Vladislav Beronja

This dissertation examines the post-Yugoslav exile novels (1995-2009) in relation to the politics of collective memory that emerged after the disintegration of Yugoslavia. By charting the transformation of the novelist into a “curator of collective memory” and of the novel into a “curatorial space,” this study analyzes literary representations of the socialist past, the Yugoslav war, and traumas left in its aftermath. It argues that the the post-Yugoslav “museum-novels” destabilize the ideologically fixed concepts of cultural heritage, ethnic identity, and national historiography: first, by appropriating representational strategies used in postmodern museological practices; and second, by uncovering marginalized historical narratives and subversive political and cultural traditions.