“Rewriting” the Memory in Milo Urban’s Memoirs Na brehu krvavej rieky ([On the bank of a bloody river] 1994)

Abstract

The article looks into how history is created and modelled in Milo Urban’s (1904 – 1982) third book of memoirs Na brehu krvavej rieky ([On the bank of a bloody river] 1994). The autobiographical character of the book is constructed through positioning him into various scenes and portraying him from different perspectives. The article concentrates mainly on outlining this authorial self-portrayal in the historical context of the Second World War. The memoirs provide a portrait of Milo Urban as both a public persona – writer, journalist and chief editor of the radical fascist newspaper Gardista – and as a husband and father. Methodologically, the article draws on literature that conceptualises autobiographical texts as ways of narrative shaping of the past by an individual. It is not just the personal history and individual identity that are formed in this way, but also collective memory and identity. Autobiographies as such are in this respect viewed as important part of collective memory, since they influence how we view the past and which events are to be remembered and which are to be erased.

Keywords

• memory
• social role
• individual identity
• memories