THE LOWER NERETVA BASIN AS A PATHOLOGICAL TOPOS: PRESS REPORTS AND POLITICIZATION OF THE MEMORIES OF THE AGE OF CHOLERA IN 1886

Autori:

Stella Fatović-Ferenčić, Mario Wokaunn

Sažetak

U ovom smo radu analizirali Poneretvlje kao prostor koji je tijekom povijesti oblikovan u mit o patološkom toposu. Polazeći od činjenice da je temporalnost ključna za razumijevanje elemenata koji sudjeluju u konceptualiziranju mitova, ovo smo područje analizirali u vrijeme njegove izloženosti epidemiji kolere 1886. godine. Pokazalo se da je upravo to vrijeme donijelo pomak u poimanju etiologije bolesti, što je posljedično utjecalo i na promjenu u stoljećima stvaranim predodžbama o dolini Neretve kao nezdravom području. U ovom radu Neretvanska se dolina spoznavala i prikazala kao nedovršen prostor svekolikih transformacija, habitat izložen višestrukim društvenim izvedbama, živo dokumentiranim u tiskovinama. Argumenti o elementarnoj nepogodi u njihovu su sadržaju moralno i politički nabijeni, što je velikim dijelom podudarno i s leksikom današnjih tiskovina u sličnim okolnostima. Prostor Neretvanske doline nametnuo se time kao slojevit antropološki koncept, kao višeznačna ekološki i društveno konstruirana stvarnost, unutar koje povijest funkcionira kao dragocjen izvor znanja podložan prilagodbi današnjice.

Summary

The lower Neretva basin as a space that has undergone historical transformation into a myth of a pathological topos has been analyzed. Starting from the fact that temporality is essential for understanding of the elements that partake in conceptualization of a myth, we have analyzed the state of this area as it was during its exposure to an epidemic of cholera in 1886. There is evidence that at this time exactly a step forward was made in comprehension of the etiology of the disease, which resulted in the change of centuries-long concepts of the Neretva basin as an unhealthy area. In this paper the Neretva basin was understood and presented as a field of unfolding of all kinds of transformations, a habitat exposed to manifold social arrangements, lushly documented in newspapers and other printed material. The arguments about the natural disaster in these texts are ethically and politically coloured, which to a large extent corresponds to the vocabulary of current print media on similar occasions. Thus, the area of the Neretva basin imposes itself as a multilayered anthropological concept, a multi-semantic ecologically and socially constituted reality, within which history functions as a valuable source of knowledge pliable to contemporary usage.

Volumen: 5-6, 2012

Liječ Vjesn 2012;134:186–191