Between Local and Global Politics of Memory: Transnational Dimensions of Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Serbian Prose Fiction and Film
Serbia joined the ITF (Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research) in 2011. This resulted in increased institutional efforts to pay more attention to Holocaust education and commemoration. However, critics have observed that many of these state-supporte...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea CDEC
2016-12-01
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| Series: | Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History |
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| Online Access: | http://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/focus.php?id=387 |
| _version_ | 1818603061754462208 |
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| author | Stijn Vervaet |
| author_facet | Stijn Vervaet |
| author_sort | Stijn Vervaet |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Serbia joined the ITF (Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research) in 2011. This resulted in increased institutional efforts to pay more attention to Holocaust education and commemoration. However, critics have observed that many of these state-supported initiatives use the Holocaust to conceal the state’s role as perpetrator or accomplice in mass war crimes and genocide committed during the Second World War and during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Against this backdrop, I discuss two recent Serbian Holocaust novels, Ivan Ivanji’s Man of Ashes (2006) and Zoran Penevski’s Less Important Crimes (2005), and Goran Paskaljević’s film When Day Breaks (2012). I argue that Holocaust memory in these works does not function as a ‘screen memory’ – one memory that covers up or suppresses other, undesired memories – but as a prism through which memories of the recent Yugoslav past as well as stories of present injustice, which the dominant political elites and mainstream society would prefer to forget or not to see, are filtered and brought to light. Ivanji, who is well acquainted with the politics of memory both in Germany and Serbia, also reflects critically upon the current globalization of Holocaust remembrance, thus providing feedback on the possibilities and limits of the memorial culture stimulated by the ITF. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T13:17:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3be82cca9d934c43b834c4f58f850b14 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2037-741X 2037-741X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T13:17:11Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea CDEC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History |
| spelling | doaj.art-3be82cca9d934c43b834c4f58f850b142022-12-21T22:30:26ZengFondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea CDECQuest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History2037-741X2037-741X2016-12-0110113143Between Local and Global Politics of Memory: Transnational Dimensions of Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Serbian Prose Fiction and Film Stijn Vervaet0University of OsloSerbia joined the ITF (Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research) in 2011. This resulted in increased institutional efforts to pay more attention to Holocaust education and commemoration. However, critics have observed that many of these state-supported initiatives use the Holocaust to conceal the state’s role as perpetrator or accomplice in mass war crimes and genocide committed during the Second World War and during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Against this backdrop, I discuss two recent Serbian Holocaust novels, Ivan Ivanji’s Man of Ashes (2006) and Zoran Penevski’s Less Important Crimes (2005), and Goran Paskaljević’s film When Day Breaks (2012). I argue that Holocaust memory in these works does not function as a ‘screen memory’ – one memory that covers up or suppresses other, undesired memories – but as a prism through which memories of the recent Yugoslav past as well as stories of present injustice, which the dominant political elites and mainstream society would prefer to forget or not to see, are filtered and brought to light. Ivanji, who is well acquainted with the politics of memory both in Germany and Serbia, also reflects critically upon the current globalization of Holocaust remembrance, thus providing feedback on the possibilities and limits of the memorial culture stimulated by the ITF.http://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/focus.php?id=387holocaust memory in serbiaserbian holocaust novelsZoran PenevskiGoran PaskaljevicTask Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust EducationRemembrance and Researchholocaust commemoration |
| spellingShingle | Stijn Vervaet Between Local and Global Politics of Memory: Transnational Dimensions of Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Serbian Prose Fiction and Film Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History holocaust memory in serbia serbian holocaust novels Zoran Penevski Goran Paskaljevic Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education Remembrance and Research holocaust commemoration |
| title | Between Local and Global Politics of Memory: Transnational Dimensions of Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Serbian Prose Fiction and Film |
| title_full | Between Local and Global Politics of Memory: Transnational Dimensions of Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Serbian Prose Fiction and Film |
| title_fullStr | Between Local and Global Politics of Memory: Transnational Dimensions of Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Serbian Prose Fiction and Film |
| title_full_unstemmed | Between Local and Global Politics of Memory: Transnational Dimensions of Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Serbian Prose Fiction and Film |
| title_short | Between Local and Global Politics of Memory: Transnational Dimensions of Holocaust Remembrance in Contemporary Serbian Prose Fiction and Film |
| title_sort | between local and global politics of memory transnational dimensions of holocaust remembrance in contemporary serbian prose fiction and film |
| topic | holocaust memory in serbia serbian holocaust novels Zoran Penevski Goran Paskaljevic Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education Remembrance and Research holocaust commemoration |
| url | http://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/focus.php?id=387 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stijnvervaet betweenlocalandglobalpoliticsofmemorytransnationaldimensionsofholocaustremembranceincontemporaryserbianprosefictionandfilm |