"Memories of a Forgotten War" and Their Contemporary (Dark) Tourism Implications: An Istrian Media Perspective

Abstract

Employing a sociological discourse analysis of media reports, this study aims to identify and typologise World War I-related memorial events in the cross-border region of Istria, which is traditionally heavily involved in international tourist flows in Slovenia and Croatia. The theory of memory, social amnesia, and dark tourism are thus intertwined. A corpus of 15 anniversary-related (and all accessible) media reports from three leading regional news media outlets was included in the analysis, which negates the complete social amnesia of war; they were typologised as memorial services or dark exhibitions. We found that memorial events are also related to sport/recreation (diving) and meetings of scholars (conferences, round tables, presentation of the book), which resulted in a revised typology of memorial events. The analysed events scattered throughout the peninsula have limited tourist significance and also reflect the Istrian social reality, specifically multiculturalism and transcultural memory. The paper concludes with an overview of the scholarly and practical implications and limitations of the approach used.