Yugoslav (Re)Visions I: Comparative anti-Yugoslavism

Session Submission Type: Lightning Round

Brief Description

The disintegration of Yugoslavia was driven by ideologies of ethno-nationalism, often supported by vigorous critiques of and arguments against the Yugoslav idea. While Yugoslavism received ample scholarly attention during and after the breakup of the federation, the ideology of anti-Yugoslavism received little to no critical attention. The purpose of this lightning round is to start a rigorous scholarly conversation about anti-Yugoslavism in the successor states: What are its distinguishing features in each one of them? How politically significant this idea was and still is? How did it shape the narratives of the new nation states? Which cultural and political forms did this idea adopt and help produce? We believe that the only way to interrogate this idea rigorously is to engage in a comparative and interdisciplinary analysis, one that focuses on each successor state and does so from a variety of methodological perspectives. The session will feature insights gleaned from cultural and literary studies, history and political science, anthropology, linguistics, art history, and more.

Sub Unit

• History: Since 1990

Chair

• Djordje Popovic, UC Berkeley

Papers

• Anti-Fascism Under Siege: Liberal Revisionism in Cultural Debates in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina - Damir Arsenijevic, U of Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

• Grassroots Yugoslavism - Sezgin Boynik, Rab-Rab Press

• No Tito, No Yugoslavia: The Fear of the Twentieth Century in Present-Day Croatia - Tvrtko Jakovina, U of Zagreb (Croatia)

• Serbian Standpoint v. 'Yugoslav Ideology' - Branislav Jakovljevic, Stanford U

• Anti-Yugoslavism in Kosovo and Macedonia: A View from Outside - Victor Allen Friedman, U of Chicago

• Between Anti-Yugoslavism and Yugo-Nostalgia in Slovenia in the 1990s - Gregor Moder, U of Ljubljana (Slovenia)

• Anti-Yugoslavism from Afar - Bojana Videkanic, U of Waterloo (Canada)