- Genocide Studies, 19th-20th Century Europe, Eastern European history, Yugoslavia (History), Yugonostalgia, Former Yugoslavia, and 27 moreBalkan Studies, Balkan History, Balkan Politics, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, History and Memory, Cultural History, Popular Culture, History of 19th and 20th Century East Central Europe, Nationalism, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Gender Studies, Nazism, Fascism, Communism, Post-Communism, Memory, Identity, Rescue and Resistance, Western Balkans, Yugoslavia, Contemporary History, Communism and national question, Serbian Politics, South Slavic and Balkan political, diplomatic, social and cultural history, Nationalism and identity construction, and Breakup of the former Yugoslaviaedit
14 –Diaries of the Great War is a transmedial project consisting of a documentary TV-series, a website, a radio programme, a photo book and a museum exhibition, produced for the centenary of World War One in 2014. The project was created... more
14 –Diaries of the Great War is a transmedial project consisting of a documentary TV-series, a website, a radio programme, a photo book and a museum exhibition, produced for the centenary of World War One in 2014. The project was created by a transnational collaboration and aimed for a transnational audience. The TV-series aspired to create a new kind of historical documentary, showing history as it was experienced by ordinary people. This article compares how 14 – Diaries of the Great War was realised and received in Great Britain, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. We argue that the TV-series, in spite of its transnational origin and ambitions was in effect being localized and re-nationalized, as it was adapted to the presumed preferences of national audiences. Résumé 14-Diaries of the Great War est un projet transmédia réalisé à l'occasion du centenaire du début de la Première
Research Interests:
There has been a tendency to view the history of the Balkans as essentially determined by historical legacies. Whether in scholarly literature or in popular discourse, the Ottoman or Habsburg pasts are thought to be accountable for a... more
There has been a tendency to view the history of the Balkans as essentially determined by historical legacies. Whether in scholarly literature or in popular discourse, the Ottoman or Habsburg pasts are thought to be accountable for a large variety of phenomena ranging from democratic culture (or the lack thereof) and adaptability to a free market economy to nepotism and the filthiness of public facilities. By contrast, the papers in this volume demonstrate that "legacies" are not unchanging determinants. Instead, they are very much open to constant reinterpretations and re-assessments depending on conditions in the present; they are, in short, as much shaped by the present as they are by the past.
Research Interests:
When Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany and its allies in April 1941, what followed was as much a Yugoslav civil war as a war of occupation and liberation. Several hundred-thousand Yugoslav civilians were killed by other Yugoslavs in... more
When Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany and its allies in April 1941, what followed was as much a Yugoslav civil war as a war of occupation and liberation. Several hundred-thousand Yugoslav civilians were killed by other Yugoslavs in large-scale massacres or concentration camps, and the horrific events left the country ruined and deeply divided.
USABLE HISTORY? examines the way in which the history of Yugoslavia's internal problematic past was presented and used politically and ideologically, and asks how a society can cope with such an "unmasterable" history. How did Yugoslav historians and politicians represent and explain their own history and how did these representations interact with the cultural developments, political demands and societal needs? By investigating political documents, historiography and popular representations of history such as films, songs and literature, the book's author reveals a deeply disturbing narrative of historical (mis)inter-pretation and (mis)use.
USABLE HISTORY? examines the way in which the history of Yugoslavia's internal problematic past was presented and used politically and ideologically, and asks how a society can cope with such an "unmasterable" history. How did Yugoslav historians and politicians represent and explain their own history and how did these representations interact with the cultural developments, political demands and societal needs? By investigating political documents, historiography and popular representations of history such as films, songs and literature, the book's author reveals a deeply disturbing narrative of historical (mis)inter-pretation and (mis)use.
