ABSTRACT
The multi-faceted meanings of the adjectives post-Yugoslav and post-war were reflected on in Chapter I. The detailed analysis there showed distinct differences between the legacies or continuous influence of Yugoslavia on the one hand, and the war on their respective aftermaths on the other. Post-Yugoslavia implies retrieving once lost memories of living in the former federal state. Post-Yugoslavia may in time persist on its own, as a separate entity and a gentle reminder of antifascism, multiculturalism, and solidarity, once deeply shared values among south-Slavic people. The notion of a postwar society assumes an inability to detach from the war, to separate trauma and the legacy of the war from the present. The distinction between the post-war and the post-Yugoslav condition, which was outlined in this chapter, justifies the imperative to move beyond the post-war condition. What is at stake here is bringing an end to an enduring and un-reflected legacy of the war—making the post-war condition an afterthought, disconnected from the war as its source. This implies coming to terms with painful and contradictory memories of the war, while not only criticizing a status quo that is experienced as an unchangeable and cemented legacy of the war, but also as a habit of turning a blind eye to post-war quandaries like corruption and massive poverty.
