Rhetorics of Everyday Resistance: The Belgrade 1996/97 Student Protest

<p>In this project, I explore and theorize how practices of resistance emerge and function within a nondemocratic political context. I identify the 1996/97 student protest as a pivotal event of nonviolent resistance in Serbia during the 1990s, focusing on the rhetorical tactics employed to subvert and undermine the authoritarian regime. Apart from examining day-to-day practices of the movement – its mechanisms and rhetorical devices – I interrogate the role of carnivalesque humor and the carnivalesque body present in political jokes and al fresco satirical, theatrical spectaculars.</p> <p>This project makes a number of contributions to the communication discipline. I suggest that the rhetoric of resistance per se has been used sporadically as a framework and that, while, that framework does encompass a wide range of theoretical precepts, social issues, and modes of enactment, it nevertheless has been historically molded to account for specific and narrow conceptual vocabularies that leave an array of discourses and practices of dissent unexamined. I demonstrate how everyday practices of dissent as latent forms of resistance came to full realization during the movement. In my dissertation, then, I provide insights into how the field of rhetoric might benefit from the analysis of everyday resistance in nondemocratic contexts. Specifically, I examine how carnival as a site and practice of resistance might be extended and revised.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year

2013

Author dc:creator

• Lazić, Gordana

Contributors dc:contributor

• Christina R. Foust

• Communication
• Resistance
• Protest
• Social Influence and Political Communication
• Speech and Rhetorical Studies

Statement dc:rights

• <p>Copyright is held by the author. This work may only be accessed by members of the University of Denver community. The work is provided by permission of the author for individual research purposes only and may not be further copied or distributed. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.</p>

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.du.edu/restrictedetd/61

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.du.edu:restrictedetd-1062