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Sites of Memory and Social Change in Croatia: A Case Study of The Seagull's Wings Monument

Memory is not something given or fixed, it is specific process which includes various definitions and re-definitions, interpretations and re-interpretations. The representations of different ‘sites of memory’ (Nora, 1998), as monuments, museums, commemorations, festivals etc., are constantly changing, depending on the social changes. Places have biographies in as much as they are formed, used, and transformed in relation to practice. They have value and historical relevance if they are rooted in the concrete details of locales in the landscape, acquiring material reference points that can be visited, seen and touched (Tilley, 1994). Monuments definitely have special importance for ‘official memory’ (Olick, 2007). During the period after WW2, Yugoslavia was socialist, one- party state. Totalitarian type of government was insisting on communist interpretation of recent history. WW2 was the central point of the Yugoslav ‘official memory’. In Podgora (Croatia) on 10.09.1942. Yugoslav Navy was established ; 20 years later, 10.09.1962. president Tito opened the monument and the site of memory in Podgora. Yugoslavia 'died' in bloody wars (1991- 1999) and new states were developing new frameworks for interpretations of the past. During the 1990s monument in Podgora (as almost all other socialist monuments in Croatia) lost its previous function. Nevertheless, in collective memory of local community, this monument (and WW2 as such) still has important role in construction of collective identity. There are two aims of this paper. First aim is to research the characteristics of types of construction of ‘official memory’ regarding the monument, in two different political and social periods (1962- 1990 and after 1990). Second aim is to research interpretations of contemporary commemorative and social activities around the monument in Podgora. In collecting the data for this paper, we used qualitative methods (content analysis of official historic monographs ; content analysis of local magazine Makarska rivijera, semi- structured interview).

sites of memory, landscape, local community, social change, Croatia

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