The Politics of Memory: the Face and the Place of the Sarajevo Assassination
The Politics of Memory: the Face and the Place of the Sarajevo Assassination

Summary/Abstract: The paper examines the visual memory constructs synonymous with the Sarajevo Assassination in the period since the beginning of the First World War. The attention is given to the transformation of the official commemorations after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia on 28 June 1914, the ideologicaly motivated mythologising of Gavrilo Princip and Mlada Bosna conspirators and subsequent ‘museumification’ of their memory in the communist period. Following the chronological alignment of the Assassination visual memory constructs in hundred years to date, it is possible to identify the intervowen pattern of exclusivity, conflict and inclusivity, orchestrated by each consecutive regime in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in periods between three major wars. The exposition and interpretation of this divisive and contentious memory pattern, as suggested in the current Sarajevo ‘Sarajevo 1878-1918’ exhibition, provides an argument in favour of more complex and pluralist approach to the subject of Assassination, in keeping with the contemporary critical heritage discourse which is emerging among the transforming communities in Central and Eastern Europe.

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