Introduction: The Ugričić Event

Abstract

IntroductionThe Ugričić Event Branislav Jakovljević Everything seemed to follow the time-tested Aristotelian model: the initial incident, almost invisible to the naked eye, quickly gained momentum to first become noticeable and then with dramatic acceleration assume the dimensions of inevitability to reach its climax, enter the turning point, to finally end in a rapid downfall. In Greek tragedy, as well as in its neoclassical revival, the worst bloodshed happens behind the scenes, and the weight of its reporting falls to witnesses, heralds, shepherds, servants, and envoys. Removal of Sreten Ugričić as director of the National Library of Serbia, although pulsing with a tragic rhythm, was neither a tragedy nor inevitable fate. In his article entitled "The anatomy and physiology of a rebellion," Saša Ilić offers a first-hand account of the events on the Serbian public scene from 9–20 January 2012 that led to and followed Ugričić's firing from his post. This detailed report shows clearly the illusoriness of the analogy of these events with a tragedy and names those who stand to benefit from this implicit thesis. This recapitulation of events from an almost unbearably close proximity only confirms what was actually quite clear already on 18 January of that, in many respects crucial, year. Ugričić's removal was not only an administrative change in one of the leading institutions of culture in Serbia; it was an execution and a character assassination. As such, that was not the first incident of its kind in Belgrade and in Serbia. What was almost completely unprecedented was the collective and public nature of the firing squad. In contrast to the (neo)classical tragedy, the protagonists of this liquidation insisted on the principle of publicity in a way rarely seen in recent Serbian political history. The curtains were lifted, enabling the members of the polis to view the quartering of their co-citizen, revel in the spectacle, and take part in it. In addition to, and precisely because of that, shepherds, messengers, and servants in this "tragedy" did not act from a position of innocence, reduced to mere reporters of bloody events, but were themselves involved in the drama as its perpetrators. And that is where the crux of the horror permeating [End Page 3] this pseudo-tragedy lies: hamartia, i.e., tragic culpability does not belong to the hero as the central figure of the action, but is rather distributed among all involved in that action who, each in their own way, supported and fomented it, pushing on towards their horrible objective. Already the next day, they turned away from it, so that the "tragedy" as well as its perpetrators were soon forgotten. The hero remains unknown. This is not only a mechanism of drama, but one of the ritualization of politics with something like a negative Fuenteovejuna as its end product: if in Lope de Vega's play peasants in the village of Fuenteovejuna assume collective responsibility in order to wash themselves of the murder that one of them committed, the participants in this real-life political drama do the reverse, hoping that their public participation will normalize and thus cancel their misdeed. Despite the fact that it is not their main intention, Ilić and other contributors to this thematic section of Serbian Studies give back the names and surnames to these, thus far nameless, participants of this festival of ignominy. From the very beginning, Ugričić's dismissal from the position of director of the National Library of Serbia and everything it entailed (public humiliation, character assassination, dismissal of his accomplishments as writer and cultural manager) was referred to not as a tragedy, but as a "case." In fact, that was the only thing the ideological opponents agreed upon: the progressive online platform Peščanik set up a thematic bloc under the title "The Ugričić Case," and at the same time the conservative Nova srpska politička misao (New Serbian Political Thought) published a text by Marinko M. Vučinić with the same title. That this is a "case" seems to be a no-brainer. That very obviousness points to the ideological nature of this designation. As Louis Althusser argued throughout...