The Youngest Yugoslavs: An Oral History of Post-Socialist Memory

• In Event: Accessing Socialist and Post-Socialist Memory through Oral History

Abstract

More than thirty years since the collapse of Yugoslavia, memories of the unified state are ever-present among former citizens, those that continue to live in the region as much as those dispersed across the world. While scholars have studied the memories of the generation that was born after the Second World War, few have given attention to those who had only been children when the state dissolved. I collected testimonies from the youngest generations of Yugoslavs, those born between 1971 and 1991, about how life in Yugoslavia shaped their everyday experiences and how it has continued to shape their memories since. In my paper, I suggest that my interviewees’ post-socialist memory is shaped by a longing for a future that they never had the opportunity to experience because Yugoslavia’s demise entirely redefined the course of their lives.

Author

• Jovana Babovic, SUNY Geneseo