This article first appeared in The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, Volume 11, Issue 1. It was originally published by Common Ground Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois, USA.

Longing Is Belonging: Nostalgia and

Identity in Croatian Popular (Heritage) Music

Eni Buljubašić, University of Split, Croatia

Abstract: This paper relies on two pillars of research: the notion of transformation/production inherent in (global) heritage discourse (Smith 2006; Hafstein 2013) and the equally omnipresent discourse of nostalgia in popular culture (Boym 2001; 2007; Jameson 1984; Connerton 2009). These research areas provide a framework in which the investigation of the production of Dalmatian identity in the neoklapa discourse, the popular Croatian music form, can be placed. This work focuses on the dynamics of nostalgia in the neoklapa discourse. Nostalgia is here perceived not as “homesickness,” but, given its interdiscursivity with heritage and popular culture discourses, as a negotiation and rearticulation of the Croatian/Dalmatian (i.e., national/regional) identity. In the neoklapa music discourse, nostalgia is present in the domains of style and themes alike: Aspects of both are discussed in this paper. Although a full investigation of these issues requires wider (interdisciplinary and multimodal) research, the examples discussed here point to the conclusion that restorative nostalgia (Boym 2001) permeates neoklapa discourse.

Keywords: Neoklapa, Nostalgia, Heritage, Popular Culture

Introduction

This paper deals with neoklapa, a contemporary Croatian music phenomenon. Neoklapa is discursively linked to heritage discourse and popular culture, but is also pertinent to identity formation on both the national (Croatian) and regional (Dalmatian) levels. Specifically, the paper examines the notion of

nostalgia in neoklapa, i.e., how nostalgia is present and represented in the neoklapa discourse (hereafter referred as NKD). To do so, I rely on two pillars of research: the notion of transformation/production inherent in (global) heritage discourse (Smith and Akagawa 2009; Hafstein 2013) and the equally omnipresent discourse of nostalgia in popular culture (Boym 2001; Jameson 1991) and heritage-making (Berliner 2012; Connerton 2009). This dual framework allows us to approach nostalgia in an interdisciplinary manner, where nostalgia is positioned as a complex and multi-layered phenomenon. In the NKD, nostalgia is present in the domains of style and themes alike. Accordingly, aspects of both are discussed in this paper.

In what follows, the discussion of nostalgia in neoklapa will proceed through an opening discussion focused on the interrelatedness of nostalgia and heritage discourses. Next, nostalgia in neoklapa is connected with nostalgia and identity representations. Each of these areas is (briefly) discussed before connecting them via a discussion of the nostalgic styles and visual topoi of representation in NKD.

Nostalgia (Discourse)

Nostalgia studies is a recently established and a burgeoning field of research that cuts across many different disciplines.1 Given the diverse fields tackling the notion of nostalgia, its possible definitions are manifold. Niemeyer (2014, 6) has proposed the plural use of the concept, nostalgias, which “has to be understood in the larger critical context of historical, social, political, economic and aesthetic

1 Papers on nostalgia can be found in medicine and psychology (Cheung et al. 2013), marketing and globalization studies (Migliorati 2014) and social sciences and humanities (Radstone 2007; Oliete-Aldea 2010; Strong 2015).

considerations.” I agree that however we define and approach nostalgia, its wide contextualization has to be considered.

One common way of defining a term is via its etymology. In this case, the word nostalgia consists of two Greek roots, nostos, meaning return home and algia, meaning pain or longing. Thus, on this account nostalgia is longing to return home. Despite its Greek construction, however, nostalgia is not a word that comes to us from Greek antiquity. Instead, it was coined in the seventeenth century by Johannes Hofer, a Swiss doctor who used it in his dissertation to denote a disease he had diagnosed among Swiss soldiers. Thus, the word itself is nostalgic, as Boym (2007, 7) says. But, nostalgia today is a complex and multi-layered phenomenon and etymology cannot explain why in the twenty-first century we find ourselves entangled in nostalgia’s many different forms when trying to pin down a definition.

In common parlance, nostalgia has long been regarded as an emotion and experience, a bittersweet longing for a distant place and/or time (Elliott 2010; Niemeyer 2014). In the field of nostalgia studies, established categories include Davis’ distinction between simple, reflexive and interpreted nostalgia; Boym’s restorative and reflective nostalgia; Appadurai’s armchair nostalgia, etc. (Dauncy and Tinker 2014). Boym (2007) also adds ersatz nostalgia while more authors speak of first-hand and second-hand nostalgia (Berliner 2012; Garey 2009), spatial and temporal nostalgia (Elliott 2010; Chrostowska 2010), and consumerist nostalgia (Berliner 2012; Leone 2014).

