War on the Walls

(Re-)imagining Past And Collective Memories through Murals and Graffiti in post-Yugoslav Serbia

Abstract

In the last few decades, political scientists, historians, psychologists, and sociologists’ interest in “collective memory” increased significantly (Assman & Czaplicka, 1995; Olick & Robins, 1998; Mistzal, 2003; Hałas, 2008; Maier, 2009). There are ongoing discussions about the coverage and the exact meaning of terms such as “social memory,” “social remembrance,” “collective memory’’, ‘’public’’ and ‘national’’ memory (Wood, 1999; Kansteiner, 2002). It seems that between all the bearers of these discussions, there is a consensus around one thing - a collective and often debatable representation of the past, which demarcates the boundaries between social groups, and at the same time, represents the fabrics from which social (thus, political) identity is woven, deserves to be the subject of a more detailed scientific inquiry.