Text detail

Social anthropologist Radan Haluzik comes with a book based on many years he spent in the war zones of Yugoslavia and Caucasus as a war reporter to entangle mobilizing mechanisms and strategies hidden in politics of ethnic conflicts. What is it that drive people into attending mass protests and joining militias in postmodern war is the object of his research. He uses concepts of ecstatic emotions, dramatic performance and politic aesthetic to do so. With a detailed analysis, he uncovers how even seemingly harmless hero legends can feed the hunger for a return to traditional national roots and what role it plays in political aesthetics of communist regime in the former Yugoslavia and Caucasus. The numerous theoretical approaches that the author presents sometimes cause a feeling of ontological diffusion which is the book´s main deficiency. However, the book is an exceptional ethnographic contribution to the debates on nationalism, postmodern identity wars and provides an alternative approach to their analysis using concepts of political aesthetics, ecstatic emotions, and dramatic performances.

Review:

HALUZÍK, R. (2018). Proč jdou chlapi do války: Emoce a estetika u počátků etnických konfliktů. Praha: Dokořán

Biograf themes:

Ethnicity and nation

Citation:

HADAROVÁ, L. (2018): Etnické konflikty v zajatí politických estetík. Biograf, 67-68: 91-94. Available at http://www.biograf.org/clanek.html?id=1025 [last access22. 01. 2021]