Representations of Memory in Contemporary Balkan Literature: Poetics of a Common European Memory?

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Literature plays a crucial role in preserving, contesting, and reinterpreting memory. This panel explores how Balkan literature engages with both personal and collective memory in shaping narratives of identity, history, and trauma. By analyzing the poetics of selected contemporary literary works from the region, participants examine the mechanisms through which authors craft their characters’ experiences to resonate with both national and European memories. The discussion will also highlight how these literary works contribute to shaping a broader European memory, challenging dominant Eurocentric perspectives. By bridging literary analysis with memory studies, this panel aims to shed light on the ways Balkan literature informs ongoing debates on historical justice, reconciliation, and European identity.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 21st Century

Chair

• Neus Rotger, Open U of Catalonia (Spain)

Papers

• Fragmented Pasts and National Belonging: Memory and Identity in Lea Ypi’s 'Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History' - Daria Smirnova, Duke U

• Dialogical Memories and Negotiation of Identities in Post-Yugoslav literatures - Raul Algarin, Autonomous U of Barcelona (Spain)

• Unfinished Emancipation in Matrilineal Memories of Yugoslavia, and After - Samantha Farmer, U of Michigan

Discussants

• Eralda L Lameborshi, East Texas A&M U

• Adriana Stan, Babes-Bolyai U (Romania)

Session Manager

• Katherina Boicheva Kokinova, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Bulgaria)