“If you want to be classy, have Yugoclass.” Postmodern Cultural Images of Josip Broz Tito

Abstract

Abstract The article deals with internet memes related to the person of the socialist leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito. For purposes of our research, we define internet meme as conventionalized text-iconic composition, built on a basis of a specific scheme. In intentions of contemporary narratology we also consider it as a text of its kind and its creating, reproduction, transformation and reading process – as a special discursive activity. Based on analysing the primary material occurring and spreading on internet, we provide a typology of the representations of Tito from a narratological and semiotic point of view, and regarding its function in current discourse on socialist Yugoslavia. We focus mainly on cultural meanings generated by this meme culture, its relation to the narratives formed in the context of official and unofficial representations of the leader during the socialist era and to a wider context of contemporary popular culture. Pursuant to the analysis, we try to follow the features of postmodern cultural images of the socialist Yugoslavia and its leader, and relation of these narratives to nostalgic and social-critical attitudes in the contemporary world.