Research Interests: Contemporary History, History and Memory, Yugoslavia, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, and 8 moreYugoslavia (History), Former Yugoslavia, Serbian Politics, Western Balkans, Communism and national question, South Slavic and Balkan political, diplomatic, social and cultural history, Nationalism and identity construction, and Breakup of the former Yugoslavia
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: History, European Studies, Transnationalism, History and Memory, Memory Studies, and 15 moreSocial and Collective Memory, Cultural Memory, First World War, World War II, Exhibition, Politics of Memory, Faculty of humanities, TV Series, Modern memory of the First World War, Commemoration, MCS, Transmediality, Transnational/Multidirectional Memory, Transnational Memory, and TV Documentary
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, memories of the 1990s war remain hugely divided on political and institutional levels, constituting what we may think of as a mnemonic war. Interview-based qualitative research shows that people in Bosnia on the... more
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, memories of the 1990s war remain hugely divided on political and institutional levels, constituting what we may think of as a mnemonic war. Interview-based qualitative research shows that people in Bosnia on the individual level tend to follow the dominant narrative of their own group, yet, when challenged on these viewpoints, may also admit that other narratives and different truths may exist. Indeed, this research seems to propose the existence of a memorial grey zone where more open understanding and recognition of other positions is possible. Thus, while memory politics and memory institutionalization are rigidly opposed, other types of memory mediation may challenge the ethnic divisions of the memory landscape, opening up a memorial grey zone. In this article, we study the individual reception of literary works written by Bosnian émigré writers, asking how readers interact with established yet fluid memory discourses in Bosnia. Using focus groups as an interviewing method, we explore how the texts are perceived and discussed by lay readers in the two political entities, the Bosniak–Croat Federation and Republika Srpska. We are particularly interested in how readers make sense of the memory accounts in the texts, and how this relates to personal experiences and official memory narratives within each of the two entities. We argue that the reading and discussions of literary war memories allow for complex negotiations between personal and official ‘group’ narratives, opening a memorial grey zone that transcends the sharp divisions dominating memory politics in Bosnia and creates space for alternative memory positions.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article investigates the developments of public memory of the First World War as it is written into the national narratives of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia on the way to the centennial of the war’s outbreak. The First World War... more
This article investigates the developments of public memory of the First World War as it is written into the national narratives of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia on the way to the centennial of the war’s outbreak. The First World War constitutes both a shared and a divided memory in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia. Though the war was a catastrophe everywhere, to Serbia it also became a triumph on the allied side, whereas in Bosnia and Croatia it was mainly a state collapse. Yet, the First World War also provided the immediate conditions for the creation of the first Yugoslav state, and consequently the history of the war was narrated within a Yugoslav context, echoing the triumphant Serbian narrative. With the fall of socialist Yugoslavia, the memory of the First World War developed quite differently in the three states. Different lessons are being drawn from war history, often with the aim of situating the nation within a European context. In Serbia, First World War narratives remain national and heroic and are framed as a virtuous, pro-democratic, and European legacy. In Croatia and Bosnia, First World War history is being created anew and, at least in the Bosnian case, with an aspiration to present Bosnia’s war experience within a discourse of European reconciliation. Based on analyses of popular history books, history debates in newspapers and media, and political commentary, the article shows how the First World War as public memory has moved from Yugoslav to national narratives with an increasingly European aspiration.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, memories of the 1990s war remain hugely divided on political and institutional levels, constituting what we may think of as a mnemonic war. Interview-based qualitative research shows that people in Bosnia on the... more
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, memories of the 1990s war remain hugely divided on political and institutional levels, constituting what we may think of as a mnemonic war. Interview-based qualitative research shows that people in Bosnia on the individual level tend to follow the dominant narrative of their own group, yet, when challenged on these viewpoints, may also admit that other narratives and different truths may exist. Indeed, this research seems to propose the existence of a memorial grey zone where more open understanding and recognition of other positions is possible. Thus, while memory politics and memory institutionalization are rigidly opposed, other types of memory mediation may challenge the ethnic divisions of the memory landscape, opening up a memorial grey zone. In this article, we study the individual reception of literary works written by Bosnian émigré writers, asking how readers interact with established yet fluid memory discourses in Bosnia. Using focus groups as a...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
14 –Diaries of the Great War is a transmedial project consisting of a documentary TV-series, a website, a radio programme, a photo book and a museum exhibition, produced for the centenary of World War One in 2014. The project was created... more
14 –Diaries of the Great War is a transmedial project consisting of a documentary TV-series, a website, a radio programme, a photo book and a museum exhibition, produced for the centenary of World War One in 2014. The project was created by a transnational collaboration and aimed for a transnational audience. The TV-series aspired to create a new kind of historical documentary, showing history as it was experienced by ordinary people. This article compares how 14 – Diaries of the Great War was realised and received in Great Britain, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. We argue that the TV-series, in spite of its transnational origin and ambitions was in effect being localized and re-nationalized, as it was adapted to the presumed preferences of national audiences.