Leone (2014) nicely sums up the current view of nostalgia in the field. First, since Hofer, the meaning of nostalgia has changed from designating a sentiment about place to, most predominantly, a sentiment about time. Second, from an individual affliction, nostalgia has in postmodernity become social, even global. Third, soon after social scientists began considering the past longed for in nostalgia, the conclusion was made that this past was only imaginary— “based on shared perceptions of history, [it] was idealized into homeland’s golden age” (Leone 2014, 12). Accepting this consensus, we will next discuss the interconnectedness of nostalgia, heritage and identity.

Nostalgia (Discourse), Heritage (Discourse), and Identity

To understand nostalgia in NKD it is necessary to think about nostalgia and heritage discourse together and examine the ways they may be connected. In this regard, I argue: (1) nostalgia is at the core of heritage discourse; (2) nostalgia and heritage discourses share similar temporal and constructivist dynamics.

Berliner (2012, 769) talks about nostalgia as “a major driving force in heritage-making.” He argues (ibid., 783), “[w]hether it is bureaucratic, lived, or consumerist, nostalgia motivates UNESCO expert and civil servants to protect monuments and safeguard arts”. Further, he recognizes that “nostalgic discourses and practices are foundations underlying the fields of heritage and tourism” so that in the “contemporary heritagescapes we encounter entanglements of tourism, consumption and nostalgia” (ibid., 770). Although Berliner talks about tangible heritage, I believe that the same goes for intangible heritage, perhaps even more so.

Here we come to my second point—that temporal and constructivist dynamics of nostalgia and heritage discourses are comparable and closely interrelated. Using the term constructivist, I employ the social constructivism paradigm that views discourses of nostalgia and heritage as always highly creative. This creativity, i.e., the construction of new practices and discourses, is emphasized over the seemingly straightforward aspect of continuation of the past practices or a return to them. Instead of preservation and safeguarding, the global heritage discourse paradoxically brings transformation and change to the practices it seeks to protect. Or, as Hafstein (2013, 37) warns us, we should not “be fooled by the safeguarding discourse—all heritage is change”. Nostalgia too involves change and the construal of nostalgic worlds is all but straightforward. Nostalgic worlds are constructed in the circumstances of the present with an eye fixed to the future—they are not only about the past. By

sharing similar temporal dynamics, nostalgia and heritage project the past onto the future and the future into the past in a non-linear way. Or, as Boym beautifully says (about nostalgia): “The fantasies of the past, determined by the needs of the present, have a direct impact on the realities of the future” (2007, 8). Quite similarly, Skounti claims that values and cultural, economic, social, and political processes are closely related to heritage production: “What is perceived as ripe for new functions and meanings is deemed valuable and worth preserving—past is reassessed in the present and construed for the future” (2009, 90). Comparing these two quotes, it becomes clear that Skounti’s and Boym’s claims could have been interchanged—without major changes to their respective theories about nostalgia or heritage. In this light, we might say that heritage discourse is embedded with nostalgia, or that nostalgia is a “mechanism of producing heritage and tradition” (Garey 2009, 39).

Both heritage discourse and nostalgia are relevant for identity formation in contemporary cultural and social spheres. Smith and Akagawa (2009, 7) in their edited book on intangible heritage claim that, “[h]eritage is intimately linked with identity—exactly how it is linked and its inter-relationship are yet to be fully understood—however, a key consequence of heritage is that it creates and recreates a sense of inclusion and exclusion.” In other words, heritage creates a space for identification and belonging as it shapes new communities. New communities are established, for example, through heritage actors’ “authentic illusion” (Skounti 2009), i.e., the belief that their practices are a continuation of an old tradition. More specifically, new communities are created at the intersection of heritage, entertainment, and media discourses and practices, such as the NKD community consisting of performers, audience, mediators etc.

Nostalgia, on the other hand, maintains and recreates identities via lost imagined homeland.

It determines anew what is remembered or forgotten, what is worth keeping and nostalgizing (term coined by Niemeyer 2014, 10) about, and what is not. In the globalized world, traditional communities and their traditions are disappearing. However, globalization is, paradoxically, the force behind the creation of institutionalized ways of identity formations (Tomilson 2003). In this context, a perceived loss or a lack (of authenticity, community, tradition, and homeland) opens up a space for new identifications. Thus, it is my claim here that quests for identity are presently being made in a context always already infused by global nostalgic and heritage discourses.

