The next generation: Nationalism and violence in the narratives of Serbian students on the break-up of Yugoslavia

Abstract

Twenty years after the end of the violent break-up of Yugoslavia, new generations of young people in Serbia are living with its legacies. Despite the socio-psychological implications of violent conflict in post-conflict societies being well established in the literature, there are still only a few studies which focus on young Serbians’ meaning-making in relation to the recent wars. The present study focuses on how a group of young Serbians, born after the violence was over, understands the violent break-up of Yugoslavia. The article presents the analysis of interviews and group discussions with 31 first-year university students in Serbia about these events. The goal of the analysis is to determine a) whether participants’ narratives contain identifiable themes of a collective memory of conflict and b) whether participants normalize past violence through narrative. The relationship between the two as well as the relationship between history textbooks and participants’ narratives will be discussed. Finally, the findings are discussed in regard to how participants’ understandings of past violence might shape their political positioning in relation to nationalism.