Memory of violence

Abstract

Starting from Galtung's typology of violence, we first track differing ways in which direct violence on one hand, and structural and cultural violence on the other, are remembered and represented. Following this, we examine research demonstrating how narratives of past violence are constructed in various cultural products, with the focus on history textbooks narratives, their tendency to distort, normalize and justify violence, as well as potential to do the opposite. Furthermore, we explore history education and its potential to help students engage with the memory of violence in a critical way. Finally, we look at how assuming the role of victim or being assigned a role of the perpetrator critically determines a sophisticated interplay between the memory of violence, social identities and moral perspectives.