Research Interests: History, European Studies, Transnationalism, History and Memory, Memory Studies, and 15 moreSocial and Collective Memory, Cultural Memory, First World War, World War II, Exhibition, Politics of Memory, Faculty of humanities, TV Series, Modern memory of the First World War, Commemoration, MCS, Transmediality, Transnational/Multidirectional Memory, Transnational Memory, and TV Documentary
This chapter investigates how the difficult sides of Yugoslavia’s Second World War history, including questions of collaboration and betrayal, civil war, and mass atrocities against civilians, have been addressed in Yugoslav war films of... more
This chapter investigates how the difficult sides of Yugoslavia’s Second World War history, including questions of collaboration and betrayal, civil war, and mass atrocities against civilians, have been addressed in Yugoslav war films of the socialist period. Looking at films from different periods of Yugoslav socialism, Tea Sindbaek Andersen points out how images of traitors and collaborators developed and explores how these changes relate to the main developments within political and historical discussions about the war in Socialist Yugoslavia. The chapter argues that war films were a powerful medium for representations of the past, not least because of the high quality of Yugoslav cinema. Moreover, some war films were among the most daring and sophisticated attempts to rethink Yugoslav wartime history. These films have thus contributed significantly to the cultural memory of Yugoslavia’s Second World War as well as to the ways in which traitors and collaborators have been remembe...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This introduction argues that the field of memory studies needs to pay more attention to the role of joyful and positive types of memory. Quoting recent discussions, we propose that the dominant focus on traumatic and dark pasts within... more
This introduction argues that the field of memory studies needs to pay more attention to the role of joyful and positive types of memory. Quoting recent discussions, we propose that the dominant focus on traumatic and dark pasts within memory studies carries the risks that the research field ignores important aspects of collective memory and eclipses group memories that differ from societies’ hegemonic discourse about the past. Contemporary societies also need positive or hopeful memories in order to create alternative imaginaries for the future. This special issue sets out to explore what memories of joy may look like and how they can be studied.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article investigates the developments of public memory of the First World War as it is written into the national narratives of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia on the way to the centennial of the war’s outbreak. The First World War... more
This article investigates the developments of public memory of the First World War as it is written into the national narratives of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia on the way to the centennial of the war’s outbreak. The First World War constitutes both a shared and a divided memory in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia. Though the war was a catastrophe everywhere, to Serbia it also became a triumph on the allied side, whereas in Bosnia and Croatia it was mainly a state collapse. Yet, the First World War also provided the immediate conditions for the creation of the first Yugoslav state, and consequently the history of the war was narrated within a Yugoslav context, echoing the triumphant Serbian narrative. With the fall of socialist Yugoslavia, the memory of the First World War developed quite differently in the three states. Different lessons are being drawn from war history, often with the aim of situating the nation within a European context. In Serbia, First World War narratives remain nat...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This article investigates the role of 1918, the end of the First World War, and the establishment of the Yugoslav state in public memories of post-communist Croatia and Serbia. Analysing history schoolbooks within the context of major... more
This article investigates the role of 1918, the end of the First World War, and the establishment of the Yugoslav state in public memories of post-communist Croatia and Serbia. Analysing history schoolbooks within the context of major works of history and public discussion, the authors trace the developments of public memory of the end of the war and 1918. Drawing on the concepts of public memory and historical narrative, the authors focus on the ways in which history textbooks create historical narratives and on the types of lessons from the past that can be extracted from these narratives. While Serbia and Croatia have rather different patterns of First World War memory, the authors argue that both states have abandoned the Yugoslav communist narrative and now publicly commemorate 1918 as a loss of national statehood. This is somehow paradoxical, since the establishment of the South Slav State in 1918 was supposedly an outcome of the Wilsonian principle of national self-determinat...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
