What Kind of Burden is the Burden of History? How Young Adults in Serbia and Kosovo Use History to Understand and Experience Nationalism

Abstract

The role of history in popular understandings and experiences of nationalism remains a puzzle of nationalism scholarship. Existing approaches are polarized between constructivist and elite-driven explanations that neglect nuanced instrumentalizations of history. This study investigates uses of history vis-à-vis nationalism by Serbian and Kosovo Albanian students. The author argues that historical themes are evoked in two distinct ways: lived history and abstract history. The former embraces official nationalist narrative, ignores the ethnic out-group, and deduces historical lessons for individuals. The latter rejects official nationalist narrative, makes clear connections with the out-group (favorable and unfavorable), and deduces historical lessons for collectivities.

Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to the kind staffs at the Universities of Belgrade and Priština for their logistical support. Special thanks to UNHCR's then-spokesperson Vesna Petrović for her suggestions and guidance. Helpful feedback was given by participants of the 19th International Conference of Europeanists and an annual conference of the Association for the Study of Nationalities. Finally, heartfelt gratitude to participants of the ‘After Kosovo: A Project for Peace’ workshops I organized in the summer of 2007—many of the preliminary ideas for this project emerged during those sessions. I thank the participants for their courage at a time when travel between Belgrade and Priština was no trivial matter.

Notes

1. Belgrade accounts for almost a third of Serbia, while Priština accounts for close to one half of Kosovo excluding the Serb-populated north. Moreover, young people are disproportionately concentrated in the urban capitals.

2. (K) indicates the respondent is from Kosovo and (S) indicates (s)he is from Serbia.

Additional information

Funding

This research was aided by the generosity of the Minda de Ginzburg Center for European Studies and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, both at Harvard University.