In 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting', Milan Kundera stated famously that " ... the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting" (1996: p4). What roles do memory and forgetting have to play in moves toward reconciliation, was V. S. Naipaul correct when he wrote that heritage gets transmitted only in "dead countries, or secure and by-passed ones - where men can cherish the past and think of passing on furniture and china to their heirs [places like Sweden and Canada] .... Everywhere else .... the past can only cause pain"? (cited in Lowenthal, D. 1998: p.23) This PhD analyses how through interventions in their urban fabric, nations narrate their histories by re-constructing, conserving, neglecting and destroying their built heritage. It will illustrate how in post-conflict, multi-ethnic states the built environment becomes a contact zone where different pasts and events are constantly being (re-)negotiated. Heritage case studies from post-conflict, recently independent nation-states in the former' Yugoslavia will be discussed in an attempt to understand the interrelationship between political power and the chimeric concepts of heritage, memory and identity. In order to contextualise the competing narratives informing current intervention decisions the paper will chronicle how religious heritage, as the physical manifestation of differing identities, was subject to urbicide as ethno-nationalist desires were writ large on former Yugoslav cityscapes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:680119 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Galway, Neil |
| Publisher | Queen's University Belfast |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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