Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego Prace Etnograficzne 2018, tom 46, z. 2, s. 27–48 doi:10.4467/22999558.PE.18.015.10088 www.ejournals.eu/Prace-Etnograficzne/ Miroslava Lukić-Krstanović Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts e-mail:
[email protected] Belgrade Street Drama of the 1990s: (Re)constructing History and Memory Abstract Th e analytical approach employed in this paper1 focuses on the chronological and symbolic fi eld of (re)constructing the past – mass gatherings between 1988 and 2000 in Belgrade. I problematize mass and public events in Belgrade through chronologies of these events, their contents, the types of meetings and the politics of symbols. Th e trauma and confl icts created a “linear time framework” through events and the cyclical time of narratives and fragmented memories. Th e linear time relates to the representative history of events through the publicity and production of situations (media, political and social interests, experiences), and the cyclical time relates to interests and the desire to return to the scene of the event in the form of exclusive and interactive memories. Th e goal of the analysis is to confront linear and cyclical time in the (re)construction, interpretation and re- actualization of mass events. Keywords: public spaces, Belgrade, history, memory, narratives, symbolic. Analytical mobility Th e political and geostrategic divide between the countries of former Yugoslavia, nationalistic euphoria and economic crisis led to war, antagonisms, confl icts, ex- istential poverty, refugee drama, and personal tragedies with the inevitable bag- gage of crime, destruction, and the rise of a pseudo-elite.