Dialogical memories and negotiation of identities in post-Yugoslav literatures

This article explores the intricate relationship between memory and identity in post-Yugoslav literature, with a specific emphasis on the dialogical nature of remembrance in contexts marked by trauma, exile and systemic transformation. Drawing on memory studies and dialogical theories, the study examines how memory emerges as a contested and evolving discourse shaped by interpersonal, cultural and historical tensions. The analysis focuses on three contemporary novels: Hansen’s Children (2004) by Ognjen Spahić, The Ministry of Pain (2006) by Dubravka Ugrešić and Catch the Rabbit (2018) by Lana Bastašić, highlighting their individual and collective negotiation of the legacies of Yugoslavia’s disintegration and the postcommunist European order. By situating these texts in the European semi-periphery, the article underscores how identity formation is embedded in global structures of inequality and historical contingency. Ultimately, I argue that these literary texts embody and enact the dialogical nature of memory, highlighting silence, forgetting, displacement and the complexities of belonging.