War, Memory, and Education in a Fragmented Society: The Case of Yugoslavia
War, Memory, and Education in a Fragmented Society: The Case of Yugoslavia

Summary/Abstract: Wars everywhere have always played a major role in historical memory. "Even the oldest myths and traditions deal with fighting and killing," the German novelist Hans-Magnus Enzenberger said recently, recalling this simple but no less basic historical fact. While collective memory in premodern societies was largely based on wartime experiences, the advent of nationalism in the late eighteenth century increased the importance, the political role, and the cultural significance of war memories in societies everywhere, not only in the Balkans. War memorials, celebrations, cemeteries, and other symbolic, expressions of memory were not only "sites of mourning," but, more important, they became the means of fostering a collective national identity; education, textbooks, and public discourse all combined to remind people of the duty of sacrificing for one's own nation by recalling former wars. [...]

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