THE CULTURE OF MEMORY AS A RESPONSE TO THE POLITICS OF REVISION AND OBLIVION... : DIANA JOHNSTONE, EVEANN PRENTICE, AND ELENA GUSKOVA ON THE KOSOVO WAR AND NATO BOMBING OF YUGOSLAVIA

Abstract

This paper deals with the texts by the American journalist and philologist Diana Johnstone, the British journalist Eve-Ann Prentice, and the Russian historian Elena Guskova. We shall focus on the analysis of the attitudes and insights which they have gained in their researches regarding the topics of the Kosovo and Metohija War and NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Although it is othen heard that it is difficult to write about newer history, including wars immediately ather their termination, that it is necessary to deflect, let the events settle down and create a certain temporal distance, it does not always have to be so – a specific danger is hidden in the act of waiting, which stems from the progressive amnesia induced by the contemporary culture. Thus the question of the Yugoslav wars of the Nineties needs to be actualized, so that it does not become subjected to oblivion or, even worse, to radical revisions.