UNIVERSITY OF NOVA GORICA GRADUATE SCHOOL DISSERTATION Gal Kirn

362 Pages·2012·2.86 MB·English

by  Gal Kirn

UNIVERSITY OF NOVA GORICA
GRADUATE SCHOOL

CONCEPTUALISATION OF POLITICS AND REPRODUCTION
IN THE WORK OF LOUIS ALTHUSSER: CASE OF SOCIALIST
YUGOSLAVIA

DISSERTATION

Gal Kirn

Mentor: prof. Rado Riha

Nova Gorica, 2012
2
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT

  6

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
  9

LIST
 OF
 ABBREVIATIONS
  11

A
 NOTE
 ON
 TEXT
  12

CHAPTER
 1:
 LOUIS
 ALTHUSSER
 AND
 SOCIALIST
 YUGOSLAVIA
 IN
 POST-­‐MARXIST-­‐
SOCIALIST-­‐YUGOSLAV
 CONTEXT?
  13

1.1.
 BEFORE
 THE
 BEGINNING:
 HOW
 TO
 RE-­‐ANIMATE
 DEAD
 OBJECTS?
  13

1.2.
 AFTER
 THE
 DEATH
 OF
 REVOLUTIONARY
 REFERENTS
  20

1.2.1.
 POST-­‐MARXISM
 AND
 LOUIS
 ALTHUSSER
  23

1.2.2.
 POST-­‐SOCIALISM
 IN
 (POST-­‐)YUGOSLAV
 CONTEXT:
 AGAINST
 ANTI-­‐TOTALITARIAN
 REASON
 AND

YUGONOSTALGIC/LIBERAL
 MEMORY
  29

PART
 I:
 ALTHUSSER
 AND
 PHILOSOPHY
  36

CHAPTER
 2:
 ON
 ALTHUSSER’S
 BREAK
 AND
 SOLITUDE:
 POST-­‐ALTHUSSERIAN
 READINGS

OF
 GREGORY
 ELLIOTT
 AND
 JACQUES
 RANCIÈRE
  36

2.1.
 ALTHUSSER'S
 EARLY
 CONCEPTION
 OF
 BREAK:
 NOVELTY
 (IN
 SCIENCE)
  36

2.2.
 ALTHUSSER’S
 INTERNAL
 RUPTURE:
 FROM
 DEFINITE
 BREAK
 TO
 THE
 CONTINUATION
 OF
 THE
 BREAK

  42

2.3.
 FROM
 BREAK
 TO
 THEORETICAL
 SOLITUDE:
 REFUTATION
 OF
 GREGORY
 ELLIOT’S
 DEFENCE
 OF

ALTHUSSERIANISM
 AS
 TRANSITIONAL
 FORM
  45

2.4.
 RANCIÈRE’S
 CHALLENGE:
 ALTHUSSER,
 FROM
 “PURVEYOR
 OF
 TRUTH”
 TO
 THE
 CIRCLE
 MARXISM-­‐
COMMUNISM?
  52

CHAPTER
 3:
 BETWEEN
 THE
 TENTH
 AND
 ELEVENTH
 THESIS
 ON
 FEUERBACH:

