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Constructions of (Non-)Belonging: Marginalized Social Groups in “Actually Existing Socialism” guidelines. Symbolic and real affiliation and nonaffiiation were regulated via language and depictions, which helped to identify internal and external enemies, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to conjure social images of a collective of “orderly” citizens (Jessen 2011). In this context, the visual culture in relation to the social dimension was highly ritualized and morally oriented in the analysed three societies. In this sense, certain social images and their circulation as a media ritual with immense symbolic value could act as “social cement”, which stabilized and harmonized the process of collectivization within an imagined socialist community. Such sources make it possible to deconstruct not only the perception of underprivileged social conditions but also the process of creating the demarcation line between the “self” and the Other. Moreover, they show how social order was negotiated in state socialism—by transmitting positive heroic narratives on the one side and displaying negative deviant biographies on the other. The political intention was to establish socially accepted, “normal” models (Niedermiiller 2004: 29) of living in order to regulate, discipline, and control society. On this premise, if the individual behaved properly and proved loyal, he or she was rewarded with the promised social security. Citizens who forfeited this symbolic advancement due to deviant and “incorrect” behaviour had to bear the consequences: verbalsymbolic exclusion, stigmatization, and criminalization. To that effect, one of the key aims of the discussed social and symbolic policies was to create positive images of socially vulnerable but salvaged people in order to offer biographical ideals that could serve as role models and, simultaneously, deter “inappropriate” and deviant lifestyles. Examining how the audience did in fact act is another dimension of this field that needs further study. The noticeable increasing occurrence of certain “subcultures” especially in the last phase of state socialism might suggest a reduction of persuasiveness and the penetrating power of social promises (e.g. Fenemore 2007; Pullmann & Zimmermann 2014). Lastly, social images help us to scrutinize the contemporary schemes for interpreting the social, which often remained unquestioned after the fall of the “iron curtain” and, in many aspects, until today (e.g. for Bulgaria, see Ivanova 1990). Sources Berliner Zeitung (‘Berlin Newspaper’), 1945. Bulgarien Heute (‘Bulgaria Today’), 1958-1962; 1963-1986. Fiir Dich (For Yow), 1946-1950; 1963-1991. Junge Welt (Young World’), 1947. Neue Berliner Illustrierte (New Berlin Illustrated’), 1946-1991. Neue Zeit (New Time), 1945-1994. Neues Deutschland (New Germany), 1946-present day. Solidarität (‘Solidarity), 1960-1968. Sowjetfrau / Sovetskaya Zhenshchina (Soviet Woman’), 1945-1954; 1955-1991. 413
