With the aim of deconstructing conceptual conundrums surrounding the much-debated phenomenon of Yugonostalgia, Milica Popović takes an interdisciplinary approach by bringing together political science and cultural memory studies. Disentangling the common merger of Yugonostalgia as practice and (post)Yugoslavism as identity, the author identifies three forms of each phenomenon. (Post)Yugoslavism provides an identitarian continuity in all three forms in which it appears: culturalist, anti-neoliberal, and meta-national. Built upon Yugoslavism, Yugonostalgia appears as a practice: a discursive strategy, as an intimate container for cognitive dissonances, and as a variety of resistance strategies transforming political imaginaries. As a political intervention, Yugonostalgia gives voice to frequently silenced left-wing political articulations. While generational positionality strengthens (post)Yugoslavism, and political positionality determines the use of Yugonostalgia for private or political purposes, this book explains the transformation of Yugonostalgic memory narratives into resistance strategies for the last pioneers, as well as their limited scope.

Dr. Milica Popović is a political scientist specializing in memory studies, political sociology, and higher education studies. Since December 2024, Popović is Senior Postdoctoral Researcher and Project Lead of the FWF ESPRIT Program–funded project “The Silence of Saying No: (Un)Remembering Deserters from the Yugoslav Wars.”