Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU invites you to a public lecture by Prof. Lev Kreft:
From Marx to Majstorović: Between Democratization of Culture and Cultural Democracy – abstract.
The lecture in English language will be on Wednesday, 15th December 2021, at 5. p. m. via ZOOM.
To understand the relationship between equality and equity in the politics of culture of the socialist Yugoslavia from 1960s and 1970s, it is necessary to start with young Marx’s criticism of political emancipation. Hegelian reading of young Marx was very influential, and as it included liberal wing of the League of Communists it had nearly hegemonic position in academia, but with a caveat: to use Marx’s critical method in domestic political matters may be unwelcome, even dangerous. Cultural politics had three characteristics which are still of interest: self-management of culture which meant that fields of material production and of culture exchanged their good soutside market and through agreement of cultural producers and cultural recipients; non-alignment international politics which included struggle for de-Westernization of international – world culture; and democratization of culture through cultural action. These and other features of Yugoslav cultural politics needed theoretical/ideological support, and it emerged in many forms of different theories of culture and its revolutionary importance for socialism. Among these was one that transgressed its supportive use – that of Stevan Majstorović who introduceddifferentiation between democratization of culture from cultural democracy. Itcorresponds to the difference and tension between equality and equity asconcerning the right to culture.
Kindly invited!