The Vukovar Battle in the Context of Public and Scholarly Discourse about Yugoslavia’s Dissolution and Homeland War in Croatia

The aim of this paper is to provide a starting point for a better understanding of an alternative approach to the study of modern barbarism as proposed by Meštrović. Namely, in order to advance contemporary understanding of modern barbarism, the author calls for a social inquiry into publications about the wars in the former Yugoslavia based on how and to what extent the Vukovar Battle of 1991 is studied and perceived in international and domestic literature. This frame of reference is applied here under the scrutiny of critical theory in order to enable critical assessment of the international and domestic social inquiry into modern barbarism and to introduce less restrictive and vitally more alternative approach to its understanding. It is argued that an alternative approach should be based on the qualitative research into the personal narratives as an integral part of the comprehensive understanding of modern barbarism. Based on the surveyed literature, a debate which interprets contemporary violence and wars in the former Yugoslavia is analyzed only to conclude that it neglects to understand modern barbarism