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Unattainable past, unsatisfying present – Yugonostalgia: an omen of a better future?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Maja Maksimović
Maja Maksimović*
Affiliation:
Department of Balkan, Slavic, and Oriental Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Nostalgia for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, yugonostalgia, has become widespread throughout the former Yugoslavia. It takes various forms and expressions, but it represents a selective and largely embellished remembrance, influenced by the need of those who engage in it to escape from the unsatisfying present they live in. In most cases, yugonostalgia is a bittersweet craving for the past – passive, static, and restricted. The paper argues that the actions inspired by yugonostalgia not only can have an active, dynamic, and progressive face, but can also serve as an important factor in the reconciliation process among former Yugoslavs. With its focus on positive and inclusive aspects of the common socialist past, yugonostalgia has the potential to (re)connect the nostalgic subjects throughout the former Yugoslav space, helping them to overcome the alienation that resulted from the violent dissolution of the common state.

Keywords

yugonostalgiaYugoslavianostalgiacollective memoriesreconciliation
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 45 , Issue 6 , November 2017 , pp. 1066 - 1081
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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