A Manifest of the Endangered Past

In this paper the author tries to represent the culture of memory (Kuljić 2006) which became independent in the post-socialist environment, becoming a kind of cultivated and privileged “refuge of forgetfulness” that aims to expel those traditions that are not welcome when constructing a society that is new and more vital in terms of identity. It is quite clear that these are the societies for which, not just socialism, but also other instances of historical encounter with their identity archetypes, represent the “wreck of memory,” and the abyss of warning about creation, design and emigration into a new past that is comfortable enough for them. Is this the way that each of us should go? Is it the way of collective catharsis or a systemic and ideological exorcism, which systematically creates and persecutes all those who do not conform and do not get used to the climate of “The Damned Yard” (Симић 2014)? It seems that this condition forces a man to wake up from a passionate ideological coma and become a chronicler of life turmoil, i.e. “his own war” (Prilepin 2016).