ALTHUSSER’S
 RETURN
 TO
 NEW
 MATERIALISM
  68

3.1.
 INTRODUCTORY
 CRITICAL
 NOTES
 ON
 ‘ALEATORY
 MATERIALISM’
  68

3.2.
 …
 THE
 THESES
 ON
 FEUERBACH:
 “ANNOUNCEMENT
 OF
 RUPTURE”
  73

3.3.
 THE
 TENTH
 THESIS:
 THE
 STRUGGLE
 OF
 MATERIALISMS,
 OR
 ONE
 DIVIDES
 INTO
 TWO
 STANDPOINTS

  74

3.3.1
 FROM
 A
 TEMPORAL
 STANDPOINT
 TO
 A
 THEORETICAL
 STANDPOINT
  77

3.3.2.
 ALTHUSSER’S
 CONCEPTUALISATION
 OF
 THE
 BREAK
 IN
 THE
 THESES
  79

3.4.
 THE
 ELEVENTH
 THESIS:
 TO
 TRANSFORM
 PHILOSOPHY…
 AND
 THE
 WORLD
  82

3.
 5.
 PHILOSOPHY-­‐POLITICS-­‐SCIENCE
 AND
 THE
 OSCILLATING
 DEFINITION
 OF
 PHILOSOPHY
  84

3.6.
 NOTE
 FOR
 NEXT
 CHAPTERS
  93

PART
 II:
 ALTHUSSERIAN
 THEORY
 OF
 POLITICS
 AND
 REPRODUCTION
  95

CHAPTER
 4:
 ALTHUSSERIAN
 THEORY
 OF
 POLITICS:
 RETURN
 TO
 MACHIAVELLI
  95

4.1.
 RETURN
 TO
 POLITICS:
 FROM
 LENIN
 TO
 MACHIAVELLI
  95

4.2.
 RETURNING
 MACHIAVELLI
 TO
 THE
 MARXIAN
 TRADITION?
  98

3
4.3.
 THE
 THEORETICO-­‐HISTORICAL
 CIRCUMSTANCES
 OF
 MACHIAVELLI:
 AGAINST
 CHRISTIAN

THEOLOGY,
 HUMANISM
 AND
 “THE
 ACCOMPLISHED
 FACT”
  102

4.3.1.
 MACHIAVELLI’S
 THESES
 ON
 THE
 PHILOSOPHY
 OF
 HISTORY
  106

4.3.2
 MACHIAVELLI’S
 FOURTH
 THESIS:
 ON
 NOVELTY
  107

4.4.
 ALTHUSSER’S
 MACHIAVELLI:
 POLITICS
 OF
 THE
 ENCOUNTER
  109

4.4.1.
 ON
 TWO
 TYPES
 OF
 KNOWLEDGE:
 VERITA
 EFFETUALE
 DELLA
 COSA
  110

4.4.2.
 ON
 THE
 ENCOUNTER
 OF
 FORTUNA
 AND
 VIRTÙ
  111

4.4.3.
 POLITICS
 OF
 RUPTURE:
 THE
 POLITICAL
 PROCESS
 OF
 DESUBSTANTIALIZATION
 WITH
 THE
 PRINCE
 AND

FORTUNA
  115

4.5.
 THE
 CASE
 OF
 CESARE
 BORGIA:
 POLITICAL
 VOID?
  121

4.6.
 MACHIAVELLI’S
 NOTES
 ON
 THEORY
 OF
 REVOLUTION
  124

CHAPTER
 5:
 ALTHUSSERIAN
 THEORY
 OF
 REPRODUCTION:
 STATE,
 IDEOLOGY
 AND
 LAW

  131

5.1.
 MACHIAVELLI’S
 CONCEPT
 OF
 LO
 STATO:
 STATE
 WITHOUT
 SOVEREIGNTY?
  131

5.1.1.
 MACHIAVELLI’S
 MANTENERE
 LO
 STATO:
 FROM
 REVOLUTION
 TO
 REPRODUCTION?
  133

5.1.2.
 MANTENERE
 LO
 STATO
 AS
 AN
 INSCRIPTION
 OF
 CONTINGENCY
 IN
 THE
 NEW
 STATE?
  136

5.2.
 ALTHUSSERIAN
 NOTES
 ON
 THE
 THEORY
 OF
 TRANSITION
 TO
 CAPITALISM
  139

5.2.1.
 MACHIAVELLI
 MEETS
 MARX:
 “PRIMITIVE
 POLITICAL
 ACCUMULATION”
  145

5.2.2.
 MACHIAVELLI’S
 THEOREM:
 CLASS
 COMPROMISE
 IN
 THE
 IDEOLOGICAL
 AND
 POLITICAL
 STATE

APPARATUS?
  149

5.3.
 THEORY
 OF
 REPRODUCTION:
 SHORT
 GENEALOGY
 FROM
 QUESNAY
 TO
 MARX
  152

5.4.
 ALTHUSSERIAN
 THEORY
 OF
 REPRODUCTION:
 MODE
 OF
 REPRODUCTION
  156

5.4.1.
 TOPOGRAPHY
 REVISITED:
 OSCILLATING
 DEFINITIONS
 OF
 REPRODUCTION?
  162

5.4.2.
 LOGIC
 OF
 REPRODUCTION:
 FROM
 “STRUCTURAL
 CAUSALITY”
 (“ABSENT
 CAUSE”)
 TO
 “ABSENT”
 OBJECT

OF
 CLASS
 STRUGGLE?
  164

5.5.
 THREE
 FIELDS
 OF
 REPRODUCTION:
 STATE,
 LAW
 (AND
 IDEOLOGY)
  171

5.6.
 ON
 STATE:
 APPARATUS
 OR
 MACHINERY?
  173

5.7.
 LAW:
 A
 REFLEX
 OF
 ECONOMIC
 BASE
 OR
 THE
 INSTANCE
 OF
 CAPITALIST
 REPRODUCTION?
  183

5.7.1.
 CRITIQUE
 OF
 “DIVISION
 OF
 POWERS”:
 RISE
 OF
 LEGAL
 STATE
  188

5.7.2.
 LAW:
 BETWEEN
 REPRESSION
 AND
 MORAL
 IDEOLOGY
  190

5.8.
 THE
 WITHERING
 AWAY
 OF
 THE
 STATE,
 LAW
 AND
 IDEOLOGY?
  193

PART
 III:

