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Croatian Veteran Masculinities and Exclusive Narratives: Points of Identification With the “Myth of the Homeland War” in the 2010s

Baker, Catherine; Touquet, Heleen

Authors

Heleen Touquet



Contributors

Philipp Schulz
Editor

Brandon Hamber
Editor

Heleen Touquet
Editor

Abstract

A generation after the end of the Croatian War of Independence, transitional justice advocates had hoped Croatian society would be able to separate individual and organizational responsibility for war crimes from the moral significance of a war of self-defense. Instead, young people’s entire lives as students, citizens, and family members have been lived amid the continued predominance of what Dejan Jović has termed a congratulatory and uncritical “myth of the Homeland War” and amid extended economic precarity. The much-mythologized generation of wartime soldiers, or “branitelji” (“defenders”), has meanwhile become middle-aged veterans with material vulnerabilities of their own. The media’s ongoing production of “veteran” masculinities, made meaningful to youth in domains including sport and popular music, as well as official commemoration, affirms the dominant public narrative of the Homeland War in Croatia. The phenomenon also suggests that, where transitional justice processes are still salient a generation after conflict, understanding the relationship between masculinities and transitional justice requires attention to how age- and conflict-related masculinities interact.

Citation

Baker, C., & Touquet, H. (2025). Croatian Veteran Masculinities and Exclusive Narratives: Points of Identification With the “Myth of the Homeland War” in the 2010s. In P. Schulz, B. Hamber, & H. Touquet (Eds.), Masculinities and Queer Perspectives in Transitional Justice (208-227). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003519522

Online Publication Date Oct 3, 2024
Publication Date 2025
Deposit Date Sep 3, 2024
Publicly Available Date Apr 4, 2026
Publisher Routledge
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Pages 208-227
Series Title Transitional Justice
Book Title Masculinities and Queer Perspectives in Transitional Justice
Chapter Number 10
ISBN 9781032857176
DOI https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003519522
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4794175
This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals:

SDG 5 - Gender Equality

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and strong institutions

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

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