(Post)pamięć o wojnie. Współczesne interpretacje zbrodni wojennych wśród społeczności boszniackiej
Postmemory of war. Contemporary interpretations of war crimes among the Bosniaks community

Author(s): Katarzyna Wasiak
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, History and theory of political science, Politics and Identity
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: memory; postmemory; war; crime; Bosnia and Herzegovina
Summary/Abstract: The late 1980s and early 1990s were a period of reinterpretation and reconstruction of ethnic and national identities for the countries of the former Yugoslavia. After the breakup of the South Slavic state, its inhabitants faced many challenges, as they not only had to find themselves in an entirely new reality but were also obliged to declaratively define who they were. Nationalists, who manifested chauvinistic slogans in public space, came to the fore. Social disorientation in the emerging reality fostered segregationist thinking, leading to the division of the united state and the delineation of who were the “own” and who were the “others”.The main research problem in this dissertation is the contemporary interpretations of war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war from 1992 to 1995. This analysis is a case study of the Bosniak community (Bosnian Muslims) – specifically the second generation, individuals born after the conflict. The aim of the analysis was to examine how the memory of the war influences contemporary ethnic relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author, having observed the practices of nationalism in this small country for several years, especially among the Bosniak community, and being influenced by the concept of postmemory, aimed to investigate how inherited memory affects the shaping of contemporary interethnic relations in this country, where, importantly, the role of the second generation is currently observed to be increasing.

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