Memory (Re)cycling: The Pilgrimage to Vukovar Remembrance Day

Abstract

This paper is based on an ethnographic study carried out during the Zagreb- Vukovar cycling marathon to the Remembrance Day commemoration. The commemoration of the fall of Vukovar, one of the key elements of the Croatian narrative of the Homeland War, attracts thousands of people from all over Croatia each year. I analyse the social production of the memory of the fall of Vukovar, a town which experienced some of the worst destruction during the 1991-1995 war. As a result, this paper assesses the interaction of various arenas of memory present in Vukovar, such as political and official discourse, commemoration, popular culture and historical narrative. Of particular interest is the relationship between individual and collective memory, belonging and space.

Keywords

• collective memory
• southeastern europe
• pilgrimage
• victimhood