Prerequisits

There are no specific prerequisites for participating in this course and completing its requirements. However, prior knowledge of basic theories of memory, post-socialism, and cultural studies is recommended, as it will facilitate understanding of the topics discussed and enable active participation in discussions and practical tasks. Students should be prepared to analyse complex theoretical texts and engage in research activities.

Content (syllabus outline)

Remembering socialism as a cultural and discursive practice:

• Why study memory?
• Why study post- socialism?
• Terminological issues, post-socialism, post- communism, transition, transformation;
• Characteristics of anthropological and historiographic approaches to post-communist societies
• Forms and media of remembering socialism: virtual memories, museums, literature, film, etc.

Post-socialist affects:

• Affect theory from a post-socialist perspective;
• Manifestations of nostalgia for socialism;
• Political and social meanings of post-socialist affects.

Remembering socialism in the former Yugoslavia:

• Characteristics of Yugoslav socialism and post-Yugoslav post- socialisms;
• Memory practices, historical revisionism, transitional justice;
• Dialogue between “official” and private memories.

Remembering socialism through the arts and other performative forms:

• Remembering socialism and cinematography;
• Remembering socialism and literature;
• Socialist monuments and their post-socialist lives.

Remembering socialism and shaping collective identities:

• Remembering socialism and the working class.
• Remembering socialism and former soldiers.
• Remembering socialism and partisans.
• Remembering socialism and women.
• Remembering socialism and members of minority communities.

Readings

• Bonfiglioli, Chiara. Women and Industry in the Balkans : The Rise and Fall of the Yugoslav Textile Sector. London: I.B. Tauris, 2019.
• Hofman, Ana, Tanja Petrović (eds.). Affect’s Social Lives: Post-Yugoslav Reflections. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2023.
• Kosmos, Iva, Tanja Petrović, Martin Pogačar: Zgodbe iz konzerve: zgodovine predelave in konzerviranja rib na severovzhodnem Jadranu. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC 2020.
• Morris, Jeremy. Everyday Post-Socialism: Working-Class Communities in the Russian Margins. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
• Nadkarny, Maya. Remains of Socialism: Memory and the Futures of the Past in Postsocialist Hungary. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2020.
• Petrović, Tanja. Utopia of the Uniform: Affective Afterlives of the Yugoslav People’s Army. Durham – London: Duke University Press, 2024.
• Schwenkel, Christina. Building Socialism: The Afterlife of East German Architecture in Urban Vietnam. Durham – London: Duke University Press, 2020.
• Scott, David. Omens of Adversity: Tragedy, Time, Memory, Justice. Durham/London: Duke University Press, 2014.

Objectives and competences

The aim of this course is to develop an understanding of the processes and practices of remembering socialism in post-socialist societies and to explore their impact on contemporary social and cultural discourses. Students will acquire competences for analysing memory as a cultural and discursive practice that enables the justification of social positions, strategies, and moral values in the period of post-communist transformations. Special emphasis will be placed on individual experiences and narratives, and their interplay with collective and “official” interpretations, which will facilitate a critical understanding of post-socialist transformations and their impacts on personal and social life.

Intended learning outcomes

Students will use the knowledge acquired in the course to produce a scientific contribution that can serve as a draft of a dissertation chapter or a research article. In doing so, they will develop the ability to critically analyse and interpret memory practices in the post-socialist context, synthesise the acquired information, and enhance their academic writing skills, contributing to their scientific and professional development.

Learning and teaching methods

Types of learning/teachin:

• Frontal teaching,
• Independent students work,
• e-learning.

Teaching methods:

• Explanation,
• Conversation, discussion, debate,
• Work with texts,
• Case studies.

Assessment

• Long written assignements (80 %),
• Final examination (written/oral) (20 %).

Lecturer’s references

• PETROVIĆ, Tanja. 2024. Utopia of the Uniform: Affective Afterlives of the Yugoslav People’s Army. Durham, London: Duke University Press.
• PETROVIĆ, Tanja. 2023. Alternative cinematic and literary histories of Yugoslavia and the “power to be affected”. In: Hofman, Ana, Tanja Petrović eds. Affect’s social lives: Post-Yugoslav reflections. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 165-191. DOI: 10.3986/9789610507291_06.
• PETROVIĆ, Tanja. 2022. Erinnerung – warum (gerade) jetzt?. V: LJUMOVIĆ, Janko (ur.). Moć kulture : kultura sjećanja: politike i prakse. Podgorica: Fondacija Konrad Adenauer, 26-39.
• PETROVIĆ, Tanja. 2021. Heritage of liminality: remnants of the military in the Istrian city of Pula in the aftermath of Yugoslav socialism. Colloquia Humanistica. 2021, no. 10: 1-21.
• PETROVIĆ, Tanja. 2021. Seeing the futures past, and futures yet to come: on the (im)possibility of reading the promises of liberation from the visual archive of the non-aligned movement in the aftermath of the Yugoslav socialism. Membrana vol. 6, no. 1: 45-59.
• KOSMOS, Iva. 2023. “Good living” and immigrants in the literature of Aleksandar Hemon: toward the humble dream. V: HAUHART, Robert C. (ur.), SARDOČ, Mitja (ur.). The Routledge handbook on the American dream. Vol. 2. New York; Abingdon: Routledge.
• KOSMOS, Iva. 2022. Writing against the code and fitting in with the code: reading Dubravka Ugrešić in the context of the international literary field. V: MIJATOVIĆ, Aleksandar (ur.), WILLEMS, Brian (ur.). Reconsidering (post-)Yugoslav time: towards the temporal turn in the critical study of (post-)Yugoslav literatures. Leiden; Boston: Brill, Studies in Slavic literature and poetics, vol. 65, Str. 239-260.
• KOSMOS, Iva. 2020. Staging the lived experience and socialist everyday life in post-Yugoslav theater. East European politics and societies, vol. 34, no. 1, str. 3-24.
• KOSMOS, Iva. 2020. Purging affect from the stage: Frljić’s staging of Lexicon of YU mythology and its failure to connect to the past. The Slavonic and East European review. vol. 98, no. 4, str. 632-653.
• KOSMOS, Iva. 2020. “Theirs” or “our” land?: the dynamics of cultural memory and a collective reading of the novel and theatre play “Yugoslavia, my fatherland”. V: PUŠNIK, Maruša (ur.), LUTHAR, Oto (ur.). The media of memory. Paderborn: F. Schöningh, an imprint of the Brill-Group, Balkan studies library, vol. 29, str. 194-218.