INVOKING THE KOSOVO MYTHOLOGICAL SYMBOLISM IN SERBIAN PUBLIC DISCOURSE FROM 1987 TO 2012 JOVANA JEZD I MIROVIĆ RANITO SINCE THE END OF 198 0S, WHEN REEMERGENCE OF INCIDENTS BETWEEN ALBANIAN AND SERBIAN POPULATION IN KOSOVO BECAME AN ORDINARY E VENT, QUESTION OF KO SOVO BECAME A VALUAB LE POLITICAL TOOL IN SERBIAN POLITICS. IN T HE 1990S, MYTHICAL SYMBOLISM OF KOSOVO HAS BEEN USED AND ABUSED BY THE POLITICAL ELITE TO RAI SE NATIONALISM THAT SERVED TO SUPPORT AUTOCRATIC REGIME AT THE TIME. AFTER THE FALL OF TH E AUTOCRATIC REGIME OF MILOSEVIC, MYTHOL OGICAL USE OF HISTORY MAINTAINED, BY INVOKING SYMBOLISM OF KOSO VO BATTLE, THOUGH TH E NARRATION MODE BECAME GENERALLY MORE PRAGMATIC. THE AIM OF THIS CHAPTER IS T O DEMONSTRATE THAT E VEN THOUGH THE DISCOURSE APPROACH TO THE KOSO VO PROBLEM BECAME MORE MATTER -OF-FACT AND DECREASED THE LEVEL OF VIOLENCE IN IT, IT SERVES TH E SAME PURPOSES IT D ID TWO DECADES AGO: TO RAISE NATIONALISM, FRAME EXTERNAL ENEMY AND DISTRACT THE MASSES FROM ANIMOSIT Y THAT GLARING ECONOMIC, PO LITICAL AND SOCIAL P ROBLEMS THAT THE STA TE FACES. INTRODUCTION The End of Cold War brought some changes to the European geography, especially over the 1990s with the disintegration of the USSR and Yugoslavia. These processes have led to a formation of new countries and a creation of new nation-states that sought to find their own national identities. The common denominators of the process were a use of their own language, religion and remembering their historical roots before the phase where they formed a union with other nations. In that sense, case of Serbia has been more radical in a certain manner, once the rebirth of national identity occurred in a period of political instability and internal conflict in the 63