Leksikon YU mitologije, czyli przeszłość zaklęta w rzeczach

Abstract

At the turn of the 21st century Yugoslavia has become one of the most interesting and popular themes as a nostalgic area not just because of the post-Yugoslav literature, but also because of the (pop) culture. One of the reasons for such popularity is the lexicon significantly called: "Leksikon YU mitologije". The editors’ task was to identify and catalog the phenomena of popular culture and everyday life in socialist Yugoslavia, which define a sense of collective identity. This text raises the subject of mediatization of memory and strategies of recalling the past, such as cataloging and musealization. I focus on different types of memorabilia, among which tangible objects are brought to the fore and become a kind of advanced vehicles to enable a return to childhood and youth. Thanks to them, the authors of collected entries in the mentioned lexicon recall who they are, they organize their own memories and use them to show the history of Yugoslavia, its economic situation and social attitudes. Biographies of people intertwined with biographies of the things that begin to tell their own stories coincided with the fate of a defunct country. Objects are included in narrative series, becoming a kind of mirrors, which reflect not just the fate of private contributors, but also a history of the entire population.