'The hero's voice let us follow, may Tito lead us': An interpretation of the phenomenon of songs about Tito based on the theory of ideological interpellation
This article offers an interpretation of songs about Josip Broz Tito based on the theory of the ideological interpellation of individuals into subjects, which was first formulated by Louis Althusser and then expanded by Rastko Močnik. The first part of the essay is a brief summary of Althusser's and Močnik's respective theories of ideology, ideological interpellation, and the participation of ideological mechanisms of identification in the processes of the reproduction of social systems and class domination. These theories are then applied to songs about Tito as a case study, attempting to explain the mechanisms whereby these songs produced the "Tito effect" as an instance of identifying with "the subject supposed to know", which interpellated the subjects of socialist Yugoslavia. Two cycles of songs about Tito are singled out, in an attempt to reveal the different modes whereby they produced the effect of ideological interpellation and simultaneously trace the effects of these interpellation processes in the mechanisms of reproducing the Yugoslav state at two different historical junctures. Finally, using the concept of "the subject supposed to believe", I will try to explain the popularity of these songs today and the mechanisms of identifying with them at a time when they no longer produce the effect of domination.