Myth, Religion, and National Identity: Mythologization in Serbia in the Period of National Crisis

Abstract

An at­tempt has been ma­de in this pa­per to study the cog­ni­ti­ve com­po­nent of the­i­sa­tion and mytho­lo­gi­sa­tion in Ser­bia wit­hin the pe­riod of na­ti­o­nal cri­sis, both on in­sti­tu­ti­o­nal and in­di­vi­dual le­vel. The pa­per is ba­sed on a re­se­arch ini­ti­a­ted in 1998 and com­ple­ted in 2000, thus it en­com­pas­ses pe­ri­ods pri­or to, du­ring, and af­ter the NA­TO ag­gres­sion. In­sti­tu­ti­o­nal le­vel was sur­veyed thro­ugh texts from war edi­ti­ons of "The Mi­li­tary" ma­ga­zi­ne, whi­le the in­di­vi­dual one was sur­veyed thro­ugh opi­ni­ons and tho­ughts of the Bel­gra­de stu­dent’s po­pu­la­tion. Re­se­arch re­sults in­di­ca­te the exi­sten­ce of cor­re­la­tion bet­we­en the two le­vels re­gar­ding ways and de­gre­es of myth usa­ge, as well as cer­tain dif­fe­ren­ces.

Keywords

• Serbian nation
• myth
• nationalism
• institutional level
• individual level