Paper short abstract:

In the paper, the author explains the emergence of ordinary affects during the breakup of Yugoslavia. He shows that the ordinary affects were unfolding amid social anomie created by the collapse of the Yugoslav state and the processes of ethnicization on the subnational level.

Paper long abstract:

In the paper, based on the analysis of ethnographic material, the author explains

the emergence of ordinary affects during the breakup of Yugoslavia.

He shows that the ordinary affects were unfolding amid social anomie created

by the collapse of the Yugoslav state and the processes of ethnicization on the

subnational level. One of the striking features of the processes of ethnicization

was targeted violence against civilians or democratization of violence on

a subnational level. To help understand the emergence of affective afflictions,

the author supplements theories of cultural trauma and ethnicization with the

concepts of situation and crisis embedded in the ordinary. Furthermore, he argues

that this small theoretical supplement can help understand the persistence

and unusually high presence of war rhetoric in some post-Yugoslav states.