Between Two Wars: Generational Responses of Toronto Croats to Homeland Independence

Winland, Daphne

doi:10.1353/dsp.2015.0009

Cited by 2 publications

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“…After the collapse of Yugoslavia when it became possible to talk openly about Bleiburg, the story was already seared in the memories and imaginations of those who felt a connection to the tragedy. 16 Despite extensive research revealing major discrepancies in the versions of the telling of the Bleiburg massacre from scholars including Pavlaković (2010), Grahek Ravančić (2018), Kolstø (2010), Nielsen (2018) and others, Croatian memory activists continue to promote the story of suffering and victimhood at Bleiburg, one nurtured in diaspora for generations (Winland, 2015). As Pavlaković (2010) has argued, Croatian ‘commemorative culture’ since the 1990s has focused on several categories, one of which is victims of communist repression.…”

Section: Bleiburg – the Definitive Diaspora Commemorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Victimhood and the transnationalization of Croatian memory politics

Winland

2022

Memory Studies

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The biblical entreaty zakhor – Hebrew for ‘remember’ – has been central to the efforts of diaspora Jewish scholars, religious leaders, politicians and others to suture the suffering past to the present. The imperative to not only remember but also commemorate histories of suffering is ubiquitous among conflict-generated diasporas as well. For diaspora Croats, victim-centred themes regularly surface in identity narratives, focusing on memories of trauma and suffering after the establishment of the Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia in 1945. While the manipulation of victimhood narratives and the rehabilitation of controversial histories by Croatian political elites have been examined extensively, the persistence of memories focused on suffering among diaspora Croats has received less scholarly attention. In this article, I ask why, 30 years after the end of the Homeland War and the establishment of the Croatian state, do victimhood narratives continue to resonate for diaspora Croats particularly from the Herzegovinian region of the former Yugoslavia who arrived in Canada between 1945 and 1990. What role do memory activists in Canada originating mainly from Herzegovina play in lubricating and mobilizing memories that reinforce victimhood? Finally, how does the desire for validation and legitimacy beyond diaspora communities factor into commemorations and initiatives focused on collective suffering? The focus here is on research conducted between 2019 and 2020 in Toronto when diaspora commemorations and the memory narratives that have sustained them came under increased critical scrutiny, challenging the veracity of Croatian victimhood claims.

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Section: Bleiburg – the Definitive Diaspora Commemorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Victimhood and the transnationalization of Croatian memory politics

Winland

2022

Memory Studies

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(Re-)Construction of Identity and Belonging after Forced Migration: A Sociology of Knowledge Approach

Mijić

2022

Journal of Refugee Studies

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This study uses a sociology of knowledge perspective to analyse how former Bosnian refugees in Austria have integrated the experiences of ethnicized war and forced migration into their lives over the past three decades. The objective hermeneutical analysis of narrative interviews with Bosnian-Austrians reveals significant differences between former child refugees and those who experienced war and migration as adolescents. From a sociology of knowledge perspective, these differences can be attributed to varying ‘stratifications of experience’: The central crisis in the adolescents’ lives was triggered by experiencing the destruction of their Yugoslavian life-world, which significantly eroded their trust in their social reality’s stability and in their belonging. The former child refugees, however, particularly struggle with their double marginalization. While the former typically manage this crisis through an exaggerated adherence to the ideal of personal performance, the latter draw on collective imaginations of ethnic/national affiliation and try to comply with them.

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Between Two Wars: Generational Responses of Toronto Croats to Homeland Independence

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Victimhood and the transnationalization of Croatian memory politics

Victimhood and the transnationalization of Croatian memory politics

(Re-)Construction of Identity and Belonging after Forced Migration: A Sociology of Knowledge Approach

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