Football, Politics and Cultural Memory: The Case of HNK Hajduk Split

• Main Authors: Benjamin Perasović, Marko Mustapić
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MI-AN Publishing 2014-11-01
• Series: Kultura (Skopje)
• Subjects: football, cultural memory, Yugoslavia, Croatia, Hajduk
• Online Access: http://journals.cultcenter.net/index.php/culture/article/view/48

<p>Memory is not something given or fixed, it is specific process which includes various definitions and re-definitions, interpretations and re-interpretations. Cultural memory could change through time and space; production of cultural memory depends also on various social actors. Starting from such position we wish to present main discourses and types of changes in interpretations of 102 years long history of Croatian football club Hajduk from the city of Split. Rogić (2000) divided contemporary Croatian history in three most important phases – 'primitive capitalist modernization' (from 1868. To 1945.), 'totalitarian socialist modernization' (from 1945. to 1990.) and 'transition' (from 1990. till today). In similar manner, we should divide history of Hajduk in three key phases: from 1911. when the club was founded to the end of the WW2. Second phase is marked by the Yugoslav period, from 1945. to 1990. The third phase starts with the independent Croatian state and the foundation of Croatian football league (1992). The presidents of the club and whole management, in all three periods, belonged to the local and national political/economical elite. Political elites were most influential social actors, shaping and changing interpretations of the past, in this case it means shaping relation to symbols and history of the club itself. The direction of those changes is linked to dominant discourses of particular social periods. While emphasis on Croatian identity of the club was silenced in the Yugoslav period, in the recent period of Croatian state, the anti-fascist component of the identity of the club is mostly forgotten or denied. Our thesis is based on the qualitative analyses of official books and monographs on the history of the club, with our focus on permitted and forbidden stories.</p>