Petrochemical Bestiary: Yugoslav Petromodernity and the Design of Plastic Animal Toys

Abstract

Given the almost simultaneous beginning of fossil fuel extraction and the foundation of socialist Yugoslavia, it can be argued that Yugoslav socialist modernity was petromodernity. Self-governing socialism and its relationship to the environment and nonhuman animals were grounded in and enabled by fossil fuel extraction, the products derived from it, and the energy produced by its use. In this article, I explore the relationships between Yugoslav petromodernity, plastic production, and plastic animal toys. I analyze the ways in which petromodernity and its attendant practices of fossil fuel extraction and petrochemical product consumption were naturalized through the habituation of bodily senses to plastic through petromodern pedagogy, as exemplified by the design of plastic animal toys. I argue that plastic animal toys become vehicles for the introduction of the Plasticene and means for the production of relations of dominance over animals and nature. The aesthetics of cuteness, as enacted through the design of plastic animal toys, played a key role in these processes.

Keywords: Yugoslavia, petromodernity, plastics, animals, toys