Away from Home: Memories and Echoes of Yugoslavia in Post-Yugoslav Prose Portraying Exile

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The panel explores how contemporary post-Yugoslav prose depicts the interconnections between memory, exile, and identity reconstruction in the wake of Yugoslavia’s dissolution. Through analyses of novels Bait by David Albahari, Catch the Rabbit by Lana Bastašić, The Museum of Unconditional Surrender by Dubravka Ugrešić, and the short story collection I’m Not Going Anywhere by Rumena Bužarovska, the panel aims to examine how exilic protagonists navigate geopolitical displacement and personal and collective memory, struggling to redefine home in both physical and psychological terms. Portraying exile as both an existential crisis and a potential space for freedom, the selected works provide a nuanced exploration of the emotionally complex and ambiguous interplay of exile and memory. The panel delves into the intricate interrelation between narrative strategies (such as metafiction, intertextuality, nonlinear storytelling, as well as the use of photography as a tool for preserving memory), and the shifting perception of memories, both public and private. Ultimately, the works in question challenge fixed notions of home and national identity, illustrating exile as a deeply personal, yet profoundly political experience. By bringing together these works, the panel sheds light on how memory constructs and deconstructs belonging, highlighting the fluidity of identity in exile, and the lasting echoes of Yugoslavia in post-Yugoslav literature.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 21st Century

Chair

• Magdalena Marija Meašić, U of Rijeka (Croatia)

Papers

• Navigating Statelessness: Transantlantic Exile and Post-Yugoslav Memory in David Albahari’s 'Bait' - Sofija Todorović, U of Belgrade (Serbia)

• Catching the Memories: Exilic Experience and (Post–)Yugoslav Past in the Novel 'Catch the Rabbit' by Lana Bastašić - Aleksandra Petrović, Inst for Literature and Arts (Serbia)

• Memory, Migration and Social Gender Structures in Rumena Bužarovska’s 'I’m Not Going Anywhere' - Gala Naseva, U of Graz (Austria)

• The Exile and the Memory of Yugoslavia in Dubravka Ugrešić’s Novel The Museum of Unconditional Surrender - Andrea Anđelinić, U of Zagreb (Croatia)

Discussant

• Magdalena Marija Meašić, U of Rijeka (Croatia)