14 –Diaries of the Great War is a transmedial project consisting of a documentary TV-series, a website, a radio programme, a photo book and a museum exhibition, produced for the centenary of World War One in 2014. The project was created... more
14 –Diaries of the Great War is a transmedial project consisting of a documentary TV-series, a website, a radio programme, a photo book and a museum exhibition, produced for the centenary of World War One in 2014. The project was created by a transnational collaboration and aimed for a transnational audience. The TV-series aspired to create a new kind of historical documentary, showing history as it was experienced by ordinary people. This article compares how 14 – Diaries of the Great War was realised and received in Great Britain, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. We argue that the TV-series, in spite of its transnational origin and ambitions was in effect being localized and re-nationalized, as it was adapted to the presumed preferences of national audiences. Résumé 14-Diaries of the Great War est un projet transmédia réalisé à l'occasion du centenaire du début de la Première
Research Interests:
This chapter investigates how the city of Zadar on Croatia’s Adriatic coast relates to its vanished Italian community, the Zaratini. The chapter takes as its starting and orientation point the history of the Luxardo family, one of several... more
This chapter investigates how the city of Zadar on Croatia’s Adriatic coast relates to its vanished Italian community, the Zaratini. The chapter takes as its starting and orientation point the history of the Luxardo family, one of several Italian families who significantly contributed to the economy, politics and city culture of Zadar before the Second World War. Following the Second World War, the Luxardos, as many other Italians, disappeared from Dalmatia. Most fled or emigrated, but as Luxardo family history shows, in some cases murder and imprisonment were the cause for their dissapearance.
The chapter is based on a study of tow sets of material. One is Zadar’s urban landscape as it looks today; the physical architectural remnants and, in so far as they are invested with historical meaning, “sites of memories” of Zadar’s recent Italian history and the Zaratini. The other set of sources is historical and everyday discourse in the form of written published texts. The chapter analyses the ways in which the Luxardos and other Zaratini are presented in various types of history texts and local newspapers. By combining and comparing the two sets of sources it seeks to capture the relations and dynamics between the more static, physical and monumental representations of memory on the one hand and the more transient, less tangible expressions of memory in everyday discourse on the other. The chapter argues that the two sets of sources reveal a strange grey zone of coexisting memorial strategies in Zadar, fluctuating between recognition and even reconciliation with the history of the Zaratini in newspaper discourse and deliberate silence in the urban landscape.
The chapter is based on a study of tow sets of material. One is Zadar’s urban landscape as it looks today; the physical architectural remnants and, in so far as they are invested with historical meaning, “sites of memories” of Zadar’s recent Italian history and the Zaratini. The other set of sources is historical and everyday discourse in the form of written published texts. The chapter analyses the ways in which the Luxardos and other Zaratini are presented in various types of history texts and local newspapers. By combining and comparing the two sets of sources it seeks to capture the relations and dynamics between the more static, physical and monumental representations of memory on the one hand and the more transient, less tangible expressions of memory in everyday discourse on the other. The chapter argues that the two sets of sources reveal a strange grey zone of coexisting memorial strategies in Zadar, fluctuating between recognition and even reconciliation with the history of the Zaratini in newspaper discourse and deliberate silence in the urban landscape.
Research Interests:
On 19 November 2013, as Croatia’s national football team defeated Iceland and thus secured its participation in the World Championship, Croatian defender Josip Šimunić celebrated by leading a chant associated with the fascist Ustasha... more
On 19 November 2013, as Croatia’s national football team defeated Iceland and thus secured its participation in the World Championship, Croatian defender Josip Šimunić celebrated by leading a chant associated with the fascist Ustasha regime that governed Croatia and Bosnia during the Second World War. As a result, Šimunić was fined by Zagreb’s county court for inciting racist hatred and the International Football Association, FIFA, banned Šimunić from participating in 10 international matches including the World Championship.