The full and thorough contextualization of nostalgia, heritage, and identity surpasses the scope of this article and requires politically, economically, socially, and culturally wider theorization. In relation to nostalgia in the NKD, nostalgia could thus be talked about in relation to globalization, media industry, popular culture (popular music), and even tourism. All of this would be pertinent to framing nostalgia in NKD as a locally grounded, but globally symptomatic issue.

From Klapa to Neoklapa: Heritage and Identity

This section focuses on how the notions of nostalgia and heritage are relevant to klapa music and identity representations therein. A good starting point is to consider the entry on klapa singing found on the Croatian Ministry of Culture website, which reads:

Klapa singing is a multipart singing phenomenon of the urban Dalmatia. Originally, the term refers to the singing groups (4–10 male singers—klapa) that sing specific repertoire of Dalmatian klapa songs (klapska pjesma). […] Technically, klapa singers express their mood by means of open guttural, nasal, serenade-like sotto voce and falsetto singing, and usually in high-pitched tessitura. The main aim of the singers is to achieve the best possible blend of voices. Topics of klapa songs usually deal with love, familiar life situations, and the environment in which they live. Love, though, is the predominant theme.2

The regions of the Mediterranean and Dalmatia are closely associated with klapa singing. The Croatian ethnomusicologist Joško Ćaleta writes that “[t]he Southern Adriatic—Dalmatia— seems to be

2 http://www.min-kulture.hr/default.aspx?id=8336. Last visited June 21, 2015.

regarded as the most Mediterranean symbol among the Croats,” and that klapa singing is “the most representative of the Mediterranean as far as the Croats are concerned” (Ćaleta 1999, 193). In fact, according to another ethnologist, “‘[b]eing a Dalmatian’ is often ‘proven’ by a person’s dedication to the klapa and the stereotypical imagery their lyrics invoke: the sun and sea, wine and song, the hard but simple way ‘our ancestors used to live,’ handsome and cheerful people, and macho men” (Povrzanović 1989, 106). As these quotes show, klapa singing is intimately linked to Dalmatian identity, which is seen as a part of Mediterranean identity. Thus, though conscious of a simplification and generalization that is being made, for the purposes of this paper we will establish a link between Dalmatia, the Mediterranean, and klapa on a connotative and symbolic level.

Both independence from Yugoslavia (1991) and joining the EU (2013) required that Croatia re-articulates its identity in contemporary discourses. Doing so, Croatia has pronouncedly underlined both its centenarian Central-Europeanness and Mediteraneanness (Škrbić Alempijević and Mesarić Žabčić, 2010). The neoklapa discourse is seen here as a recent development in this process, i.e., in articulating Croatian/Dalmatian identity as Mediterranean in late modernity.

Klapa singing was enlisted into the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia in

2008, with inscription into UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity ensuing in 2012. The heritage discourse as a transformative force fuelled the “klapa movement” i.e. the emergence of neoklapa—a new cultural form that coexists alongside the more traditional klapa singing practices. Neoklapa is the term I use to designate what Ćaleta in 2008 recognizes as a “popular movement” (Ćaleta 2008). Since the early and mid-2000s, a cultural boom has transformed klapa from a (more) traditional singing practice into the popular music and popular culture phenomenon that it is now. At the time of its formation in the mid-nineteenth century, traditional klapa was an a capella singing group of friends serenading under a girl’s window or singing in local taverns. Now, klapa has various music accompaniment, its concerts fill out football stadiums, and a klapa represented Croatia in the Eurosong competition of 2013.

Today, the neoklapa phenomenon is (being) formed under the influence of globalization, postmodernist culture, and late capitalism and, more precisely, heritage discourse, popular culture, and identity re-articulations in a changing setting. Importantly, nostalgia can be traced at each of these levels.

Nostalgia in NKD

Having established what neoklapa is and how, as a popular heritage music form, it is relevant for Croatian identity re-articulations, we will next discuss the suitable approach to the study of nostalgia in the NKD. I argue that nostalgia in NKD should be considered: (1) social, semiotic, and discursive; (2) (predominantly) secondhand; and (3) prospective. Further, these characteristics taken together suggest that nostalgia in NKD can be (mis)used for purposes other than nostalgizing. I will now address each point in turn.

