La Yougoslavie comme « l’autre-fantôme ». L’image de la Yougoslavie dans l’enseignement de l’histoire des États successeurs

Twenty years after the end of the conflicts resulting from the breakup of Yugoslavia, this federal state still has an important, if not decisive, place in using the past to define the present in the former federated republics. Yugoslavia, this ideal ?Other?, makes it easy for the contemporary states that emerged out of the breakup to build an identity. By studying Yugoslavia?s image in the educational systems of its successor states, a telling analysis can be made since this topic is still, even today, largely under state control. Three major dimensions are pointed out: how the relation to Yugoslavia is used to build a national identity; what role Yugoslavia has in founding the legitimacy of its successor states, and how Yugoslavian history is used to explain the Yugoslav Wars during the 1990s. A recent ?shared? history project involving approximately sixty historians from countries in the Balkans has proposed a comparative approach with multiple perspectives on this period, the goal being to move beyond current interpretations.