Post-Yugoslav Film and Literature Production: an Alternative to Mainstream Political and Cultural Discourse

Drawing upon studies which emphasized and conceptualized the existence of political and cultural alternatives to the emerging nationalistic cultures in ex-Yugoslav societies, this study aims at following those anti-nationalist artistic records in newly formed post-Yugoslav states. By offering an overview to the contemporary artistic production, namely literature and film, an exploration will focus on several concrete cultural concepts, which should then function as tools for displaying the difference/opposition between the mainstream culture and its alternative authors and artifacts.
I argue that post-Yugoslav authors are conceptualizing the post-socialist and post-conflict situation through negotiation of several concepts, that of an emigrant, of the Other and of memory. Those have been therefore employed as
main theoretical filters, or basic analytical references. The question of an exile, as existentially altered position, which also reframes the issue of one’s belonging, then question of the Other, crucial for establishing one’s identity, and finally a
notion of memory which is a space for reconsideration of both private and official histories, problems of responsibility and guilt, are encompassing the way these post-Yugoslav film and literature authors articulate their own artistic and political views. Process of violent disintegration is a constitutive argument of this research, for it necessitates understanding of three post-Yugoslav states which were at war (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia) as a single cultural/political space. By inevitably touching upon Yugoslav cultural heritage this writing also seeks to distinguish novel identities and concepts which have been emerging after the dissolution.