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Introduction

Memory and identity in the Yugoslav successor states

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Sabrina P. Ramet
Sabrina P. Ramet*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, Email: sabrina.ramet@svt.ntnu.no
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Abstract

Reading the psychological literature on memory, there is little doubt who plays the leading roles on this stage. The radiant hero in the limelight is Remembering, attracting all attention, support and sympathy. The shady villain is Forgetting, the trouble maker who is lurking behind the scenes, always ready to counteract Remembering and thwart its achievement. There are various scenarios in which this plot is acted out. Typically, Remembering is forced to use all kinds of tricks to resist the villain's assaults and to guard the treasure – the accumulated wealth of past experience and knowledge. While Remembering strives to defend this precious treasure, maintaining it as untouched as possible, Forgetting never tires of trying to steal and destroy it (or at least to damage or, insidiously, to distort and falsify it). In this way, the conflict about the treasure of the past takes on still another dramatic dimension: it becomes a struggle for truth. (Brockmeier 2002, 15)

Information

Type
Special Section: Memeory and Identity in the Yugoslav Successor States
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 41 , Issue 6 , November 2013 , pp. 871 - 881
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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