Memory Politics of the 1990s Wars in Serbia: HISTORICAL REVISIONISM AND CHALLENGES OF MEMORY ACTIVISM
Memory Politics of the 1990s Wars in Serbia: HISTORICAL REVISIONISM AND CHALLENGES OF MEMORY ACTIVISM

Author(s): Jelena Đureinović
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Recent History (1900 till today), Special Historiographies:, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Historical revisionism, Politics of History/Memory, Peace and Conflict Studies, Wars in Jugoslavia
Published by: Fond za humanitarno pravo
Keywords: Memory politics; Populism; Historical revisionism; National pride; Commemoration
Summary/Abstract: Since 2012, when the Serbian Progressive Party came to power, the wars of the 1990s became the focal point of the official memory politics and crucial for the political legitimacy of the SNS government. The populist discourse of the return of the national pride is central to state-sponsored memory work, arguing that the previous governments and international community coerced the Serbian nation to feel ashamed about its heroes and victims of the 1990s wars. The current regime uses the fact that the previous governments did not focus on the 1990s in their memory politics as a demarcation line and source of legitimacy. Because of the SNS and their political allies, the Serbian people are finally allowed and able, as the dominant narrative claims, to remember their heroes and victims with pride. The government builds its political legitimacy on its commitment to the industry of memory, which involves large-scale commemorations, usage of media technologies, cultural production and new ways of disseminating the dominant narratives...

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