By late November 2013, a Facebook page set up in defense of Šimunić had received 150000 likes and many lengthy comments. Moreover, the page promoted an online petition, soon signed by more than 30000, which aimed to convince FIFA that Šimunić was misunderstood. Both the Facebook page and the petition and its comments were deeply engaged in negotiating the meaning of Šimunić’s chant, questioning its connection to Fascism. Attempts were made at rethinking Croatia’s Fascist past and at reframing history to emphasize Croatia’s victimization through the crimes of others.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the types of memory transmission and negotiation taking place on the Facebook page supporting Šimunić and on the petition webpage. These are truly transcultural fora, interchangeably written in Croatian and English and involving supporters from all over Europe and beyond. The Šimunić affair is an example of a pop-cultural event actualizing memory through a certain symbol, the chant, and of social media distributing it quickly and widely, engaging a large and somehow unusual group of memory actors. Yet, as the paper seeks to explore, perhaps these engagements are rather short-lived and superficial. What can we presume on the basis of the rather limited participation expressed by clicking Facebook’s ‘like’ button?
By late November 2013, a Facebook page set up in defense of Šimunić had received 150000 likes and many lengthy comments. Moreover, the page promoted an online petition, soon signed by more than 30000, which aimed to convince FIFA that Šimunić was misunderstood. Both the Facebook page and the petition and its comments were deeply engaged in negotiating the meaning of Šimunić’s chant, questioning its connection to Fascism. Attempts were made at rethinking Croatia’s Fascist past and at reframing history to emphasize Croatia’s victimization through the crimes of others.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the types of memory transmission and negotiation taking place on the Facebook page supporting Šimunić and on the petition webpage. These are truly transcultural fora, interchangeably written in Croatian and English and involving supporters from all over Europe and beyond. The Šimunić affair is an example of a pop-cultural event actualizing memory through a certain symbol, the chant, and of social media distributing it quickly and widely, engaging a large and somehow unusual group of memory actors. Yet, as the paper seeks to explore, perhaps these engagements are rather short-lived and superficial. What can we presume on the basis of the rather limited participation expressed by clicking Facebook’s ‘like’ button?
Research Interests:
When Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany and its allies in April 1941, what followed was as much a Yugoslav civil war as a war of occupation and liberation. Several hundred-thousand civilians were killed by other Yugoslavs in... more
When Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany and its allies in April 1941, what followed was as much a Yugoslav civil war as a war of occupation and liberation. Several hundred-thousand civilians were killed by other Yugoslavs in large-scale massacres or concentration camps, and the horrific events left the country ruined and deeply divided.
USABLE HISTORY? examines the way in which the history of Yugoslavia's internal problematic past was presented and used politically, and asks how a society can cope with such an "unmasterable" history. How did Yugoslav historians and politicians represent and explain this history and how did these representations interact with the cultural developments, political demands and societal needs? By investigating political documents, histioriography and popular representations of history such as films, songs and literature, the book reveals a disturbing narrative of historical (mis)interpretation and (mis)use.
USABLE HISTORY? examines the way in which the history of Yugoslavia's internal problematic past was presented and used politically, and asks how a society can cope with such an "unmasterable" history. How did Yugoslav historians and politicians represent and explain this history and how did these representations interact with the cultural developments, political demands and societal needs? By investigating political documents, histioriography and popular representations of history such as films, songs and literature, the book reveals a disturbing narrative of historical (mis)interpretation and (mis)use.
