The Post-Communist Construction of Memories: Between a "Great Story" and Current-Politics Myth

Abstract

This paper explores the shaping of social memories in post-communist societies, focusing in particular on the influence of the professedly rejected communist metanarrative on the methods and strategies of constructing national pasts in the new states of the former Yugoslavia. The author’s hypotheses are examined through an analysis of the construction of the public memory of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjić in the context of national mythology, and an analysis of the narratives and methods characteristic of the process of constructing the Yugoslav metanarrative.