The role of interpretation of history (completed)

It is the global multidisciplinary research project on the interpretation of history led by Gorana Ognjenovic, guest researcher at NCHR and research fellow at University of Oslo and Jasna Jozelic, HR Advisor and Dr.philos.candidate at NCHR. 

About the project

This project challenge decades of some superficial and selective rhetoric that came from different sides/political interests, foreign as well as domestic. In other words, our contributions are meant to fill in some of those black wholes that unfortunately got to see the daylight and lived long and prosperous lives determining the idea of what Tito’s Yugoslavia was, longer than should have been the case.

As the disintegration of Tito’s Yugoslavia into its successor states preceded, the power also decentralized and therefore a lot of information, previously unknown became available to the public. Today, it is possible to search in archives for documents, earlier unknown information, that can result in further developing of the knowledge about the Tito’s Yugoslavia. As a result, a more detailed and nuanced picture of what Yugoslavia was all about is slowly emerging throughout the academic research literature. After reading most of the literature published on the theme, we came to a conclusion that this volume needs to be organised in order to meet some mishaps and flaws in already existing descriptions, followed by a serious lack of detail and nuance in certain aspects of the descriptions already made. Examples being: some important details were still untold, some aspects of the narrative were selectively told and some descriptions of what we knew about who we were and what in the end happened, were simply wrong.

Why is the study of Tito’s Yugoslavia relevant today?

Repeating some of these questions in the light of the newly gained information based on documented facts are of great importance for the Yugoslav successor states in their current state of political independence from one another.

Neither the rise nor the fall of Tito’s Yugoslavia had occurred in a political vacuum.

In the end for various reasons it vanished more or less overnight in one of the worst bloodsheds ever seen in Europe. A bloodshed which, despite all international expectations and demands, seems not to be easy to either forget or forgive, especially in those areas of the formal Republic’s devastated by the conflict. All reconciliation studies show that the process of healing needs honesty about crimes committed and systematic positive action, which would provide conditions necessary for wounds to heal, of which unfortunately there is not much to be seen as yet. 

Outcomes

The publication endorsements

”This book is a significant, bold, and timely contribution to studies of the former Yugoslavia. It illuminates complex and non-linear relationships between the former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito and the society and people he led for more than four decades. The scope of the volume is massive and the topics covered are remarkably diverse. The contributors to this volume tell multiple untold stories about the region’s history. While many of the book’s topics are familiar, the chapters in the book add novel, often unexpected and dynamic aspects to these phenomena, thus weaving together a rich and intricate story. The end result is an innovative, multifaceted, and vibrant portrait of Josip Broz Tito and intricate Yugoslav historicities." Azra Hromadžić, Ass. Prof. at Maxwell School Syracuse University in USA, author of:  Citizens of an Empty Nation: Youth and Statemaking in the Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015)

"Building on the newly discovered archival material, these two multidisciplinary volumes offer a critical reevaluation of scholarship on Yugoslavia and its aftermath.  Authors offer a perspective free of both the orientalist and occidentalist interpretative baggage, trying instead to offer a substantive historical, political and sociological contribution to our understanding of a failed dream of a multinational South Slavic state." Marko Hoare is Ass. Prof. at Kingston University London, author of: 'The Bosnian Muslims in the Second World War' (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2013)

”This fascinating collection of essays by an impressive team of scholars will become reguired reading for anyone interested in the still insufficiently researched and understood topic of Tito’s Yugoslavia.” Tomislav Longinović Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature, University of Winsconsin Madison, author of: Vampire Nation: Violence As Cultural Imaginary (Duke University Press, 2011.)

”New data, documents and emergence of silenced stories forces us to constantly reconsider what we thought we knew about past events and developments. The disintegration of the Yugoslav state may never be fully understood in all its complexity. To understand it better we need to know more about the time before, during and after its demise. This is why this book is important, timely and necessary.” Inger Skjelsbæk University of Oslo and PRIO in Norway, author of The Political Psychology of War Rape: Studies from Bosnia and Herzegovina (2011)  

Published Apr. 5, 2016 2:55 PM - Last modified Feb. 12, 2018 11:07 AM

Participants

Detailed list of participants