Fitting like a glove: the (ab)use of the European memory framework in contemporary Croatia’s memory politics

This research project of the long-term consequences of the reconfiguration of WW2 memory in Croatia and the use of the European memory framework for domestic purposes is an interdisciplinary study standing at the intersection of memory studies, nationalism, and Europeanization, with a strong transnational perspective, drawing from materials and sources from Southeast Europe, European Union, and Latin America. Through the lens of critical discourse analysis, it will carry out the periodization of the World War Two memory in Croatia from 1990s until today, with a central emphasis on the period overlapping with the emergence of East European memory in the common European memory framework, the Croatian accession to the EU (2013), and the downloading of EU soft laws regarding the condemnation of Communism into Croatian memory practices. Finally, the research will explore the case study in a comparative perspective, with that of other post-Communist countries, current members of the EU.