The Culture of Lies: Antipolitical Essays

The Culture of Lies is one of the most intelligent & lucid accounts of an appalling episode in history. It shows us the banality & brutality of nationalism & the way that nationalistic ideology permeates every pore of life. Ugrešić's acerbic & penetrating essays cover everything from politics to daily routine, from public to private life. With a diverse & unusual perspective, she writes about memory, soap operas, the destruction of everyday life, kitsch, the conformity of intellectuals, propaganda & censorship, the strategies of human manipulation & the walls of Europe which, she argues, never really did fall. 

Shot through with irony & sadness, satirical protest and bitter melancholy, The Culture of Lies is a gesture of intellectual resistance by a writer branded "a traitor" & "a witch" in Croatia.

This is a collection of cynical but uniformly unbiased "antipolitical essays" portraying the reality of Communist & post-Communist Yugoslavia. Ugresic's (Have a Nice Day, LJ 3/1/95) intent is not to clarify the politics behind the fall of Yugoslavia but to question the definition of "Yugoslav identity" & critique its shattered culture. She firmly argues that, despite the fall of the Communist regime, the lives of former Yugoslavs in their new "independent homelands" haven't really changed--they are still based on lies, intolerance, sexism, & political brainwashing.

°°°