Claiming that nostalgia in NKD is considered social, semiotic, and discursive does not exclude the possibility of nostalgia being experienced individually, or the notion of a psychological experience of nostalgia. It is important to stress nostalgia’s social dimensions so as to ask how it is formed/constructed in representations, what it does as a practice of nostalgizing in specific semiotic occurrences of meaning-making, and how it constructs knowledge of the represented homeland. Boym (2007, 8) calls nostalgia “a symptom of our age, an historical emotion,” while Berliner (2012, 770) sees it not as a feeling but as “a set of publicly displayed discourses, practices and emotions where the ancient is somehow glorified without necessarily implying the experience of first-hand nostalgic memories.”

This brings us to the second point—that nostalgia in NKD is secondhand, i.e., that it need not “be rooted in memory or personal experience; it is directed towards representations and imagined history” (Garey 2009, 1). Berliner (2012) calls this type of nostalgia a vicarious, or exo-nostalgia. Boym (2007)

talks about ersatz nostalgia for the things we didn’t even know we lost. Garey (2009) maintains that second-hand nostalgia is not false, i.e., not less authentic than the fantasies of the past crafted by those with firsthand experiences. One can be nostalgic for something one never actually had or experienced oneself—which brings us back to the first point—nostalgia is a social construct disseminated in discourses/representations/practices that are circulated, adopted, changed, and maintained in contemporary semiotic and discursive practices.

The third claim, that nostalgia is prospective, derives from the already discussed constructivist temporal dynamics of nostalgia that Boym has beautifully expressed in her notion that nostalgia is not only about the past, but also—and even more so—about the present and the future. Remarks on misuses of nostalgia usually take two directions, in which the commodification and ideological dimensions of nostalgia are explored. Contemporary nostalgias, as research (Leone 2014; Migliorati 2014; Oliete 2010; Berliner 2012) shows, are often both commodified and used as a vehicle for ideologies. Therein lie nostalgia’s dangerous side effects. Nostalgia is “always ideological: the past that it seeks has never existed except as narrative, and hence, always absent, that past always threatens to reproduce itself as a felt lack” (Stewart 2003 in Roy, 2014, 151). Therefore, the imagined, idealized, even utopian nostalgic visions are construed based on particular interests about the future that we have in the present. The present is seen as instability and anxiety-ridden, which creates a yearning for a stable identity and a place to belong. This yearning for imagined homeland becomes a projection for the future, or as Berliner

(2012, 780) puts it, “visions of lost homeland are also visions of homelands yet to be realized.” Boym calls this restorative nostalgia.3

There is one additional point relevant to my approach to nostalgia in NKD that should be mentioned even though it pertains more to (contemporary) communication in general than to nostalgia studies specifically. I believe that to fully understand and examine the workings of nostalgia in NKD it is necessary to adopt the social semiotic notion of multimodality (Kress and van Leeuwen 2001; Kress 2010). A neoklapa text (song) is thus a multimodal ensemble wherein different modes (visual, aural) work together to create meaning. Nostalgia is found across semiotic modes in neoklapa texts (music videos) and works differently in the modes that singing/lyrics and visual representations are comprised of. For the purposes of this paper, we will first look at the visual representations in NKD music videos and how nostalgia appears at the levels of style and themes. Then, we will briefly examine how nostalgia operates in a single NKD text on the level of lyrics and visual representations. The latter example may serve as a departure point for a full multimodal analysis.

Nostalgic Styles and Themes in NKD

To sum up the discussion to this point, the methodological approach taken towards nostalgia in this paper is informed by cultural studies, stylistics, and social semiotics. Nostalgia in NKD is not only or primarily based on first-hand experiences—rather, it is simulcraic, residing in representations and discourses that are created, disseminated, adopted, performed, and changed in practice. Nostalgia in NKD in also not only about the past—the represented nostalgic worlds are constructed in the circumstances of the present with an eye fixed to the future. Nostalgia is thus ideological and pertains to identity re-articulations.

