The Heroic Narrative Perverted?

The main research question addressed in this article is how the leaders of Serbia’s post-communist criminal milieu attempted to reinterpret the heroic narrative in the 1990s and legitimise morally transgressive patterns of behaviour. The authors’ initial assumption is that the two leading paramilitary leaders of the time, Željko Ražnatović Arkan and Đorđe Božović Giška, are examples of the dubious practice of legitimising criminal acts, business, and political activity, which ought to connect them to indisputable traditional stories of national heroism. The article attempts to add to the interdisciplinary study of the criminal subculture’s legitimisation in Serbia by shedding light not only on sociological and political factors but also on anthropological, and historical elements that have often been disregarded in previous research. Based on oral, written, and visual testimonies, the authors test their initial assumption about the absorbing character of the heroic narrative as a vital component in (post-)conflict society.