Texts of Popular Songs in the Construction of National Memory

U radu se istražuje proces konstruiranja nacionalnog sjećanja kroz tekstove hrvatskih popularnih pjesama emitiranih na radiju tijekom Dana državnosti u vremenskom periodu od 2008 do 2012 godine. Polazi se od opće pretpostavke da je popularna glazba dominantan oblik popularne kulture koji odražava društvenu zbilju. Pri tome je efikasan identifikator prenošenja i promocije nacionalnog identiteta zbog opetovanog medijskog emitiranja putem kojeg učinkovito prodire do kognitivno-afektivnih sustava slušača. Na temelju korpusa najizvođenijih pjesama deset opserviranih radijskih postaja, rad analizira ontološku strukturu pjesama i identificira sjećanja kroz popularnoglazbene prakse u obilježavanju komemorativne kulture u Hrvatskoj.This work is based on the discourse and conceptual analysis of popular songs broadcasted on the radio from the perspective of culture of memory. The basic assumption of the study is that the conceptual structure of the lyrics reflects the identity of the Croatian society. The corpus of songs broadcasted on Statehood Day has been created over 5 consecutive years, yielding a list consisting of the most frequent 19 out of 31,372 songs contained in 50 music play lists. Multidimensional social and discourse aspects were analysed in terms of their role in the formation of cultural knowledge about the national identity. The corpus based conceptual analysis identified the key concepts from the perspective of embodied constructions of the meaning that highlight the continuity of the nation’s existence and refer to the Homeland War as a badge of identity of the Croatian society. The paper provides the perspectives and methodologies for further research of the role of popular songs in the process of Croatian cultural memory