文章基本信息

标题：Globalizing the Holocaust: A Jewish “Useable Past” in Serbian Nationalism
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作者：David B MacDonald
期刊名称：PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies
电子版ISSN：1449-2490
出版年度：2005
卷号：2
期号：2
出版社：University of Technology, Sydney
摘要：Contrary to Anthony Smith’s view that national myth-makers derive meaning primarily from a nation’s own positive “useable past”, this article argues that the globalization and universalisation of the Jewish Holocaust has created new poles of identity for ethno-nationalists, existing outside “authentic” local conceptions of history and culture. Also contrary to Smith’s view of a positive Golden Age at the root of national mythology, I argue that negative imagery can play an equally if not more significant role in some examples of nationalism. In Serbia, viewing the self through the lens of a persecuted victim became crucial during the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. As a new “strategic site”, the Holocaust functioned as a template for re-interpreting “self” and “other”, while re-ordering history. Kosovar Albanians, Croatians and Bosnian Moslems were all targeted in this reappraisal of Serbian history.