A “Common Memory” of Yugoslav Wars?
The Case of Four Female Writers from the Balkan Diasporas

1st session of CEFRES in-house seminar
Through the presentation of works in progress, CEFRES’s Seminar aims at raising and discussing issues about methods, approaches or concepts, in a multidisciplinary spirit, allowing everyone to confront her or his own perspectives with the research presented.

Location: CEFRES Library
Date: Tuesday, 10th of October
Language: English
Contact / To register: cefres[@]cefres.cz

Discussant: Chiara Mengozzi (Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Associate at CEFRES)

Lola Sinoimeri (CEFRES / Université Paris 8 / Sorbonne University)

Abstract

My thesis explores the links between self-writing and collective experiences – those of war, immigration, diaspora and gender violence. The question of the “common” or the “we” that these literatures bring into existence across borders is therefore central to my research. After drawing up an overview of the different types of “we” experienced and/or reappropriated in post-socialist, post-Yugoslav and migratory contexts, I will show how a “common memory” can be created in the works of immigrant women authors dealing with the wars in Yugoslavia. In particular, I will be exploring the deconstruction of a ‘national memory’ (Assmann 2006), the representation of diasporic communities, the treatment of silences and the links between fictional and documentary writing.