Held und Patriarch. Visuelle Konstruktionen von Macht und Männlichkeit im westlichen Balkan am Beispiel des Fotoarchivs von Josip Broz Tito

Robin Hood of the Balkans, hero of World War II, father of the nation, founder of the Non-Aligned Movement: former Yugoslavia’s legendary president Josip Broz Tito was a master of self-promotion. As such, he left a huge photographic archive, which is today in possession of the Museum of Yugoslav History in Belgrade (Serbia). This contribution aims at interpreting the construction of power and masculinity in Tito’s visual representations of his work as a communist leader and statesman, building on the assumption that this globally active politician was deeply rooted in the local context of his Western Balkan origins. The discussion of eight carefully selected photographs from 1942 to 1961 demonstrates how he used implicit codes of local patriarchal male gender roles to communicate and to ensure his authority: the hero and the patriarch.