In this talk, Prof. Maida Kosatica shows the results of an interdisciplinary work which builds upon a range of critical theories (e.g. trauma theory), performance theory framed as discursive and semiotic inquiries of remembering that predominantly rely on “raw” material memory in physical space, and thus are situated under the umbrella of memoryscapes research. Aiming to understand (the sites of) trauma in Bosnia-Herzegovina, I consider semiotic material which is implicated in the production of affect-filled spaces and the politics of distorting loss and violence. To illustrate how historical acts of violence are conveyed, (re)negotiated and generally remembered, she analyses two communication domains in which the 1992-1995 war is semiotically (re)constituted. The first considers post-war monuments evidencing the habitual struggle to disrupt and reorder space and reinterpret the violent past. The second dataset includes eerie murals depicting a war criminal sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is through the remembering of the past, that the country endures as a “traumascape” with the past war extending into the present.

Bio: Maida Kosatica is a Professor of Urban Semiotics and Semantics in the Department of Anglophone Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and she is part of the Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Integrations- und Migrationsforschung (InZentIM). Maida’s research interests include semiotic landscapes, multimodal critical discourse analysis, environmental communication and the discourse of ecosystem services. In her research, Maida is committed to investigating the politics of violence and suffering, and political economies of sustainability and the environment.

- This Forum is open to all interested colleagues. Please feel free to disseminate this announcement to your networks & relevant audiences.
- The language of the inputs in this session is English.
- This is a hybrid meeting. In person meeting room is XE1-245 (Besprechungsraum).


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