MEMORY AND RECONCILIATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SOUTH AFRICAN AND BALKAN NARRATIVES
MEMORY AND RECONCILIATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SOUTH AFRICAN AND BALKAN NARRATIVES

Summary/Abstract: This article contends that we can view the literature from South Africa after apartheid and the Post Yugoslav Balkans as the addressing of memories and reconciliation as well. Looking at the themes of violence, silence, and testimony, it discusses the theories of Paul Ricoeur, Jan and Aleida Assmann, and Maria Todorova to illustrate the engagement of South African writing and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, while the literature of the Balkans comes from the diaspora and fragmented national memories. The response of the literature to the official narratives and the response of literature to the official narratives are demonstrated in the writings of Antjie Krog, J. M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Zakes Mda, Miljenko Jergović, Dubravka Ugrešić, and Aleksandar Hemon. The shared testimony and silence and the differences of the South African implemented reconciliation as opposed to the Balkans with their dispersed memory practices are compared in the research. Ultimately, the South Africa post conflict literature as memory is the focal point of the research.

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