Disputed Histories - Personal and Official Narratives in (Post) Yugoslav Era History Textbooks

Abstract

This paper examines the shift that took place when official historical narratives began to be conceived from the perspective of personal histories (and ident­ities) in the post-Yugoslav context. It opens up a space in which to imagine new positions that can lead to the construction of more coherent official historical narra­ti­ves, beyond narrow national perspectives. This paper is based on material arising from the experience of wor­king on the artistic/research project Disputed Histories, which consists of a library of history textbooks and a series of complementary workshops, which compare and analyse a series of different history curricula.

Keywords

• history textbooks, history curriculum, official historical narratives and identities, private histories and identities, socially engaged art practice, art and ideologies, history and ideology, Post-Yugoslav nati¬o¬na-lisms, socialist era