(Re)construction of memory of Turning Points in Slovenian History of the 20th Century

The research thematises relationships between representation of memory and politics of identity in Slovenian society after the 1980s. The goal of the project is a comprehensive and holistic analysis of memory practices (official, everyday, collective, individual, etc.) which are conducive to shaping and maintaining the memory of the most traumatic periods and events in recent European and also Slovenian history.

The project investigates these issues in sets of five topics within two general thematic clusters: first, the study of protocols of shaping the “memory canons” in historiography and public debates on past events from the Great and the Second World Wars, in re/shaping spaces of memory – monuments and in re/shaping memory time in commemorative practices (anniversaries, manifestations, festivals etc.). Second, through applying the concept mediated memory the research proposes to interrogate the dialectics between “canonised memory” and memory narratives in literature and new media, and to question the concepts of representation and performance in hybrid media memory cultures.