Places of Pain: Forced Displacement, Popular Memory and Trans-local Identities in Bosnian War-torn Communities

by Hariz Halilovich

For displaced persons, memory and identity is performed, (re)constructed and (re)negotiated daily. Forced displacement radically reshapes identity, with results ranging from successful hybridization to feelings of permanent misplacement. This compelling and intimate description of places of pain and (be)longing that were lost during the 1992–95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as of survivors’ places of resettlement in Australia, Europe and North America, serves as a powerful illustration of the complex interplay between place, memory and identity. It is even more the case when those places have been vandalized, divided up, brutalized and scarred. However, as the author shows, these places of humiliation and suffering are also places of desire, with displaced survivors emulating their former homes in the far corners of the globe where they have resettled.

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2015

Reviews

[Geoff Maddock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable text. Beautifully written. Heartbreaking stories of injury and lives torn apart but not without the gentle hope of lives being remembered and renewed. Any student of Bosnia should read this along with anyone curious about good ethnographic research and the way humans are displaced and emplaced in the aftermath of war. Furthermore, Halilovich makes a compelling case for "trans-local" as a key lens for social anthropology. Brilliant from beginning to end.