Croatianess and Children’s Popular Culture. The Analysis of Chocolate Stickers Cro-Army, Knights’ Tales and Maki

Abstract

This paper examines the discursive formation of Croatianness (hrvatstvo) during the Croatian
War of Independence in the 1990s and the post-war era, focusing mainly on the domain
of popular culture. In this analysis of Croatian children’s popular culture, the main emphasis
is on chocolate bar stickers and sticker albums manufactured by Kraš. At the time, the
company had published Cro-Army chocolate stickers and the accompanying Croatian army
sticker album, Knights’ Tales, about Croatian history and various historical events, and Maki,
a sticker album of Catholic saints. In relying on theoretical and methodological frameworks
of representational and discourse theory regarding national identity and fantasy, this paper
shows one of the ways in which Croatianness was formed in children’s popular culture
through three main aspects – war, history, and religion.