Nostalgia matters: Nostalgia for Yugoslavia as potential vision for a better future

Abstract

Nostalgia for Yugoslavia is a social phenomenon which prevails in present-day Mostar as well as elsewhere in the Yugoslav successor states. Even if attempts are made by the elites of local politics to erase traces of the Yugoslav past (especially in Croat dominated West Mostar), a good part of Mostar's population still nostalgically remembers that period. Until recently, nostalgia has been neglected as a subject of research in the social sciences and has been acknowledged - if at all - only as a phenomenon oriented towards the past. Recent studies, however, have emphasized a utopian character of nostalgia. It is particularly interesting to further investigate this aspect in the context of post-socialism. This paper discusses the selected narratives of two women whom I encountered during my fieldwork conducted between 2005 and 2008, and their relationship to Yugoslavia. It is shown that differences in their narratives can be related to their nationality and family backgrounds, but to the same degree - if not more so - to their age and the stage in life they are in. At the end of the paper I shall tackle the question whether nostalgia for Yugoslavia can hold as a potential vision for a better future and, if so, under which conditions.