(Not) Dealing with War Crimes on Film

This article argues that contemporary post-Yugoslav cinema contributes to a better understanding of the deeply divided societies in the aftermath the Yugoslav Wars (1991–2001), in terms of stimulating empathy for the Other, and, more specifically, raising awareness of the loss of human lives, thus memorializing and commemorating these experiences. It also explores how film directors deal with social issues, including war crimes, and how they appear as activist citizens while their governments struggle to take relevant action. The research aims to bridge the gap between the more theoretical literature that focuses on the role of the media in dealing with the past and more practical analysis providing examples from contemporary post-Yugoslav cinema, and to illuminate the link between film, peace-building and active citizenship. Finally, the article stresses how the idea of post-war reconciliation may be communicated through films and pertains to the notion that a positive film effect exists.

Suffering, Trauma, and Death in Anna Terék’s Poetry Book Halott nők [Dead Women]

Anna Terék is one of the most interesting Hungarian poets of the young generation. The study is focused on Terék’s third poetry book, Halott nők (Dead Women) (2017). The book is a poetry cycle that shows stories/voices of five women. Violence, physical as well as psychological and symbolic, becomes destructive to the identity of the individual but also to the identity of the community. At the same time, it demands an effort of expression. The paper analyses these issues. The study describes the speech / narrative forms and their functions, and it examines the system of metaphors and the specific poetic language. The poems are closely related to the Yugoslav Wars. The study refers to this historical background but also shows the poems’ universal dimension, which makes it possible to speak about them in terms of the life stories of today.

An Obstacle to Decolonising Europe

While the central aim of decolonisation is undoing colonial legacies, a major obstacle is white nationalism. A new wave of transnational anti-globalist, Islamophobic, and white-grievance tropes have hybridised with local political ideologies of right-wing politics and authoritarian populists in Europe and the United States. Here, I review the cultural characteristics of this new wave of white nationalism by focusing on its co-option of Serbian nationalist propaganda from the Yugoslav Wars and shared receptivity to narratives among far-right political groups in former colonial powers. The portrait that emerges is one of cross-cultural variations on a common theme: maintaining white supremacy and actively countering ideological challenges to it. Critically, the new wave of white nationalism expands our anthropological understanding of white supremacy but also highlights the significance of white nationalism in obstructing justice initiatives that address the race crimes of colonialism. Less consensus has been reached, however, on how to counter white nationalist networks and transnational extremist propaganda. In addition to highlighting ways to counter white nationalist propaganda, I argue that decolonising Europe and achieving its envisioned relations of sociative peace will not be fully realised unless more is done to minimise the influence of white nationalism.

KVANTIFIKACIJA REZULTATA U DRUŠTVENIM I HUMANISTIČKIM NAUKAMA – CITIRANOST KAO MERILO ISTORIOGRAFSKOG DOSTIGNUĆA U SLUČAJU INSTITUTA ZA SAVREMENU ISTORIJU

Quantifying citations as a measure of academic achievement has been a disputed tool, not only within the Serbian academic community. Nature Magazine published “The Leiden Manifesto”, advocating harmonization between quantitative and qualitative criteria. As a contribution to such efforts, this paper examines the production of the researchers of the Institute for Contemporary History in Belgrade. The Institute has been chosen as the most productive institution in Serbia in terms of the number of publications. Proportionally to the number of published works in a certain language, the most frequently quoted papers have been written in German, then in French. The reason for that is the particular interest of some big academic communities for certain issues. For example, the German academic community’s curiosity for socialism derives from its interest in the German Democratic Republic, its history and its society. Papers dealing with foreign workers also address some German internal issues. Publications in French have been more often quoted if they addressed World War I topics. And last but not least, works on the Yugoslav wars of the 1990’s reflects the political and academic interest of the international community. Thus, the most quoted works often respond to the requirements of some foreign factors, such as the international community or some big national academic circles (German and French). These papers sometimes fail to address certain local educational and cultural needs. It is important to combine broader regional and international interests with internal cultural needs. Therefore, more papers should be written in foreign languages, especially in English, which is the primary language of international academic exchange.

Between Resistance and Repatriarchalization. Women’s Activism in the Bay of Kotor in the 1990s

The author offers an account of women’s activism in the Bay of Kotor in the 1990s, thereby filling a gap in the academic literature on antiwar and peace activism in Montenegro during the Yugoslav wars. Although the Bay of Kotor saw regular antiwar and peace initiatives organized and led by women, these were unregistered grassroots activities. They went largely unnoticed by the media, which effectively erased them from the view of Montenegrin citizens and hid them from domestic and international historians and social scientists. The author compares the work of two non-governmental organizations, the ANIMA Centre for Women’s and Peace Education in Kotor, and RIZA–Bijela. She explores how the two organizations understood the place and role of women in the processes that took place in Montenegro in the 1990s. She assesses the similarities and differences of their respective approaches, and the effects of their work.

Keeping POWs Safe

This chapter addresses the protection of prisoners of war (POWs). Few groups of individuals are more vulnerable and more in need of protection than POWs who have been captured by their enemy or by other hostile actors. All too often, they are mistreated, tortured or even killed by those who have taken them captive or to whom they have surrendered. The Geneva Conventions and especially Common Article 3 have been cited and applied in a multitude of cases by international criminal tribunals. The chapter focuses on the case of the largest murder of POWs in the Yugoslav wars—the Ovčara massacre—a case where the Third Geneva Convention formed the gravamen of the Judgement.

Saintsavaism(s) and Nationalism: An Overview of the Development of the Serbian Orthodox Phenomenon of Saintsavaism, with a Special Focus on the Contribution of Justin Popovic (1894–1979)

This article provides a reflection on a relatively controversial phenomenon in the Serbian Orthodox Church, namely saintsavaism (serb. svetosavlje). The controversy accompanying the term is related to its association with the Serbian nationalism that erupted during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990’s. This article aims to demonstrate that this particular interpretation of saintsavaism is, in fact, only one of at least four distinct understandings of the notion. Moreover, this article will argue that the author who contributed most significantly to the development of saintsavaism as the guiding principle of the Serbian Church to this day, namely, Justin Popovic (1894–1979), envisioned saintsavaism as, indeed, a totalizing worldview, and recognized its national significance, without, however, reducing it to simple ‘nationalism’. In order to make this case clear, the article will analyze in detail Popovic’s seminal work on saintsavaism (available only in Serbian), Saintsavaism as a Philosophy of Life (1953).