Kultura (Skopje) (Mar 2014)
Vukovar 1991 Battle and Cultural Memory
Abstract
In this paper it is argued that Vukovar 1991 Battle traumatic memory wearing away process is a social issue and cannot be simply amputated by modernist narratives from accumulated traces of the past. Instead, those traumatic memories are constantly reconstructed, repressed, or transformed in some way or another under the pressure of manipulative power politics and competing ideologies in contemporary Croatian society. Therefore, the question this paper asks is whether war crimes and atrocities committed in Vukovar 1991 have its meaningful place in the Croatian cultural memory and whether social research techniques into contemporary cultural memory in Croatia can afford to avoid testimonial narrations of the Vukovar 1991 Battle and war experiences since they are an integral part of the collective memory?
