Dangerous Words of Vojislav Šešelj: On the Linguistic Road to Mass Violence

Abstract

With the trials of war propagandists by international criminal tribunals, the study of war propaganda and its relation to mass violence has gained undivided attention in conflict studies. One of such infamous warmongers is a former Serb politician Vojislav Šešelj, whose three speeches form the core of this thesis. With the help of J. A. Austin’s speech act theory, a detailed micro analysis of Šešelj’s propaganda reveals the effects it had on the situation on the ground in Vukovar, Mali Zvornik and Hrtkovci during 1991-1992. Instead of examining the bare details of mass killings that occurred shortly after his speeches, my inquiry looks at the aspects of mutual understanding, shared emotions between the speaker and the audience, and acceptation of beliefs or expectations proposed in the speech acts. As a result, new perspective on the peril of Šešelj’s words in the context of wartime Yugoslavia is exposed.