A SPIRIT IN THE SERVICE OF THE NATION

Abstract

The thesis of the article is that slivovitz or plum brandy (slivovka in Slovene) played an important role in the reproduction of Yugoslav banal nationalism. It reminded Yugoslavs on a daily basis that they were members of a particular national community. The article is based on an analysis of texts containing the word slivovka that appeared in Delo, Slovenia’s newspaper of record, in the period 1959–91 and Delo’s predecessors Slovenski poročevalec and Ljudska pravica in the period 1945–59.