value and importance for both its scholars andits themes. Examples of awkward phrasing or even incomprehensible formulations are too nu-merous to cite. In eonfrast, Mitja Velikonja's article is clear and well-written—a credit to histranslator, Olga Vukovic.The editors and publishers are to be commended for including an index, which makes it eas-ier for scholars to use and cite this collection, as they will surely wish to do. Despite the fre-quent problems with language. Retracing Images offers a number of theoretieally well-foundedstudies fiill of information and sharp analysis. It is highly recommended for scholars of the re-gion, social scientists, and students and scholars of visual culture of all kinds.Sibelan Forrester, Swarthmore CollegeCopyright of Slavic & East European Journal is the property of American Association ofTeachers of Slavic & East European Languages and its content may not be copied or emailedto multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express writtenpermission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

Review Of  Retracing Images: Visual Culture After Yugoslavia  Edited By D. Šuber and S. Karamanić

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Review Of Retracing Images: Visual Culture After Yugoslavia Edited By D. Šuber and S. Karamanić

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