Full Description
For displaced persons, memory and identity is performed, (re)constructed and (re)negotiated daily. Forced displacement radically reshapes identity, with results ranging from successful hybridization to feelings of permanent misplacement. This compelling and intimate description of places of pain and (be)longing that were lost during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as of survivors' places of resettlement in Australia, Europe and North America, serves as a powerful illustration of the complex interplay between place, memory and identity. It is even more the case when those places have been vandalized, divided up, brutalized and scarred. However, as the author shows, these places of humiliation and suffering are also places of desire, with displaced survivors emulating their former homes in the far corners of the globe where they have resettled.
Contents
Table of Figures
Acknowledgements
A note on pronunciation of some specific Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian characters
Glossary of non-English words
List of selected abbreviations
Chapter 1. Introduction: The Journey through Bosnian War‒torn Communities
Writing Displacement of Bosnians
Practical Challenges
Theoretical Challenges
Methodological Challenges
Reflexive Ethnography
Ethics and Politics of the Research
Chapter 2. Klotjevac: Forced Displacement and 'Ethnic Cleansing' in an Eastern Bosnian Village
Reunion
When You Forget July
Journey to a Village
Once there was a Community
Beliefs and Rituals
Taboos
In Šljivovica Veritas
Human Geography of the Place
Annihilation of a Community
The '(UN)Safe Area' Srebrenica
Recognising Genocide
Back to the Present
Mapping displacement
Conclusion
Chapter 3. Beyond the Sadness: Narratives of Displacement, Refuge and Homecomings among Bosnian Refugees in Austria
Debating Displacement
Narrating Displacement
Sejo in Vienna
Edita's 'Wonderland' in Vienna
Mapping Edita's Lost Home
Less than 'Six Degrees of Separation' Between Edita and Ibro
Prijedor Region—Blueprint for 'Ethnic Cleansing'
Massacre in Hegići
Massacre in Brdo
Edita, Ibro and Sejo in Austria
Edita's Homecoming
Torn Between Home and Exile, Past and Present
Chapter 4. (Dis)Placing Memories: Monuments, Memorials and Commemorations in Post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Funeral at Hegići
Omarska
Keraterm and Trnopolje
Srebrenica/Potočari Commemorations
Mostar Carrying its Cross
Sarajevo Remembers
Chapter 5. Reframing Identity in Places of Pain: A Photographic Essay of Displacement and Memory
Chapter 6. Trans-local Diasporic Communities in the Age of Transnationalism: Bosnians in Australia, Europe and the US
Debating Diaspora
Emergence of the Bosnian Diaspora
One Family, Two Languages, Many Cultures
'German Bosnians' in Sweden and 'Aussie Bosnians' from Germany
The Trans-local Within the Transnational
Brčko in Melbourne
Strengthening Unity through Inter-marriage
Other Forms of Trans-localism in Action
Formation of Trans-local Diasporic Communities
Conclusion
Chapter 7. Measuring the Pain of Others: Gendered Displacement, Memory and Identity
Re-counting the Displaced
'Not in My Front Yard!': The Case of Fata Orlović
Ethnic Engineering
Uncounted 'Collateral Damage': The Case of Aunty Edina
(Mis)using IDPs
RefugeeWomen in Diaspora
Mothers' Children
Chapter 8. Concluding the Journey through Bosnian War-torn Communities
Bosnian Vikings
Bosnian Midwesterners
Vienna Blues
Unearthing the Missing in Bosnia
From St Louis to St Albans: All Roads Lead to Hanna's Café
Bibliography
