Copyright

Ivana Polić

Published On

2024-04-22

Page Range

pp. 285–302

Language

  • English

Print Length

18 pages

12. Transcending the Border

Memory, Objects, and Alternative Memorialization in Cold War Childhoods

  • Ivana Polić (author)
Chapter of: (An)Archive: Childhood, Memory, and the Cold War(pp. 285–302)
By analysing adult-generated childhood memories assembled in the online memory archive of the Reconnect/Recollect project, this chapter looks at the multidimensional function of objects in childhood memories that challenge binary Cold War, border-centred frameworks traditionally represented in scholarship of the time period. More specifically, it examines the role of objects in both trying to imagine or envision those on the ‘other side’ of the adult-imposed borders as well as ideas of ‘self’ as pertinent to this process. The rich spectrum of shared experiences points to the critical importance of childhood memory in decolonising the studies of lived and imagined childhoods in the second half of the past century and thus transgresses these borders to provide a platform for future research on childhood history and memory.

Contributors

Ivana Polić

(author)

Ivana Polić is a 1990s child, born and raised in Croatia after its secession from socialist Yugoslav federation. For her, participation in the collective biography project provided a unique opportunity to re-examine her own idea of self via childhood memories. The peculiar position of her own family history from socialist Yugoslavia as well as memories of growing up in war-torn Croatia provided a unique opportunity to 1) deconstruct childhood experiences against the binary Cold War framework and 2) position them within the broader context of connections to other participants' memories of growing up across the globe. She is currently a lecturer at University of California San Diego and the University of San Diego, with research interests related to the history of children and childhood in (post)socialism.