ABSTRACT
This chapter will explain the background behind the FRAMNAT project, which was initiated as an academic effort to critically and systematically analyze the deep divisions in Croatian society related to the traumas of the twentieth century. These divisions affect not only ethnic identities and national politics within Croatia, but impact relations with nearly all of the country’s neighbors. The aim was to use commemorations, and specifically political speeches given at commemorative events, as a lens through which to observe how political, religious, and intellectual elites, along with a variety of other mnemonic actors, frame the past in order to buttress their contemporary vision of Croatian society or delegitimize the vision of their political opponents. The contributors to this volume used an interdisciplinary approach, including cognitive linguistics, history, political science, media studies, cultural studies, and ethnography in order to thoroughly examine how the top-down process of framing the nation functions and to understand how this framing is mediated and then ultimately received by the citizens of the country. The introduction, in addition to giving an overview of all of the chapters, will provide information on each of the commemorations analyzed by the FRAMNAT project, a brief historical background, the recent political context (from EU membership to the impact of international tribunals on narratives) that affects commemorative practices, and a review of the state of the art in memory studies throughout the region. Moreover, the introduction argues that the research methodologies and analytical framework used to examine why the traumas of the past play such a domineering role in Croatian political life can be applied to other post-conflict case studies, setting out a research agenda for future scientific projects.
