This essay analyzes the changing portrayal of Yugoslavia's World War II experience in music, film, and literature. It argues that the disappearance of unifying themes from the cultural sphere opened the doors to the popularization of controversial and divisive subjects. Shifting perceptions of how Yugoslavs fought and survived the Second World War contributed to the destruction of Yugoslavia. / The first chapter focuses on World War II in Yugoslavia. The second chapter discusses the early development of Yugoslav culture and its dependence on the Second World War. The third chapter follows the development of Yugoslav culture through the 1960s and 1970s when political liberalization promoted greater freedom in the arts. Aside from inspiring artists to address new themes and approach old themes from a fresh perspective, it also permitted the stirrings of political dissent. The fourth chapter addresses the disappearance of the Yugoslav idea from the cultural realm during the 1980s.

[Truncated abstract] Many historical accounts acknowledge the ‘reverberations’ of the Second World War that are still with the British today, whether in terms of Britain’s relationships with Europe, the Commonwealth, or America; its myths of consensus politics and national unity; or its conceptions of national character. The term ‘reverberations’, however, implies a disruptive, unsettling influence whereas today’s popular accounts and public debates regarding national identity, more often than not concerned with ‘Englishness’ as a category distinctive from ‘Britishness’, instead view the Second World War as a time when the nation knew what it was and had a clear understanding of the national values it embodied a time of stability and consensus. This thesis demonstrates that, in the postwar period, ‘British’ was not a homogeneous political category, ‘Britishness’ was not a uniformly adopted identity, and representations of the nation in popular cinema were not uncontested. British national identity in the postwar 1940s and 1950s was founded upon re-presentations of the war, and yet it was an identity transacted by class, gender, race and region. Understandings of national identity ‘mirrored’ by British films were influenced by the social and political context of their creation and reception, and were also a reflection of the cinema industry and its relationship to the state. Both ‘national cinema’ and ‘national identity’ are demonstrated to be fluctuating concepts dominant myths of the war were undermined and reinforced in response to the demands of the postwar present.

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Redefining Masculinity presents an analysis of the American government's portrayal of civilian men in World War II documentary films. The majority of the films, which serve as a primary source for this study, were created by the Office of War Information (OWI) as a means of stimulating home front support for the war. The government's portrayal of civilian men advocated a significant modification of gender roles. According to the OWI, men understood the politics of war, were aware of the national context of sacrifices, and were able to carry the government's message into American households and defense plants. As a result of their war consciousness, civilian men in government documentary films partially claimed the traditional domestic realm of women and redefined American gender roles as interactive and overlapping. The intersecting gender spheres in OWI films exemplify that men experienced manhood not in isolation from women. This propagandized image of civilian men during the Second World War supports the claims of scholars who criticize the ideology of "separate spheres" to describe socially constructed domains of the male and female gender. In contrast, the thesis findings show that the social, political, and economic definitions of male and female roles can be altered, extended, or adjusted when economically, politically, and culturally expedient. / Department of History