Antropologicheskij forum, 2019, no. 41

POSTCARDS WITH THE SIGHTS OF PRISTINA (KOSOVO / SERBIA): THE IMAGE OF THE CITY AND ITS EVOLUTION IN THE 1910s–2010s

Denis Ermolin
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences
3 Universitetskaya Emb., St Petersburg, Russia
denis.ermolin()gmail.com

Abstract: This article analyses the different strategies of representation of urban space by means of postcards in different historical periods and within various political entities (on the example of the city of Pristina — the capital of the partially recognized Republic of Kosovo). The author investigates the production and functioning of souvenirs and graphic products (tourist maps, travel guides, bank notes, etc.) as an instrument of symbolic nation-building that is indeed a product of the political regime of a particular state, which pursues certain social and culturally oriented political goals. This study shows that the choice of sites and objects for public representation by means of postcards has been made deliberately, and supports an official ideological message in order to create a clear-cut and official image of the city. Visual and verbal texts of postcards illustrate the political and cultural orientations of the states that have produced those souvenirs. We see it in the choice of the language(-s) and alphabets. Thus, the author has attempted to incorporate the industry of production and existence of a postcard into a phenomenon that social theory calls banal nationalism.

Keywords: Pristina, Kosovo, Serbia, Yugoslavia, symbolic nationbuilding, souvenirs, postcards, representation of urban space.

Acknowledgments: The reported study was funded by the RFBR, research project No. 18-39-20004 “Ethnocultural Projects and Their Leaders in the Post-Soviet Space”.

To cite: Ermolin D., ‘Pochtovye otkrytki s vidami Prishtiny (Kosovo / Serbiya): obraz goroda i ego evolyutsiya v 1910–2010-kh gg.’ [Postcards with the Sights of Pristina (Kosovo / Serbia): The Image of the City and Its Evolution in the 1910s–2010s], Antropologicheskij forum, 2019, no. 41, pp. 72–96.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8870-2019-15-41-72-96

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/041/ermolin.pdf