The Istrian Peninsula, which is made up of modern-day Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy suffered from the so-called "Istrian exodus" after the Second World War. This book looks at this difficult, silenced past and shifts the usual focus from migrants to those who stayed behind and to the new immigrants who came to the “emptied” towns.The research, based on individual memories, deals with silences and competing national discourses, reasons to stay and leave, hybrid border ethnic identities, and the renewal of Istrian society and its new social relations. It is a self-critical reflection on an ignored chapter of national history, which, with an empathetic approach, allows the silence to speak.
Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Problems and Frameworks of Memory in Ethnological Study
Chapter 1. Difficult Pasts, Silence, and Conflicts of Memory
Chapter 2. The Exodus: Those Who Left, Those Who Stayed, and Those Who Came
Chapter 3. After the Exodus: The Renovation of Istrian Society, Social Relations and Heritage
Conclusion: Let the Silence Speak!
References
Index
About the Author :
Katja Hrobert Virloget is currently Vice-Dean for Research at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Primorska, Slovenia, and Head of the Department of Anthropology and Cultural Studies. She has recently received several prizes for the Slovenian version of this book, including a nomination for the Excellence in Research Award (2022) by the Slovenian Research Agency, and the Murko Award—the national ethnological prize (2021).
Review :
“The author reconstructs multiple aspects of migrations, which she places outside the national framework which is the most significant achievement of this academic work ... she focuses not only on aspects of “remembering,” but also on everything else that is shrouded in silence and yet no less important.” • Mila Orlić, University of Rijeka