Research Interests: History and Memory, Yugoslavia, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, History, Writing and Memory, and 6 moreYugoslavia (History), Former Yugoslavia, History of Yugoslavia, South Slavic and Balkan political, diplomatic, social and cultural history, Nationalism and identity construction, and Breakup of the former Yugoslavia
The abandonment of Communism in Yugoslavia in 1990 was followed shortly afterwards by the break-up of the Yugoslav federal state and the establishment of new more or less national states out of the formerly federal republics. The... more
The abandonment of Communism in Yugoslavia in 1990 was followed shortly afterwards by the break-up of the Yugoslav federal state and the establishment of new more or less national states out of the formerly federal republics. The establishment of formally democratic nation states led to new demands to history: The class based histories of the Communist period were reputed, and new national histories were to be written. How were these histories to deal with the common Yugoslav socialist past?
This question was often a delicate one, as several of the republics had only distant experiences of independent statehood. The period as fairly independent republics within Yugoslavia therefore constitutes an essential part of their history as states. On the other hand, the new national histories were to contribute to the consolidation of the new states by legitimising both the establishment of new ideological regimes and new national borders. Yugoslavia’s dissolution process was accompanied by years of warfare in various parts of the former federation. Indeed, the replacing of the Yugoslav federation by national states had cost dearly in most post-Yugoslav republics, though in some states much more so than in others. Thus the new histories had to explain a discontinuous and troublesome very recent past.
This article investigates how the common Yugoslav socialist state was represented in the new histories of Croatia, Serbia and, more briefly, Bosnia in the 1990s and early 2000s. The article is based on analyses of schoolbooks of contemporary history and history writing, especially historical syntheses, in Croatia, Serbia and, more briefly, Bosnia. I argue that the early post-Yugoslav representations of Yugoslav history were enveloped in descriptions of internal conflicts, while periods of peaceful coexistence and relative prosperity were downplayed. History writing and education thus contributed to explaining and legitimising the break-up of the Yugoslav federation and to naturalising new national borders.
This question was often a delicate one, as several of the republics had only distant experiences of independent statehood. The period as fairly independent republics within Yugoslavia therefore constitutes an essential part of their history as states. On the other hand, the new national histories were to contribute to the consolidation of the new states by legitimising both the establishment of new ideological regimes and new national borders. Yugoslavia’s dissolution process was accompanied by years of warfare in various parts of the former federation. Indeed, the replacing of the Yugoslav federation by national states had cost dearly in most post-Yugoslav republics, though in some states much more so than in others. Thus the new histories had to explain a discontinuous and troublesome very recent past.
This article investigates how the common Yugoslav socialist state was represented in the new histories of Croatia, Serbia and, more briefly, Bosnia in the 1990s and early 2000s. The article is based on analyses of schoolbooks of contemporary history and history writing, especially historical syntheses, in Croatia, Serbia and, more briefly, Bosnia. I argue that the early post-Yugoslav representations of Yugoslav history were enveloped in descriptions of internal conflicts, while periods of peaceful coexistence and relative prosperity were downplayed. History writing and education thus contributed to explaining and legitimising the break-up of the Yugoslav federation and to naturalising new national borders.
Research Interests:
In this article, we investigate the public memory of the First World War as written into the national histories of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia in the run-up to the centennial of the outbreak of the War. Assuming that public uses of history... more
In this article, we investigate the public memory of the First World War as written into the national histories of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia in the run-up to the centennial of the outbreak of the War. Assuming that public uses of history are influenced by demands in their present as well as commemorative traditions, we study the First World War in official and semi-official national narratives in the three states and in their Yugoslav predecessors. The main sources of our analyses are schoolbooks and popular history books, supplemented by history debates in the media. First World War memory is both shared and divided: Though a catastrophe everywhere, to Serbia it was a triumph on the allied side, whereas in Bosnia and Croatia it was mainly a state collapse. Yet, the War also provided the conditions for creation of the first Yugoslav state, and consequently war history was narrated within a Yugoslav context. In socialist Yugoslavia, the triumphant Serbian narrative was expanded to include the rest of Yugoslavia and a Marxist interpretation was added. After the fall of Yugoslavia, the Serbian history remains heroic, now with a strictly national focus, while different and less prominent narratives are being created in Croatia and Bosnia.