In the discussion of NKD nostalgia at the level of style, I do not see style as surface deep. Instead, the contemporary stylistic credo that how something is done is unavoidably and inextricably linked to what is done (Bagić 2004) is followed. In other words, the notion of style encompasses both form and content. Niemeyer claims that “the 21st century has so far been marked by an increase in expressions of nostalgia, and in nostalgic objects, media content and styles” (2014, 1) on a global scale, from shows

3 The whole picture of nostalgia in NKD, however, is too complex to be presented in a single paper. Some cases of NKD

would exemplify Boym’s reflexive nostalgia. The generalizations presented here are more descriptive of some modalities

within NKD, those that are, I believe, more representative.

like Mad Men to cell phone apps that mimic predigital technologies. Boym has also commented on nostalgia and technology: “Nostalgia permeates popular culture where technological advances and special effects are frequently used to recreate visions of the past”; “technology and nostalgia have become co-dependent” (2007, 10). Neoklapa music videos exemplify this point, since technology enabled manipulations (of style) of visual representation are quite common, e.g., colour manipulations and analogue technology simulations as well as other stylistic effects.

When nostalgia is expressed via colour, shots in black-and-white and sepia are most common. Shots in these colours do not appear independently in a music video, but usually form a narrative thread whereby they nostalgically represent one’s childhood and/or memories. This is the case in the music video “Ćaća” (Father, 2013) by Klapa Rišpet where a sepia tinge is used to portray the childhood of the male poetic persona, while black-and-white shots denote memories he presently (in the moment of singing the song) has of his father. Other nostalgic uses of colour do not necessarily designate a specific memory, i.e., the past as detached from the present. In the video, “Neprolazna” (Unceasing, 2014) by Klapa Cambi (Kaštel Kambelovac) a thread in blackand-white depicts the past as is indicated by the shots of a man writing down the song lyrics with an old fountain pen. However, the woman represented in the black-and-white thread (the addressee of the poem) is also present in the contemporary thread in colour. This temporal disorientation is resolved through lyrics that talk about eternal love. In addition, black-and-white shots in this video sometimes include details in red colour, which can be interpreted as the symbol of perennial love. Colour is thus used to bridge the gap between the past and the present, to designate the eternal love the song is about and the unceasing tradition/heritage of klapa singing.

Nostalgic stylistic effects also involve different simulations of analogue technology. The music video “Neprolazna” opens with a visual and aural simulation of an old movie projector. Here, the song title is written in white letters against a black background with “damage” marks on the film strip, all accompanied by the sound of the film projector. In this and similar examples, digital technology’s special effects are used to denote “oldness” and “authenticity” of analogue technology and to trigger nostalgia towards the lost romanticized homeland they represent. For example, in Klapa Rišpet’s “Projdi mojon kalon” (Come walk down my street, 2013), the marks of “wear and tear” on the film can be seen as horizontal white stripes, or as thin vertical white lines against otherwise perfect digital photography. Alternatively, nostalgic effect is also achieved by the whole music video resembling filming technology from an earlier era, i.e., through a throughout simulation of the (flawed) analogue technology. With its dark, earthlytinged colours and a black frame, Klapa Florijan’s “Osta san čovik” (I remained a man; 2011) music video looks like it was filmed in the 1970s or 1980s. The previously mentioned videos by Klapa Rišpet, “Ćaća,” and “Projdi mojon kalon” use other effects in creating and denoting nostalgia. Blurring or unfocusing objects in a frame makes them appear distant, detached in time and/or space from the viewer as is the case in a romanticizing frame portraying a blurred male figure on a wooden boat in “Ćaća.” Incidentally, this shot is also in sepia, which showcases the point that that several effects are often used in unison, strengthening the nostalgizing effect. Other analogue technology simulations might trigger nostalgia for the not so distant past, as in “Projdi mojon kalon,” where the effects simulating TV signal interference or the use of a handheld camera are used. On the one hand, the described effects work together to construe nostalgic worlds and/or trigger nostalgia. On the other, they are a means for the romantization, authentication, and ideologization of these nostalgic worlds.

Regarding the nostalgic themes in the NKD music videos, we will discuss representational (visual) topoi that can be abstracted from them. In Buljubašić (forthcoming), I delineated these topoi taking into consideration both what is represented in NKD music videos along with how it is represented. The visual topoi in NKD music videos include:

people: the klapa; lovers; girl; patrilineal relation (grand)father-(grand)son;

artefacts: (fishing) tools, boat-related objects, boats; preindustrial era and contemporary objects together;

location/settings: - typical interior: “authentic” tavern/wine-cellar and traditional house; - typical exterior: narrows alleys, port/marina, town centre, tourist sites; - panorama (veduta).

