Lepa Brena: Repolitization of musical memories on Yugoslavia

• Main Author: Hofman Ana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Ethnography, SASA, Belgrade 2012-01-01
• Series: Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta SANU
• Subjects: Lepa Brena; Yugoslav past; newlycomposed folk music
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-0861/2012/0350-08611201021H.pdf

Article focuses on politically relevant aspects of practices of remembering socialism in post-Yugoslav context and offers an approach to memory that involves considering not only what is remembered and how, but also what are the implications of these remembrances, i.e. what is the potential of memory to support (or de-legitimize) political causes and enhance (or impede) civic participation. Looking at the example of Lepa Brena's public persona and her concerts during 2009, it examines the active usage of the Yugoslav past and highlights the significant capacity of music in that process. Through the lenses of the so-called personalized historical narrativity, the attention is given to the expression, shape and constraint of emotions associated with Yugoslav popular music and its social, cultural and political consequences within the post-Yugoslav societies.