Serbian Dreambook

The central role that the regime of Slobodan Miloševic played in the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia is well known, but Marko Živkovic explores another side of this time period: the stories people in Serbia were telling themselves (and others) about themselves. Živkovic traces the recurring themes, scripts, and narratives that permeated public discourse in Miloševic's Serbia, as Serbs described themselves as Gypsies or Jews, violent highlanders or peaceful lowlanders, and invoked their own mythologized defeat at the Battle of Kosovo. The author investigates national narratives, the use of tradition for political purposes, and local idioms, paying special attention to the often bizarre and outlandish tropes people employed to make sense of their social reality. He suggests that the enchantments of political life under Miloševic may be fruitfully seen as a dreambook of Serbian national imaginary.