Here, we will illustrate some aspects of nostalgia in people, mise-en-scene and objects topoi. Nostalgia in the people topos can be divided into two groups: klapa members topos and people in represented NKD world topos. The klapa members topos triggers nostalgia on a different level than other people topoi: first, because it is aural/musical and second, because the klapa need not be a part of the represented nostalgic world (rather, klapa can have a role of a mediator). The musical harmony and “perfect blend of voices” in klapa singing, i.e. the sheer vocality of klapa singing can be a nostalgia trigger, since the klapa here connotes unity, community and sociability. Moreover, the word klapa in a Dalmatian dialect means “a group of friends,” so in NKD klapa can be seen as a synecdoche for the Dalmatian/Croatian community as a whole. Quite often, depictions of klapa members standing together, playing cards, drinking wine, and singing denotes sociability in an older, lost world where time passed slower and people had more time for each other.

People topoi in the represented neoklapa world usually follow stereotypical Mediterranean imagery and roles taken up in traditional societies. This is sometimes attested by their costumes (striped mariners’ T-shirts for men and early and mid-twentieth century dress styles for women) and their jobs (fishermen, boat builders, housewives). Clear examples of this may be found in Klapa s mora’s4 “Mižerja” (Misery, 2013) and Klapa Cambi’s “Dugo nije pala kiša” (It hasn’t rained for a long time, 2010), where traditional gender roles are performed by the video’s protagonists: women are shown serving and seducing and are assigned to private spaces, whereas men are shown working and are assigned to public spaces. People topos is thus closely connected to the mise-en-scene topos, where “typical,” i.e., “authentic” public and private spaces are the locale of the nostalgic klapa worlds. Indoor spaces are old Dalmatian stone houses, traditionally furnished (which may not be historically accurate but is what is nowadays seen as traditional furnishing) while outdoor spaces are comprised of old towns’ narrow streets, ports, heritage sites and traditional neighbourhoods. Klapa groups do not normally shoot their videos outside heritage and history marked city centres, apart from panoramic threads showing natural beauties. It would be very unusual and contrary to mainstream NKD poetics if klapa were to shoot a video in a mall or a modern part of town. Thus, Klapa s mora’s “Mižerja,” Croatia’s entry for the Eurosong 2013 competition, shot their video in the historical (UNESCO heritage site) town of Trogir, while Klapa Cambi’s videos were shot in the historic centre of the town of Kaštela, etc. In the videos, however, even these locations, are decorated with objects that serve the purpose of authentication: old and antique objects are splashed here and there over the mise-en-scene to recreate the “real” atmosphere of the imagined past. These objects include items like fishing nets and ropes laying in the street and old wooden mugs in “Mižerja”; yellow paged books in “Dugo nije pala kiša,” oils lamps in Klapa Intrade’s “Zora bila” (White dawn, 2010), etc. These objects are commonly quite obviously arranged as theatrical mise-en-scene decorations. In “Klapa Intrade’s Zašto uvik pivan” (Why I always sing, 2012) the frontman is shot lip-syncing sitting on a beach next to an arrangement consisting of an old wine barrel, some ropes, and a rusty anchor, while in Klapa s mora’s “Mižerja” fishing nets, ropes, wooden barrels, and mugs are seen in and around the houses of the video’s protagonists.

The functions of these nostalgic topoi in NKD music videos are the authentication and romantization of the represented Mediterranean imagined homeland. Since the nostalgia in NKD is nostalgia for a lost homeland that is removed in time (temporal nostalgia) rather than in space, the issue of the temporality of NKD world requires further thinking. The temporality of this constructed nostalgic world has to be thought about taking into account the constructivist temporal dynamics of

4 Klapa s mora (Croatian: Klapa from the sea) was a klapa that came together solely for the purpose of representing Croatia

at 2013 Eurosong competition in Sweden. Its singers are members of several popular klapas. (Source:

http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/year/participant-profile/?song=29463. Accessed August 13, 2015).

nostalgia and heritage. So, then, what is the temporal identity of the represented NKD world, or, “when” is this world? To answer this question, we have to look at the above discussed stylistic and thematic characteristics of NKD and their effects. Two such effects discussed here can be described as the effect of timelessness and the effect of temporal confusion. These effects are not mutually exclusive.

The effect of timelessness in these music videos is achieved when the passing of time seems irrelevant for the constructed imaginary world—when “then” and “now” are (almost) indistinguishable. Such an effect is produced in different ways. The effect is achieved, for example, when both the protagonists of the nostalgic world as well as our contemporaries—klapa members—are shown performing the same actions and roles in the same attire and mise-enscenes. These connections might be achieved in the visual representation alone, lyrics alone, or, commonly, by the multimodal, syncretic meaning-making of the music video taken as a whole. The multimodal text “Od zipke do križa” (From cradle to the cross, 2012) by Klapa Cambi, discussed below, offers an illustrative example. This effect attests to the prospective character of nostalgia in NKD, without having to voice the project of recreating the lost homeland—it already represents it as a reality.

