The author argues that instead of the anticipated democratization and break with ideologically burdened historical work after 1989, in post-socialist Slovenia at least three competing politically contaminated ways of interpreting the past gained momentum: the so-called liberal-conformist position, which insists on looking in the future and forgetting the traumas of the past; the revisionist standpoint which, at least in Slovenia, is the most aggressive one; and the objectivistic approach practiced by most Slovenian historians after 1991. He investigates how collective memories are mobilized in general, formal and in particular more personalized and/or emotional narratives. He traces the changes in Slovenian memorial landscape divided into categories: the authoritarian type, defined by a desire for direct colonization of the interpretation of the past related to the Second World War; the reconciliatory type that tries to achieve reconciliation; the conflicting type that clashes with the iconography of an existing partisan monument as an alternative interpretation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 36053549
The monograph gives a general introduction to the topic. In the first part, the author discusses the wider historical circumstances and the historical background of anti-Semitism, related to the national and regional characteristics in Germany and in Austria, Hungary and Croatia. The rise of Nazism and anti-Semitism are meticulously discussed to provide a wider context into which the Slovenian case is situated. In the second part, the author gives a factual overview of the Prekmurje situation, focusing at that on testimonies of survivors.
COBISS.SI-ID: 263396608
The article discusses cultural and social practices that approach the Yugoslav socialist past positively and represent a potential source of emancipation, reflection, and resistance, a call for collectivity and solidarity in various post-Yugoslav worlds, as well as across ethnic boundaries. In particular, it discusses the cultural practices of self-organized youth choirs that sing songs from the Yugoslav socialist period. The phenomenon of self-organized choirs in the former Yugoslavia is considered a paradigmatic example of approaching the socialist Yugoslav past in a pro-active, autonomous and emancipatory manner, which, the author argues, is a precondition for imagining and negotiating a “decent”, “normal”, “European” future in the post-Yugoslav space.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33284141
The chapter is a comparative analysis of two Great War memorial landscapes which each in its own right testify of the final nationalization of collective memory. Methodologically, comparing the Salonika military cemetery with Italian or Austro-Hungarian cemeteries/cenotaphs along the Soča River proves to be a deliberate comparison of two distinct commemorative strategies; “multicultural” Zejtinlik is a commemoration abroad and the Great War is not a constitutive myth of modern Greece. The analysis is divided into two parts, first, the author investigates the post-mortem differentiation of the Entente’s fallen soldiers while in the second part detects points where the Entente and Central Powers cemeteries differ. To do so the author compares Italian cenotaphs and Austro-Hungarian cemeteries along the Isonzo Front line.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33329197
The article is about the emergence and the disappearance of the multicultural lifeworld in Prekmurje. The most North-eastern part of Slovenia is the only region in Europe where the Hungarian, German and South Slavic cultures were melted into an intercultural landscape of inter-ethnic and inter-cultural relations and practices. Before the World War II, Prekmurje was also the region with the largest Romani and Jewish communities on the territory of nowadays Slovenia. In their article the authors are particularly interested to present the Jewish influence on this multicultural habitat. The Jews not only set the economic pace of the province, but also left a definitive mark on its cultural and social life. Among the most notable agents of economic and cultural development were printers, publishers, medical doctors, lawyers, factory owners and owners of the local Savings Bank. Anti-Semitism and Nazi deportation in 1944 therefore not only destroyed 80 % of Jewish population of the region but also stopped the modernisation process of the region.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35937581