 POLITICAL
 RUPTURES
 AND
 CRITIQUE
 OF
 REPRODUCTION
 ON
 THE
 CASE
 OF

SOCIALIST
 YUGOSLAVIA
  196

CHAPTER
 6:
 THREE
 REVOLUTIONARY
 HISTORICAL
 SEQUENCES:
 PARTISAN
 POLITICS,

SELF-­‐MANAGEMENT
 AND
 THE
 NON-­‐ALIGNED
 MOVEMENT
  196

6.1.
 POLITICS
 OF
 RUPTURE:
 FROM
 PARTISAN
 POLITICS
 TO
 SOCIALIST
 TRANSITION
  196

6.2.
 WWII
 AND
 THE
 PEOPLE’S
 LIBERATION
 STRUGGLE
 (PLS)
  199

6.2.1.
 THE
 FIGURE
 OF
 THE
 PARTISAN
 AS
 A
 MILITANT
 POLITICAL
 SUBJECTIVITY
 IN
 WWII
  200

6.2.2.
 SHORT
 PREHISTORY
 AND
 BEGINNINGS
 OF
 YUGOSLAV
 PARTISAN
 STRUGGLE
  204

6.2.3.
 …AND
 PEOPLE’S
 LIBERATION
 STRUGGLE
 AS
 POLITICS
 OF
 ENCOUNTER
  208

4
6.2.4.
 THE
 END
 OF
 THE
 PLS:
 REVOLUTIONARY
 TERROR
 AND
 PERSONAL
 REVENGE?
  221

6.3.
 THE
 SPLIT
 WITH
 STALIN:
 MANY
 ROADS
 TO
 SOCIALISM?
  225

6.4.
 ALIGNMENT
 TO
 THE
 NON-­‐ALIGNED
 MOVEMENT
 (NAM)
  229

6.5.
 YUGOSLAV
 SOCIALIST
 SELF-­‐MANAGEMENT/AUTO-­‐GESTION/SELF-­‐GOVERNING
  236

CHAPTER
 7:
 A
 CRITIQUE
 OF
 SOCIALIST
 REPRODUCTION
 IN
 THE
 TIMES
 OF
 MARKET

REFORM
 1965-­‐1971:
 THE
 CRISIS
 OF
 YUGOSLAV
 SOCIALIST
 DEVELOPMENT
  241

7.1.
 INTRODUCTORY
 REMARKS
 ON
 STUDIES
 OF
 YUGOSLAV
 SOCIALIST
 EXPERIENCE
  241

7.2.
 ANTINOMY
 OF
 SELF-­‐MANAGEMENT
 MODEL
  252

7.3.
 MARKET
 REFORM
 IN
 1965:
 SOCIALIST
 REPRODUCTION
 SHIFTS
 FROM
 DECENTRALIZED
 PLANNING

TOWARDS
 THE
 MARKET
  254

7.4.
 CRITIQUE
 OF
 SOCIALIST
 REPRODUCTION:
 CLASS
 STRUGGLE
 IN
 SOCIALIST
 YUGOSLAVIA
 AFTER
 THE

MARKET
 REFORM
  258

7.5.
 SEPARATION
 1:
 COMPETITION
 OF
 ENTERPRISES,
 FORMATION
 OF
 MARKET
 DISCIPLINE
  264

7.5.1.
 THE
 NEW
 ROLE
 OF
 BANKS
 AND
 GROWING
 EXTERNAL
 DEBT
 IN
 MARKET
 SOCIALISM
  266

7.5.2.
 (UNDER)DEVELOPMENT
 IN
 YUGOSLAVIA:
 KOSOVO
 RELOADED
  270

7.6.
 THE
 SECOND
 SEPARATION
 WITHIN
 THE
 ENTERPRISE:
 THE
 TECHNOCRACY
 VS.
 THE
 WORKERS
  274

7.6.1.
 WORKERS’
 POLITICS:
 BETWEEN
 THE
 TECHNICAL
 COMPOSITION
 OF
 CAPITAL
 AND
 WILDCAT
 STRIKES

  277

7.6.2.
 POLITICS
 OF
 EXCLUDED:
 THE
 UNEMPLOYED
 AND
 AN
 ADDITIONAL
 NOTE
 ON
 THE
 NEW
 TYPOLOGY
 OF

WORK
  282

7.7.
 THE
 ROLE
 OF
 LAW
 IN
 YUGOSLAV
 SOCIALISM
  288

7.7.1.
 LAW
 AS
 DOMINANT
 POLITICAL
 IDEOLOGY
 OF
 SOCIALIST
 LEADERSHIP
 AND
 AS
 THE
 OTHER
 SIDE
 OF
 THE

PRIMACY
 OF
 PRODUCTION
 FORCES
  289

7.7.2.
 FEW
 NOTES
 ON
 SOCIAL
 PROPERTY:
 LEGAL/ECONOMIC
 ASPECT
 AND
 DISPLACEMENT
 OF
 CLASS

ANTAGONISM
  292

7.8.
 FROM
 JURIDICAL
 IDEOLOGY
 TO
 IDEOLOGY
 CRITIQUE:
 THE
 HUMANIST
 FIGURE
 OF
 THE
 SELF-­‐
MANAGER,
 RISE
 OF
 NATIONALISM
 AND
 LIBERALISM
 IN
 THE
 LATE
 1960S
  297

