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Bosnian Children Speak War: Narrating Trauma in Zlata’s Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo and My Childhood under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

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Tags

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Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the Bosnian war diaries, Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo (2006) by Zlata Filipovic (1980- ) and My Childhood under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary (2006) written by Nadja Halilbegovich (1979- ). Both diaries provide an insight into the Bosnian genocide and the everyday life of children amid war. Both Zlata and Nadja bear witness to the horrific events in their country and create a concrete collective memory of the Bosnian war. Drawing on trauma theory and diary writing, the paper examines their traumatic childhood and suffering at a unique moment of Bosnian history and highlights the role of diary writing and testimonial narration. War diaries create a counter-discourse to war and horror and allow them to document their traumatic lives amid war. The two diaries reveal how children in that war zone were denied their basic rights to live peacefully and enjoy their childhood. Through narrating their painful experience, they try to make sense of their traumatic experience as well as reach the outside world calling for intervention. Testimony allows them to step into the center and have a voice.

DOI

10.21608/ijcws.2021.76333.1000

Keywords

War Diary, Trauma, Bosnian war, Children’s Diary

Authors

First Name

Fatma

Last Name

Zoghlof

MiddleName

Mohamed

Affiliation

English Department, Faculty of Women, Ain Shams University

Email

fatma.zoghlof@gmail.com

City

cairo

Orcid

-

First Name

Radwa

Last Name

Mahmoud

MiddleName

R.

Affiliation

English Language and Literature Department, Faculty of Women, Ain Shams University

Email

radwa.ramadan@women.asu.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Manal Adel

Last Name

Megahed

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

English Department, Faculty of Women for Arts, Science & Education, Ain Shams University

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

1

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

25242

Issue Date

2021-04-01

Receive Date

2021-05-15

Publish Date

2021-04-01

Page Start

1

Page End

21

Print ISSN

2682-4361

Online ISSN

2682-437X

Link

https://ijcws.journals.ekb.eg/article_180088.html

Detail API

https://ijcws.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=180088

Order

7

Type

Original Article

Type Code

1,246

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

International Journal of Childhood and Women’s Studies

Publication Link

https://ijcws.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Bosnian Children Speak War: Narrating Trauma in Zlata’s Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo and My Childhood under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023