Categories

Dr Rade Pantić

Singidunum University, Faculty of Media and Communications

Belgrade, Serbia

 

ELITIST AND POPULAR IN THE YUGOSLAV FILM CULTURE 1945–1965

Vol. XXXV, 1/2017, pp. 103–124
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2017.1.pan.103-124

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME: The aim of this article is to try to apply the theory of culture of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, which is based on the distinction between the elitist and the popular, on the domain of the Yugoslav film culture in the period between 1945–1965. Using Bourdieu’s hypothesis that conflicting artistic tastes reflect the class antagonism in the capitalist society we tried to show how aesthetic distinctions function in the case of the film culture of socialist Yugoslavia. The communist project of a classless society proved to be incapable of producing a society devoid of relations of domination and subordination. Socialist realism tried to mask the gap between the majority of population and the party bureaucracy by means of abolishing the division between the elite and the popular culture and by creating a uniform culture for the entire population. The entire social field was thus totalized by one art form. The project of Yugoslav self-management socialism, conditioned by the Cold War situation between the East and the West, failed to develop a distinct cultural model. The project of a classless, self-governing society was hiding the gap between the new governing elite and the rest of the population, the gap that was evident in the existence of the two distinct cultures: the elite culture of socialist aestheticism and the popular culture of the rest of the population. In order to cover this social split the ruling communist party would often start the so-called anti-bureaucratic reforms, changing the cultural paradigms in order to maintain the illusion that the process of permanent self-governing revolution and withering away of the state is in progress. Occasional censorship of both elite and the popular film was to maintain the illusion that Yugoslav society and its culture were on the tracks of their own autochthonous third way road of socialism with a human face. In fact the country was more and more economically and culturally dependent of the Western countries, and the governing elite unwilling to cede power to the ’working people’.

 

KEYWORDS: elite, popular, film, culture, socialism, Bourdieu

 

SOURCES:

  • Film (Beograd, 1946–1949)
  • Film: organ Saveza filmskih radnika Jugoslavije (Beograd, 1950–1952)

 

REFERENCES:

  • Beogradski filmski kritičarski krug, prvi tom (1886–1960). Urednik Ranko Munitić. Niš: Niški kulturni centar, 2002.
  • Beogradski filmski kritičarski krug, drugi tom (1961–2001). Urednik Ranko Munitić. Niš: Niški kulturni centar, 2005.
  • Bourdieu, Pierre. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge, 1984.
  • Burdije, Pjer. Pravila umetnosti. Geneza i struktura polja književnosti. Novi Sad: Svetovi, 2003.
  • Caute, David. The Dancer Defects. The Struggle for Cultural Supremacy during Cold war. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  • De Valck, Marijke. Film Festivals. From European Geopolitics to Global Cinephilia. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.
  • Dimić, Ljubodrag. Agitprop kultura: agitpropovska faza kulturne politike u Srbiji: 1945–1952. Beograd: Rad, 1988.
  • Dimić, Ljubodrag. Kulturna politika u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji 1918–1941. Deo 3, Politika i stvaralaštvo. Beograd: Stubovi kulture, 1997.
  • Dimić, Ljubodrag. „Anahrone političke koncepcije i modernizacija. Srbija šezdesetih godina XX veka. Otvaranje pitanja“. U: Dijalog povjesničara-istoričara. knj. 5. Herceg Novi, 2.–4. ožujka 2001. Urednici Hans-Georg Fleck i Igor Graovac, 409–425. Zagreb: Zaklada Friedrich Naumann, 2002.
  • Đilas, Milovan. Nova klasa. Beograd: Narodna knjiga, 1990.
  • Forbes, Jill. „The French Nouvelle Vague“. In: The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Editors John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson, 461–465. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • Fowler, Bridget. Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Theory. Critical Investigations. London: Sage, 1997.
  • Groys, Boris. „The Struggle against Museum; or, The Display of Art in Totalitarian Space“. In: Museum Culture. Histories, Discourses, Spectacles. Editors Daniel J. Sherman and Irit Rogoff, 144–162. London: Routledge, 1994.
  • Groys, Boris. „The Birth of Socialist Realism from the Spirit of the Russian Avant-Garde“. In: Post-Impressionism to World War II. Editor Debbie Lewer, 274–295. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.
  • Groys, Boris. „Educating the Masses: Socialist Realist Art“. In: Art Power. 140–147. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
  • Harbord, Janet. Film cultures. London: Sage, 2002.
  • Hayward, Susan. French National Cinema. London/New York: Routledge, 1993.
  • Jachec, Nancy. „Transatlantic Cultural Politics in the late 1950s: the Leaders and Specialists Grant Program“. Art History, vol. 26, no. 4, (September 2003), 533–555.
  • Komad, Milica. „O filmskom ukusu partijskih ideologa – jedna epizoda iz kulturnog života Jugoslavije“. Godišnjak za društvenu istoriju, god. VI, sv. 1, (Beograd, 1999), 57–66.
  • Lukić, Sveta. Savremena jugoslovenska literatura (1945–1965). Rasprava o književnom životu i književnim merilima kod nas. Beograd: Prosveta, 1968.
  • Marković, Predrag J. Beograd između Istoka i Zapada 1948–1965. Beograd: Službeni list SRJ, 1996.
  • Monticelli, Simona. „Italian post-war cinema and Neo-Realism“. In: The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Editors John Hill and Pamela Church Gibson, 455–460. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • Neal, Steve. „Art Cinema as Institution“. In: The European Cinema Reader. Editor Catherine Fowler, 103–120. London/New York: Routledge, 2002.
  • Novaković, Slobodan. Vreme otvaranja – ogledi i zapisi o „novom filmu“. Novi Sad: Kulturni centar, 1970.
  • Nove mere i kretanja u oblasti filma. Beograd: Savremena škola, 1963.
  • Petranović, Branko. Istorija Jugoslavije 1918–1988. Knjiga treća: Socijalistička Jugoslavija 1945–1988. Beograd: Nolit, 1988.
  • Petrović, Aleksandar. Novi film, 1950–1965, prva knjiga. Beograd: Institut za film, 1971.
  • Raspor, Vicko. Riječ o filmu. Beograd: Institut za film, 1988.
  • Stojanović, Dušan. Velika avantura filma. Beograd/Novi Sad: Prometej, 1998.
  • Storey, John. Inventing Popular Culture. From Folklore to Globalization. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
  • Volk, Petar. Srpski film. Beograd: Institut za film, 1996.