7.8.1.
 FROM
 THE
 WORKER
 TO
 THE
 MAN
 AS
 KEY
 AGENT
 OF
 SELF-­‐MANAGEMENT?
  299

7.8.2.
 THE
 COGNITIVE
 FRAME
 OF
 MARKET
 REFORM
 AND
 ECONOMIC
 CRISIS:
 LIBERALISM
 AND
 NATIONALISM

COMPETING
 FOR
 IDEOLOGICAL
 HEGEMONY
  306

7.8.3.
 LIBERALISM
 AND
 MARKET
 FORCES
  307

7.8.4.
 NATIONALISM
 AND
 NATION-­‐STATE
  311

7.9.
 SUMMARY
  316

8.
 CONCLUDING
 REMARKS:
 FROM
 ALTHUSSER’S
 BREAK
 TO
 ADDITIONAL
 NOTES
 ON

THE
 BREAK-­‐UP
 OF
 YUGOSLAVIA
  319

APPENDICES
  330

BIBLIOGRAPHY
  332

SLOVENIAN-­‐LANGUAGE
 SUMMARY
  353

5
Abstract

The dissertation starts with the diagnosis of the post-Yugoslav context marked by the
historical experience of the failure of Yugoslav self-management socialism with its
transition to neoliberal capitalism and new nation states. The historical transformation was
accompanied by the burial of Marxist theory and theoretical transition to various
postmodernist theories and openly nationalist historiographies that legitimize the present
state of affairs. Chapter 1 considers thoroughly how to return to two, not only physically,
but in the horizon of “post” also symbolically dead objects: Louis Althusser and socialist
Yugoslavia. Some perceive these two referents as a historical curiosity, others as spectres
that haunt the present. However, more than curious spectres, the author’s wager is to re-
animate the scandal that they presented for thought and politics: Althusser’s touching of a
traumatic point in the Marxist theory and Yugoslavia representing the first rupture in the
international working class movement. How then to extract this core scandal in order to
use it for continuous engagement in Marxian theory and to contribute to the necessary
historicization of communist sequences and critique of the contradictory development of
Yugoslav socialism. The dissertation consists of three equally important parts, which
loosely correspond to major fields of Althusser’s work: philosophy and its role (part I);
Althusserian theory of politics and reproduction (Part II); and historical study of
revolutionary sequences and decline of Yugoslav socialist transition (Part III). The absence
of a concrete study of class struggles, which can be perceived as a major limit in Althusser,
is taken seriously and expanded in the case study of socialist Yugoslavia.
Part I begins with a discussion on the theoretical development of the concept of the
break and its relationship with another, less familiar notion of solitude (chapter 2). In the
second step I disclose a reading of two post-Althusserian thinkers that in a particular way
diagnose a solitude of Althusser’s philosophy: Gregory Elliot, one of the biggest scholars
in Althusserian studies and Jacques Rancière, a former student of Althusser, who later
turned his pen fiercely against his teacher. While Elliot condemns Althusserianism as the
in-between transitional form between Marxism and post-Marxism, Rancière wants to
restore Althusser to solitude, where he would be separated from the always-presupposed
union of (Marxist) theory and (communist) practice. This question is tackled and answered
6
in detail throughout Chapter 3, where I reconstruct the question of theoretical and political
practice through reading of Theses on Feuerbach. This is the central point where
Althusser’s definition of the role of philosophy takes a radically different direction that
opposed his earlier “theoricist” external position of philosophy that divides between
correct/false and his more “politicist” stance of philosophy as revolutionary weapon. His
renewed proposal of Marxist philosophy embraces a much more paradoxical position that I
named “taking side at a distance”, or “engaged distance”. Criticizing the pragmatist and
Stalinist temptation to register and translate theoretical slogans into politics, and thereby
subordinates theory to politics, Althusser opens a more intriguing thesis on philosophy,
which continues to take sides, but remains at work primarily on its own field, between
“scientific” and “ideological” that is “at a distance” from political reality. Philosophical
