The sensory basis of historical analysis: A reply to post-structuralism

The flag of the Republic of Croatia, which features the Sahovnica red-and-w hite chequerboard, aroused much attention in the British media, on account of the success of the Croatian team at the soccer world cup in France. Acco rding to these accounts, the Sahvonica is a fascist symbol, the waving of w hich reveals Croatia to be, 'the most disgusting small nation in Europe'. T his article, which emerges from a post-Yugoslav revisionist perspective, co ntends that such interpretations of Croatia's flag is largely the product o f Titoist and Serb nationalist historiography. Rather, it is argued, the Sa hovnica should be seen as an ancient and ambiguous symbol of the Croatian n ation, which was briefly hijacked by Croatian fascists, but was used simult aneously by the Croatian anti-fascists forces during the second world-war, and after. The call to 'reclaim' the Croatian flag is not only a call for a more sophisticated approach to Croatian historiography, but is also a poli tical call for writers to disassociate the symbols of the Croatian nation, which have multilayered and ambiguous meanings, from those contemporary fas cists who use them and claim to speak for Croatia.