Ordinary Affects During the Democratization of Violence in the Context of the Breakup of Yugoslavia

Abstract

In the paper, based on the analysis of ethnographic material, the author explains ‎the emergence of ordinary affects during the breakup of Yugoslavia.‎ He shows that the ordinary affects were unfolding amid social anomie created ‎by the collapse of the Yugoslav state and the processes of ethnicization on the ‎subnational level. One of the striking features of the processes of ethnicization‎ was targeted violence against civilians or democratization of violence on ‎a subnational level. To help understand the emergence of affective afflictions,‎ the author supplements theories of cultural trauma and ethnicization with the ‎concepts of situation and crisis embedded in the ordinary. Furthermore, he argues‎ that this small theoretical supplement can help understand the persistence‎ and unusually high presence of war rhetoric in some post-Yugoslav states.‎