The effect of temporal confusion (or disorientation) cannot be given equal space in this paper. It is, however, quite common in NKD as it involves “clashes” between the contemporary and the premodern, the “now” and “then.” It attests to the simulcraic nature of the represented world. It is a nostalgia that (unwittingly) reveals itself as nostalgia. This effect is achieved when objects belonging to far removed times are juxtaposed in the same frame. For example, the setting of Klapa Rišpet’s “Kad je pošla ća” (When she left, 2012), places the klapa members sailing on a wooden boat. In the same frame, one member is shown steering the boat with “old” nautical maps and navigating equipment on the table in the corner, while another klapa member sits at the synthesizer, contrasting the contemporary musical instrument with the obsolete navigating instruments. In “Projdi mojon kalon” and “Mižerja,” women’s stilettos and acrylic nails appear in the same frames that simulate damage on the tape thus recreating authenticlooking mise-en-scenes.

Nostalgia in a Single NKD Text

As the last example of nostalgia in NKD, the song (lyrics and music video visual representations) “Od zipke do križa” will be briefly discussed (see the Appendix for the following discussion). On the lyrical level (in Croatian), nostalgia can be detected in: (a) the linguistic/dialectal level—five words from the old Chakavian dialect are used;5 (b) imagery: metaphoric expressions rely on Eden-like Mediterranean imagery (olive trees, boats, fishing and sailing, pearls and lace) on the one hand, and traditional lifestyle of the hardworking forefathers who “carried out” this homeland for their sons on the other; (c) temporal dimension of the text-world, a sense of predestination and fate is created, since the Dalmatian lifestyle is portrayed as immutable and running its “natural course” “from the cradle to the cross”; (d) meta-consciousness of the klapa members as heritage bearers is also present, since a verse claims that Dalmatian lifestyle is accompanied with Dalmatian (i.e., klapa) songs.

The kind of nostalgia present here is what Boym (2001, 2007) calls “restorative nostalgia”: the nostalgia that does not recognize itself as nostalgia, but rather takes itself as truth, tradition and the upholding of universal values. Through it, Dalmatia is portrayed/named as “the land” (stanza 1), “belief/faith” (stanza 1), and “beauty” (stanza 4). It is conceptualized as feminine while the poetic personae-heritage actors are masculine; this romanticized homeland is closed off—the mountains are its border (stanza 2), it is rigid, patriarchal/patrilineal (stanzas 1 and 3) and it establishes the normalcy of a religion (the title).”

The music video has three threads. Thread 1 comprises excerpts from three short films by the Croatian filmmaker A. Stasenko (1933–1990): The Road (1976), The Hunt (1979), and The Women

5 These words are: intrada, bordižat, merla, cima, and kularina.

(1977).6 Thread 2 comprises panorama and underwater shots, while thread 3 shows klapa members lip-synching to their song. Nostalgia is straightforwardly present in the usage of thread 1 excerpts, which are meant to illustrate the simple and hardworking, yet beautiful Dalmatian lifestyle portrayed in the lyrics. This thread nostalgically depicts manual roadbuilding, tuna fishing, and the lives of peasant women. But, nostalgia here is not only thematic— it is, for the contemporary viewer, unavoidably and immediately present at the level of style, via the non-simulated film colour, damagedness, graininess and their “authentic feel” effect. Since a close analysis of nostalgia in this music video as a multimodal text demands a separate paper, I will only briefly comment on the timelessness effect, or, the effect of restorative nostalgia in it. Restorative nostalgia, thus, represents itself not as nostalgia but as tradition, or, universal truth, values, and practices. In this music video, montage positions klapa members as heritage-bearers: The two groups of video protagonists (klapa members and thread 1 people) are portrayed as sharing the same world, having the same experiences. For example, a thread 1 shot depicting fish being caught in the net is followed by a thread 2 underwater shot depicting a fishing net being pulled out, followed by a thread 3 klapa members shot (see appendix). This montage suggests that klapa members perform the same tasks as their (fore)fathers. The traditional lifestyle continues: thus the timelessness effect. Nostalgia restores the old ways in the present and for the future.

