Date of Award

8-2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Communication Studies

First Advisor

Christina R. Foust

Keywords

Communication, Resistance, Protest

Abstract

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.

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.

Publication Statement

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.

Rights Holder

Gordana Lazić

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

224 pgs

Discipline

Communication

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