Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation: Literature and Cultural Politics in Yugoslavia (Cultural Memory in the Present)

Rating:
Summary: Falls far short
Review: Wachtel's book represents an attempt to seek the causes for Yugoslavia's collapse over a decade ago in cultural factors. More specifically, he looks at the role literature and the fine arts (although the latter aspect receives much less attention; other forms of cultural creativity are basically ignored) played in both fomenting a common Yugoslav culture and undermining and eventually initiating the destruction of that very same culture. Along the way, Wachtel makes some valid observations and conclusions: early on, he takes issue with the 'historical inevitability' argument of Yugoslavia's break-up, pointing out that a study of the culture of any nation can produce arguments for 'inevitable' collapse. He cites the example of Germany, although the same applies to France, Italy, England, Spain and so on. Yet even in this initial section of the book, Wachtel's analysis is often marred by broad statements that are not sufficiently argued or backed by strong evidence. But the key flaw in this book is that it is yet another analysis based on a 'master variable' theory of Yugoslavia's collapse, i.e. culture, says Wachtel, is the key determinant. (Ironically, in the introduction he criticizes other scholars for making the same mistake, lambasting those who see the country's destruction as the result of exclusively political or economic factors.) Even if this thesis has merit, Wachtel's study is certainly insufficient to prove it one way or another. First, the focus on literature is too narrow, and second, even within this literary focus, the scope of research is again too narrow - he only covers a small handful of authors, and one can also question his reasons for choosing some and ignoring others. Sorely lacking is any consideration of popular/rock music, which during at least the last two decades of Yugoslavia's existence was a crucial cultural arena with both unifying and, to a lesser extent, disintegrative features. The same can also be said about Yugoslavia's motion picture industry. Wachtel's book is therefore only interesting and useful as a rather good but limited analysis of some aspects of mainly 20th century Yugoslav literary culture.