effects are most often “theoretical” and cannot be prescribed with political value and
efficacy. In other words, philosophy will participate in the change of the world and not
change it.
Part II proposes that the most vital contributions of Althusser need to be taken
together and not isolated from one another. Against the binary opposition of conjuncture
and structure, these two chapters take Althusser’s return to Machiavelli and Marx as
essential in understanding Althusser’s intellectual enterprise. In chapter 4 I show how
Machiavelli traced a first modern conception of revolution, or what Althusser named as
encounter of virtù and fortuna. In some respects, the detour to bourgeois revolution and
birth of Modernity represented some crucial steps for Althusser’s position to upgrade
unsatisfactory theory of “weakest link” and understanding of socialist revolution. And
secondly, in chapter 5 I deal with the most under-researched topic in Althusser, that is, the
theory of reproduction with a special emphasis on the Marxian theory of State and Law,
which were perceived as major limitations in Marx. I attempted to reconstruct a more
systematic theoretical frame for thinking reproduction especially via his posthumously
published Sur la Reproduction and some of his late works.
In Part III I rely on few of the above mentioned conceptual innovations that work
on the historical analysis of communist sequences and socialist transition in Yugoslavia.
Chapter 6 analyses three historical experiences that marked new Yugoslavia: (1) the
People’s Liberation Struggle that waged a fight against fascist occupation and became a
7
mass revolutionary movement resulting in a new political form: the federative and socialist
state of Yugoslavia. Furthermore I problematize the political and theoretical consequences
of Yugoslavian split with Stalin in 1948 that I explain in two moments: (2) the invention
and experimentation of the workers’ self-management model (1950-1961) and (3) the non-
aligned movement that undermines the bipolarity of the Cold War era (1955-1963). This
chapter rereads communist history by stressing the emancipatory dimension of ideas and
struggles. However, the analysis does not want to fall into a romantic temptation of heroic
past and simultaneously provides elements for a critique of the socialist transition.
Drawing from multiple theoretical sources and largely inspired from chapter 5, chapter 7
deals with one special historical episode within the Yugoslav experiment, the so-called
“market socialism” between 1965 and 1971. This sequence manifested the shift towards
post-socialism that emerged due to the strengthening of a capitalist tendency, which
consequently led to the internal failure and exhaustion of the Yugoslav model: the
accumulation of economic contradictions (class stratification, the inherent tension between
plan and market, underdevelopment and structural rootedness of core-periphery regions,
rise of unemployment, and the entrance to the world market via financialisation and
dependency on IMF) that coincided with an unprecedented articulation of nationalist and
liberal ideology. My critique joins one of the major theoretical observations that
Althusser’s work never ceased to discuss: insisting on the critique of the (socialist and
capitalist) State in the light of rigorous differentiation between socialism and communism
within the horizon of capitalist world system.
Keywords
Louis Althusser, new materialism, Marxist theory, return to Marx, break, theoretical
solitude, politics of rupture, Jacques Rancière, Machiavelli, reproduction, structural
causality, ideological and repressive state apparatus, state as machine, socialist Yugoslavia,
communist sequences, encounter, virtù and fortuna, partisan struggle, non-aligned
movement, self-managed model, market reform 1965, socialist transition, capitalist
tendency, role of law, structural coupling of state and capital, social ownership, class
struggle, technocracy, bureaucracy, workers struggles, contradictions and antagonisms in
socialism, post-socialism, post-Marxism.
8
Acknowledgment

