Being(s) in the Viennese Yugo-Kafanas: Music, affectivity and collective remembering from the perspective of students from the former Yugoslavia

Manoudakis, Georgios (author), Muršič, Rajko (mentor), Ciotti, Manuela (co-mentor)

This master thesis explores the “existence” and “nature” of the transmigrant post-Yugoslav community in Vienna, interested in the perspective of young students who recently moved into the city. Nowadays, more than 30 years after the Fall of the socialist Yugoslav Federation, the historically populous “Yugoslav” community in Vienna has practically disappeared as such, being divided into different ethnic communities. Yet, a great number of people from the former Republics migrate to Vienna and become part of multiple and complex migrant networks of solidarity that exceed their own national communities, forming a loose post-Yugoslav transnational social field of co-habitation and assistance. The thesis analyses the practical and emotional bonds that they share, especially when as young adults find themselves in a foreign country. Being interested in researching, thus, the notion of “naš”, the emic terms they use to refer to each other are “ours”, the ethnography took place both online in various Facebook groups and where people from all countries meet, this being inside various Yugo-kafanas. The latter locations are the migrant-run cafés and bars around Vienna, where young people interact and join the temporal music scenes that bring them closer as “ways of being”, negotiating their individual and collective identities as a flexible cluster of individuals. The thesis problematizes the coming together of people in the curated Yugo-kafanas as simply the result of first- or second-hand nostalgia. Instead, the contribution of this thesis is the argument that in the context of “New Yugoslavism” and “Neo Nostalgia” (Venikonja 2009; 2014) within the right settings both individuals and the collective can become what I would call “yugo-affected”. My methodology, inspired by the phenomenological tradition, primarily consists of the notions of “affect” (Anderson 2009), “atmospheres” (Böhme 1993) and embodiment (Csordas 1993) in order to address the way the particular environment of these kafanas carry on the “spirit of Yugoslavia in its cultural afterlife”, being the necessary social glue.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Vienna, transmigration, post-Yugoslav community, Yugo-kafanas, music, nostalgia, Yugo-affectivity
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2023
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-151427
• Publication date in RUL: 05.10.2023

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Bitja v dunajskih jugo-kafanah: Glasba, afektivnost in kolektivno spominjanje z vidika študentov iz nekdanje Jugoslavije

Abstract

Magistrsko delo raziskuje »obstoj« in »naravo« transmigrantske postjugoslovanske skupnosti na Dunaju. V ospredju zanimanja je perspektiva mladih študentov, ki so se nedavno preselili v mesto. Dandanes, več kot 30 let po razpadu socialistične jugoslovanske federacije, je zgodovinsko naseljena »jugoslovanska« skupnost na Dunaju kot taka praktično izginila in se razdelila na različne etnične skupnosti. Kljub temu pa se veliko ljudi iz nekdanjih republik še danes seli na Dunaj in postaja del številnih in prepletenih migrantskih mrež solidarnosti, ki presegajo njihove lastne nacionalne skupnosti, tako da tvorijo ohlapno postjugoslovansko transnacionalno družbeno polje sobivanja in pomoči. Magistrsko delo analizira praktične in čustvene vezi, ki jih družijo, še posebej ko se kot mladi odrasli znajdejo v tuji državi. Z zanimanjem za pojem biti “naš”, emskega izraza, s katerimi se samooznačujejo, da so “naši”;, je etnografija potekala tako na spletu v različnih Facebook skupinah kot tam, kjer se srečujejo ljudje iz vseh držav nekdanje Jugoslaivje, to pa so različni lokali, ki jim pravijo “jugo-kafane”. To so lokali in bari, ki jih vodijo migranti v širšem mestu Dunaj, kjer mladi prihajajo v stik drug z drugim in prisostvujejo glasbenim predvajanjem, ki jih zbližujejo kot »načini bivanja« med preoblikovanjem svojih individualnih in kolektivnih identitet, kot jih oblikuje prožna skupina posameznikov. Magistrsko delo postavlja pod vprašaj teze, da greza združevanje ljudi v teh jugo-kafanah zgolj zaradi doživljanja nostalgije iz prve ali druge roke. Nasprotno, temeljna ugotovitev dela je, da lahko v kontekstu »novega jugoslovanstva« in »neonostalgije« (Venikonja 2009; 2014) v pravih okoljih tako posamezniki kot kolektivi postanejo tisto, čemur bi avtor magistrskega dela rekel »jugo-afektirani«. Metodologija dela temelji na fenomenološki tradiciji in jo teoretsko tvorijo predvsem pojmi »afekta« (Anderson 2009), »atmosfere« (Böhme 1993) in telesnosti (Csordas 1993). Gre za obravnavo načina, na katerega določeno okolje teh lokalov prenaša »duh Jugoslavije v njenem kulturnem posmrtnem življenju« kot neizogibno družbeno lepilo.

• Keywords: Dunaj, transmigracija, postjugoslovanska skupnost, jugo-kafane, glasba, nostalgija, jugo-afektivnost