Ethnic and regional stereotypes in the TV series “Konak kod Hilmije”

Abstract

Ethnic and regional stereotypes as simplified views of a people within a certain community based on their ethnic and regional affiliation are observed in this paper through the TV series “Konak kod Hilmije” (konak, local small private hotel with a restaurant), broadcast in 2018 and 2019 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, as well as in the diaspora countries of the former Yugoslavia. Ethnic and regional stereotypes were found during the analysis of the series’ rhetoric and discourse. The series is set in Sarajevo during World War II, more precisely in a restaurant with an overnight stay run by a local Sarajevo host. A handful of different characters moving through the tavern and konak has produced ethnic and regional stereotypes, in addition to their personal interests and allegedly reduced national tensions. These stereotypes run through the series as an important part of ethnic humor, whose content is primarily on an ethnic/national basis, but also contain geographical/regional or social foundations. Humor at the expense of various social groups, religious and other greetings, cultural background of the inhabitants of the old part of Sarajevo, retraditionalization in the domain of religion and language, indicates that the TV series “Konak kod Hilmije” is critical of these phenomena and processes in public discourse, mostly towards the simplified view of ethnic/regional communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.