Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 103
by both historical and political as well as European and global cultural
influences, has been established as crucial. The state (whether independent
republic or a republic within Yugoslavia) was in a position to either support
or prevent certain types of cultural creativity. Its role deeply impacted
the recent systemic cultural transition through the establishment and
development of a cultural policy.
The re-definition of national culture, strong mediation, and mediatization
of cultural creativity and the revision of cultural policy focused on Croatian
cultural resources are seen here through the lens of cultural globalization
and in the context of cultural globalism. Processes of re-definition of the
Croatian national culture are here illustrated by changes of the concept of
culture, changes in cultural communication, and by an overall reorientation
of cultural policy.
The concept of culture. The holistic concept of Croatian national culture
(identified through language, cultural inheritance, and types of cultural
creativity) was slowly disintegrated through its modernization, reidentification,
and openness to strong global technological influences in the
framework of transitional processes. The initial understanding of culture
remained based in the specialized activities supposed to constitute an
interactive area of creativity: literature, plastic and fine arts, music, and other
cultural branches. Such specialized fields are still operational and preserved
as types of programs included within the institutional culture. The budget
of the Ministry of Culture (Budget, Program Shares ����) identifies the
following cultural activity areas and their budget shares: management of
culture (�% of the current budget), museums and galleries (��%), theaters
and music (��%), libraries and printing industries (�%), audiovisuals and the
media (�%), archives (�%), preservation of cultural heritage (��%), and other
cultural activities (��%).
This split of supported programs reflects an understanding of culture as a
sum of specialized cultural activities. The limited number of areas leaves a
number of other creative and cultural activities and specializations aside
and thus limits the understanding of culture to the concept of institutional
culture, that is, the culture managed by the state. However, global cultural
influences have largely widened the perceptions of cultural specializations
and fields. They have introduced new interpretations of culture as “a critical
self-reflection” that “makes it inclusive of practically everything” (Eagleton
����:��). This is also connected with the anthropological understanding of
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