WORLD WAR I IN CONTEMPORARY MEMORY CULTURE IN SERBIA

Abstract

The memorialization of the First World War in contemporary Serbian culture offers a revealing case study of the ways in which collective memory is shaped by shifting political and social dynamics. From the 1980s to the present, public remembrance of the Great War has undergone a marked revitalization, most visibly manifested in the erection of numerous monuments across the country. This commemorative expansion did not occur in a political vacuum; rather, it unfolded in close interaction with broader ideological transformations accompanying the late socialist crisis and the post-Yugoslav transition.

Particularly during the 1980s and 1990s, there was a notable proliferation of monuments dedicated to military leaders and war heroes. This monumental emphasis on martial figures functioned not merely as an act of historical remembrance but as a symbolic reorientation of public memory toward narratives of heroism, sacrifice, and national struggle. In this context, the commemorative landscape can be interpreted as reflecting—and simultaneously reinforcing—the broader militarization of Serbian society during a period marked by rising nationalism and armed conflict.