It has been 5 years, in November 2007, since I wrote my initial PhD proposal, 5 years of a
great intellectual journey comprised of productive encounters and failed attempts, but all in
all an experience worthy being called a part of Bildung. The economic conditions soon
pushed me to search for different financial possibilities and from my hometown Ljubljana I
moved to two other countries and worked in very different institutional settings, which in
their particular way influenced me as a personality, but also left traces in my theoretical
work. As different chapters grew in different periods, one can find many different echoes
that I integrated through a whole series of different political and theoretical discussions,
presentations and book projects, in which I have participated with many other researchers
and activists. At this place I would like to express the gratitude to all those that have been
accompanying me in one way or another.
Let me start with mentioning the institutional support: first of all I have to thank
ZRC SAZU (and University of Nova Gorica) for opening the program on philosophy and
supported my research proposal, especially I would like to thank Teja Komelj, the
Faculty’s secretary who has always giving me assistance. Secondly, I have to thank the JvE
Academy (Maastricht) which granted me a fellowship and an unforgettable experience,
where I have conducted parts of my PhD research. Perhaps the most important event that
directly touched on my dissertation was the organization of the conference Encountering
Althusser, which I did together with Peter Thomas, Sara Farris and Katja Diefenbach. I
have to thank them all for some guidance and comments during these and later years.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to the ICI (Berlin), where I have enjoyed
the great liberty of pursuing both work- and PhD-related projects. Also, the ICI librarians
gave me a particularly warm helping hand in finding certain rare references.
On a more theoretical note I must thank Ozren Pupovac whose work, especially his
dissertation, has deeply influenced my perspective on Yugoslavia and how to read it in a
different way. I deeply appreciate Slobodan Karamanić's and Boris Buden's continuing
support and intellectual exchange in those years. Certainly, my supervisor Rado Riha at
many different points offered me important theoretical insights through which I got a
firmer grip over some weaker theoretical points. To this I am extremely grateful. Another
9
important thank goes to Rastko Močnik, who already at the undergraduate level in many
ways encouraged my interest in Louis Althusser and other politically engaged topics.
Frieder Otto Wolf is another person that I would like to express my deepest gratitude, who
has in many ways supported my well being on the aleatory journey through Althusser and
in Berlin. Some other important references and comments I received from Lev Centrih,
Primož Kraševec, Katja Kolšek, Catherine Samary and Miklavž Komelj. The latter’s
fascinating work on partisan art was a true inspiration and light during some dark times.
Most importantly, I need to express my appreciation to those closely related to
particular sections of the dissertation, especially for editing and commenting on early
versions of the manuscript: Angela Facundo and Rachel Forse, who successfully blurred
the border between comradeship and teaching. Also, my deep appreciation goes to
Nathaniel Boyd, who was patient enough to work with me through the final editing session
of the whole dissertation and give me some additional feedback. Also, I have to thank
Jernej Habjan for helping me with the summary. Moreover, I would like to thank a few
friends that commented on some chapters: Samo Tomšič, Mirt Komel and Ernst van den
Hemel. Last but not least for their precious suggestions I would like to thank Ben Dawson,
Chiara Bonfiglioli, Zlatko Jovanović, Sezgin Boynik, Ivan Rajković, Darko Suvin, Srećko
Pulig, Nebojša Jovanović, Dubravka Sekulić, Žiga Testen, Dušan Grlja, Michal Fraczek,
Agon Hamza, but also Yugoslav Black Wave, Workers-Punks’ University and FC Görli
for some existential inspiration. The theoretical process confirmed yet again that individual
theoretical work does not exist.
And at the very end I reserve my deepest gratitude and love for the indispensable
and loving support of my closest family: to my mother Nada, a real partisan mother and
my father Srečo, a real fighter and my theoretical partner, who were both there whenever I
needed them; and to my brother and best friend Bor, who in many ways supported me and
cheered me up during the process. Both grandmothers each in their own way helped me
with a lot of care. Without all their support this dissertation would not be possible. And
lastly, I have to thank Niloufar Tajeri, my love to whom my debt is greatest. She has
patiently and warmly stood at my side, supported me intellectually and emotionally,
infused me with enthusiasm and love. This has been quite a ride and this temporary end
seems only as a prelude to new beginning.
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