"TO KEEP FROM OBLIVION": THE IDEOLOGICAL CREATION OF COLLECTIVE MEMORY

Abstract

Play and music make up the phenomenon of human expression known as dance. The performance of Serbian dances by populations from Montenegro, - Herzegovina, Bosanska Krajina, Dalmatinska Zagora, Lika, Kordun and Banija (hereafter referred to as Dinarics) who had been brought to live in Vojvodina in the 20th century occurs in a completely different context and in new situations. This led to a new kind of analytical approach to dance, one focused on viewing dance in a new geographical contextual framework – in Vojvodina, at certain times and opportunities for dancing such as festivals, concerts, weddings etc. By analyzing the opposition between remembering and forgetting, Gordana Đerić arrived at the conclusion that the collective intimacy became manifest and public over the course of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, and that it mostly wasn't the case of the inadvertent or reckless airing of separate national intimacies, but of a planned reduction, media filtration, promotion and utilization of certain commonplace terms of mutual qualification, which were built on opposition to Others or the alleged vulnerability or defense from Others (Đerić, 2008: 10-11). The aim of the paper is to show why and in what ways the collective intimacy of Dinarics became manifest and public through the dance practices of certain individuals.