Another example of restorative nostalgia created through montage is the conflation of the viewing perspectives of the men in thread 1 with audience. First, thread 1 men are shown staring at the sea from a boat. In the next shot, the thread 2 camera, placed at roughly the same height from the sea as the men in the previous shot, shows the blue sea. The viewers are oriented by the camera position to take up the same position as the thread 1 men, i.e., to empathize with them, to enter the depicted world, just as the klapa members do. It is suggested by montage and camera pans that the sea seen from two different shots is the same immutable sea, just like the traditions and way of life are the same. Restorative nostalgia in the video relies on appropriations (taking thread 1 videos as “authentic” documents, ignoring the author’s poetics and video’s independent meaning) and deletions (two out of three thread 1 videos depict life in Dalmatian hinterland which is explicitly excluded from the Mediterranean Eden of the lyrics). The latter fact leaves the relationship between the lyrics and visual representations complex and even paradoxical, but also demonstrates the force of restorative nostalgia which cohesively binds the two levels of representation.

Conclusion

This work has set out to explore some aspects of nostalgia in the neoklapa discourse, primarily taking into consideration the connections between nostalgia (discourse), heritage (discourse), and representations of the Croatian identity in the neoklapa discourse. Introductory discussion of these research areas enabled drawing the conclusion that nostalgia in the neoklapa discourse should be approached as a second-hand, discursive, and semiotic construct that has a prospective ideological dimension. The analysis concentrated mainly on nostalgia that can be traced in styles and visual topoi of the neoklapa music videos. This paper, however, does not presume to have performed a full exploration of these issues, so any conclusions at this stage are subject to revision and expansion. Since neoklapa discourse is not semiotically and discursively homogenous, the examples selected for analysis and illustration here represent one, though by the author deemed a central, module for representing Dalmatia in the neoklapa discourse. The last example discussed has shown that restorative nostalgia is found in a neoklapa text, both at the level of lyrics and visual representation in music video and that a thorough multimodal analysis is needed in the future.

Nostalgia in the NKD is comparable to global popular culture nostalgia practices in its proneness to use special effects to simulate the characteristics of analogue technology. The usage of stereotypical visual topoi points toward its secondhandedness as well as participation in global nostalgizing practices, even though the NKD also discursively participates in national/regional identity

6 Source: http://www.cambi.hr/index.php?s=od+zipke+do+kri%C5%BEa. Accessed June 21, 2015.

representations. Nostalgia in NKD is prospective in that it seeks to build up the “new old” imagined community. To fully understand its causes, it is necessary to first understand its local and wider context, which are in turn reflected in its forms, modalities, and styles.

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APPENDIX

Klapa Cambi’s “Od zipke do križa” lyrics and music video

Lyrics7

Dalmacijo zemjo, virovanje moje kroz povist ca resis i more i poje trudima i znojen iznili te didi partili su stari, ma jubav ne blidi

Jerbo nova dica, ka masline mlade radjani na kruvu sa tvoje intrade pletu kularine za skoje i hridi tamo do planine, di su tvoji zidi

7 Translation of lyrics into English by the author of the article. Lyrics in Croatian retrieved from

http://tekstovi.net/2,2337,33111.html.

/Dalmacijo, Dalmacijo/ Od zipke do kriza, jubav si i mriza uz tvoje se pisme reste i bordiza jer kamena cima ti si vikovima za dusu i za tilo svojim sinovima

Dalmacijo

Dalmacijo zemjo, virovanje moje kroz povist ca resis i more i poje isklesana morem, usidrenih merla na rukama Bozjim najlipja si perla

***

O, Dalmatia land, my belief/faith,

You who embellish the sea and the land

By labour and sweat the fathers carried you through, The elders are gone, but the love doesn’t fade away

Because new children, like young olive trees

Born on the bread of your yields

They weave ties for islands and reefs

All the way to the mountains, where your walls are

O, Dalmatia, Dalmatia

From cradle to the cross, you are the love and the net

We grow and navigate with your songs because for ages you are a stone dock for the soul and the body of your sons

O, Dalmatia land, my faith/belief,

You who embellish the sea and the land

Carved by the seas, with anchored laces

In the God’s hands, you are the most beautiful pearl.

Music Video

Thread 1: The Road (1976), The Hunt (1979), The Women (1977): short films by A. Stasenko

(1933–1990)

Thread 2: Panorama and Underwater Shots

Thread 3: Klapa Members Shots

Restorative N ostalgia and K lapa - as - H eritage - Bearers Montage : Example 1

Example 2