Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies

Repetition of difference – the search for unstable identity
Svetlana Racanović
Abstract
The transition from a cultural paradigm strongly marked by traditional and national
values towards an international, global cultural context, as well as the post-transitional
situation which follows, is a process marked by many cracks, twists, quakes and ambiguities
which make this transfer of values less smooth, less certain and less successful in terms
of the constitution of a stable, coherent and controllable cultural identity. The creation
of identity as a state of floating free, of unstable liaisons, unexpected couplings and a
constant production of difference, recommends itself as a strategy for the “New Age”.
Keywords: Southeastern Europe, post-transitional state, interplay of differences,
plurality, unstable identity
The transition from a cultural paradigm strongly marked or stigmatized by traditional
and national cultural values towards a European or broader international, global
cultural context is perceived either as a traumatic experience distinguished by a sense
of anxiety, disorientation and loss or as the “flattening of the uneven spots” and the
provision of a safe and stable “individualization of cultural identification” as a platform
for new identity construction. When we say that we are becoming more open, more
adapted, integrated, participative and productive in an international social, economic,
political and cultural context, it often sounds like we have a perspective, that this is our
perspective and that integration inevitably leads to a prosperous future. However, there
are many cracks, twists, quakes and ambiguities which make this transition of values and
the post-transitional state which follows, less smooth, less certain and less successful in
terms of the constitution of stable, coherent and controllable cultural identity.
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