The Third Dimension: Yugoslav Socialist Children’s Literature and the Memory of War

• In Event: Multiple Perspectives on War Memory in East European Children’s Literature: Victimhood, Justice, Peace

Abstract

Throughout the socialist Yugoslav temporality, representations and memories of the Second World War and especially of the People’s Liberation War (NOB, 1941–1945) were among the most accentuated themes in children’s literature and culture. However, due to the all-encompassing ruptures and profound changes brought about by the bloody dissolution of the country in the context of the global collapse of socialism, the history of Yugoslav socialist children’s literature underwent major rewrites and canon revisions, leaving out not only the majority of the works for children on the topic of the Second World War but also peace education. Based on the newly established online archive of Yugoslav women illustrators (https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12102/A2.788), the paper looks at the Yugoslav socialist memory politics of war in children’s culture. Reiterating the key question of the time – How to approach children with the subject of war so that peace may reign? – the paper presents concrete cultural and memory political debates and works in search of the so-called “third dimension” (children’s book author Dragan Lukić) of memory of war, where singularity of life is praised and hope of an end to wars is generated.

Author

• Katja Kobolt, Scientific Research Centre SAZU (Slovenia)