Slavoj Žižek's Nationalist Turn and Laibach's Role in Yugoslav Dissolution Analyzed
In his 1996 publication 'The Indivisible Remainder', Slavoj Žižek emphasizes Slovene national identity during the disintegration of Yugoslavia, portraying ethnic affiliation as a route to Mitteleuropa. In 'The Fragile Absolute', released in 2000, he describes Slovenia as 'the last bulwark of peaceful Mitteleuropa' and critiques Serbs through a collective identity he calls 'the serbs', highlighting a new form of racism in Europe. The 1990s experienced cultural racism in Slovenia, intertwined with Roman Catholicism and nationalism, as the rock band Laibach, part of the NSK collective, satirized socialist Yugoslavia while promoting white European supremacy. Petar Tancig, who served as Slovenia's Minister of Science and Technology in 1991, noted a distinction between western-catholic and oriental-byzantine traditions, regarding Slovenia and Croatia as a 'cordon sanitaire' against disorder.
Key facts
- Slavoj Žižek's 1996 book 'The Indivisible Remainder' begins with a statement of Slovene national identity.
- Žižek's embrace of Slovenism emerged during Yugoslavia's collapse, framed as an escape from the Balkans toward Western Europe.
- In 'The Fragile Absolute' (2000), Žižek advocates for a Christian legacy and positions Slovenia as a bulwark of Mitteleuropa.
- The term 'the serbs' is used to denote a phantasmatic collective identity reflecting a new form of racism in Europe.
- Laibach, a Slovenian rock group formed in the early 1980s, performed in Nazi-like uniforms as part of the Neue Slowenische Kunst collective.
- Laibach's work parodied Yugoslav socialism while tacitly endorsing a Germanic, white European supremacist discourse.
- Slovene nationalism in the 1990s emphasized Roman Catholic heritage, civil society, and a flag identical to the European Union's.
- Petar Tancig, Slovenia's 1991 Minister of Science and Technology, described a civilizational divide between western-catholic and oriental-byzantine traditions.
Entities
Artists
- Slavoj Žižek
- Emir Kusturica
- Jean-Francois Lyotard
- Jacques Lacan
- Sigmund Freud
- James Strachey
- Mario Golobi
- Petar Tancig
- Robert Hayden
- Milica Baki-Hayden
- Toma Longinovich
Institutions
- ARTMargins
- University of Wisconsin
- Verso
- Start
- University of Minnesota Press
- AMOK Books
- Neue Slowenische Kunst
- Norton
- Takarajima
- European Union
- NATO
- Yugoslav People's Army
Locations
- Madison
- Wisconsin
- United States
- London
- United Kingdom
- Slovenia
- Ljubljana
- Croatia
- Bosnia
- Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Kosovo
- Serbia
- Montenegro
- Macedonia
- Yugoslavia
- Mitteleuropa
- Western Europe
- Europe
- Balkans
- Ottoman Empire
- Byzantium
- Habsburg
- Minneapolis
- Los Angeles
- California
- Japan
- Vienna
- Austria
- Germany
- Ikocjan caves