Coming "Home": Identity and Place in Post War Croatia
Coming "Home": Identity and Place in Post War Croatia

Summary/Abstract: The authors explore the concept of home and the problematics of "returning home" in the post-war context of multi-ethnic villages in eastern Croatia. The authors argue that ruptures in social identity are articulated in ideas and sentiments about "home". One of the primary questions asked is to what extent the ethno-nationalist discourses of the state and international media enter into the reconstitution of home and social identity. Home, for villagers attempting to reconstruct their lives after the war, is a shifting concept that is tied to the re-negotiation of the war-ruptured social identity space. At present, it seems to point more often to what is missing in home and community life than to what has been recovered. For many, displacement and dislocation have occurred not only at the physical level, but also at the cognitive level. Therefore, "going home" entails much more than returning to a place and addressing material needs. It requires a cognitive reorientation.

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