Phantasms in Stone and Songs: A “Nation in Danger” Narrative in Contemporary Serbia

This article analyzes how state-sponsored monuments, commemorative events, and popular patriotic songs in today’s Serbia create and maintain a narrative of the “nation in danger” and support the idea of the Serbian World. Particular attention is paid to four nationalist commemorative forms, including the Košare memorial, the monument to Stefan Nemanja, and the songs “Vila sa Košara” and “Veseli se srpski rode.” These forms are examined through a qualitative interpretive framework drawing on official speeches, media coverage, visual materials, song lyrics, performances, and documented public uses of these cultural forms. The article draws on Lacanian concepts of phantasm, jouissance, and the theft of enjoyment to highlight how commemorative forms do more than represent the past. They transform loss, sacrifice, and longing for territory into powerful ways for people to identify with the nation. In this way, they sustain narratives of victimhood, moral righteousness, and national unity while marginalizing alternative interpretations of the past. The article contributes to scholarship on nationalism, memory politics, and political myth by demonstrating the importance of emotions in reproducing nationalist narratives.