'Деда Вуле има фарму, иja-иja-о': On the Actualization of Elements of Collective Memory and Their Instrumentalization for the Current Student Protests in Serbia

• In Event: Reshaping Memory: Instrumentalization of History and Protest Discourse Narratives

Abstract

The slogans on the protest posters observed in the current student protests in Serbia consciously take up historical narratives, collective memories or elements of pop culture in order to reassure themselves, legitimize their demands and develop mobilizing power. The paper will examine how protesters draw on historical narratives as well as past protest movements, revolutionary traditions and iconic discourses to denounce current social grievances. Using a self-created corpus of protest slogans, the pragmatic components recorded therein (e.g. sentence types, speech acts, implicatures or presuppositions) will be analyzed to determine which elements of collective knowledge or collective memory are preferentially expressed in current slogans, symbols and images and why.

Author

• Anna Jouravel, U of Freiburg (Germany)