Paper short abstract:

This paper examines 'the emotionality' of protected official archival material on Croatian anti-Yugoslav diaspora that is collected by Yugoslav secret service. It also explores issues related to Croatian national archive as a dwelling place for those protected materials.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines 'the emotionality' of protected official archival material on Croatian anti-Yugoslav diaspora that is collected by Yugoslav secret service and it is covering the period from the Second World War to the emergence of the new independent Republic of Croatia in the 1990s. As Sara Ahmed argues, we can talk about 'the emotionality of texts' and different material, including archival material, if we think what these texts and materials are 'doing', 'how they work through emotions to generate effects' (2004:19). Following Ahmed, in this paper, we analyze how the impossibility to examine archival material, due to some legal restrictions in Croatia, is affecting contemporary political debates on the archive as a home of national cultural heritage, by investing them with feelings, and how these 'words for feelings' or 'images for feelings' circulate, move, or attach themselves. To be more precise, by looking at contemporary political speeches in Croatia related to archive, the paper focuses on analysis of the controversies surrounding 'protected official archival material' and the role of emotions in creating its cultural visibility. It also explores issues related to the archive as a dwelling place for these protected materials.