Memory StudiesPub Date : 2023-07-04DOI: 10.1177/17506980231184577
Liucija Vervečkienė
{"title":"Remembering the anti-Soviet partisan war in Lithuania, 1944–1953: The effects of heroization at different levels of remembrance","authors":"Liucija Vervečkienė","doi":"10.1177/17506980231184577","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231184577","url":null,"abstract":"The collective-level heroisation of the armed resistance (1944–1953) against the Soviet occupation in Lithuania faces various challenges, which initially address the threat posed by foreign propaganda or the legacy of Soviet period narratives. However, in this article, I argue that the difficulties in constructing a hero-freedom fighter from the partisan past lie in the exaltation of the ‘right’ type of behaviour at the ‘wrong’ time of occupation. As collective (political)-level memory portrays heroic resistance, the ‘memory consumers’ within families of different generational experiences mediate meanings and react to them with certain strategies. This reveals rather painful aspects of remembering collaboration and being on the ‘wrong side’, although the heroic image of the partisan aims to foster pride in the conflictual past. The Lithuanian case illustrates more general challenges in the intersection of individual, communicative and structural (political) memory in a country that experienced transformational regime change and commemorates the difficult past.","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45105729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Memory StudiesPub Date : 2023-07-04DOI: 10.1177/17506980231184558
Ming-li Yao
{"title":"The invented myth behind the Taiwanese ‘national’ holiday: The collective memory of Peace Memorial Day","authors":"Ming-li Yao","doi":"10.1177/17506980231184558","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231184558","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to discuss how the state of the Republic of China, which is Chinese-oriented, created the discourse of the national holiday of Peace Memorial Day to reinforce Taiwanese nationalism. Peace Memorial Day was proclaimed to commemorate the tragedy of the state’s massacre of Taiwanese locals on 28 February 1947, usually known as the ‘228 Incident’. Based on resources collected from the two officially sponsored museums, this study explored how the Republic of China government has ‘selectively’ presented the sources of the 228 Incident, reshaping the contested text as part of a mnemonic past shared by itself and society, and on which basis it has developed the cultural discourse embodying Taiwanese nationhood. The research results also suggest that the officially constructed memory underscores the core value of democratisation not only to reinforce the notion regarding the Republic of China as a ‘Taiwanese’ government, but also to mark the distinction between the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China as two ‘national’ unities.","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48068247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Memory StudiesPub Date : 2023-07-03DOI: 10.1177/17506980231184564
S. Webster
{"title":"Revisiting memoricide: The everyday killing of memory","authors":"S. Webster","doi":"10.1177/17506980231184564","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231184564","url":null,"abstract":"Memoricide, it seems, is memory made rubble and ash. Its emblematic imagery is of scenes many would find familiar: burning ash-snow from Sarajevo’s Vijecnica; satellite images of Palmyra’s missing structures; the exploding Bamiyan Buddhas. Physically altering space is understandably a highly visible tactic. However, when explicitly built into definitions, the emphasis on physical destruction has been on specific forms targeted: archival institutions, monuments, memorials and heritage sites. This article revisits memoricide as a range of converging physical, social and discursive strategies. It introduces ‘everyday’ memoricide – the normalisation of memory erasure as mundane practices – which ordinarily masks its intelligibility as memoricide through ‘common sense’ or ‘greater good’ discursive frames. The sacred Djab Wurrung trees, threatened by the Victorian State Government’s Western Highway project, and a felled Directions Tree in particular, provide a still unfolding case study within the broader history of Australian memoricide.","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44829216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Memory StudiesPub Date : 2023-06-30DOI: 10.1177/17506980231184567
H. Vogel, M. Klomp, M. Barnard
{"title":"A psalm is always a memory: Nostalgia and sacrality in contemporary ritual-musical appropriations of the psalms","authors":"H. Vogel, M. Klomp, M. Barnard","doi":"10.1177/17506980231184567","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231184567","url":null,"abstract":"This article discusses the role of biographical memory in three contemporary ritual-musical appropriations of the psalms in Dutch and Flemish contexts. We observe that, in performances of psalms, participants (intend to) either forget or recall different biographical memories. Nostalgic narratives of religious, cultural and individual change and continuity inform both the way that they interpret their experiences of these psalm performances, and their motivations for attempting to forget or recall particular memories related to the psalms. By using the notion of sacrality — that which is set apart, non-ordinary — we show that particular non-negotiable desires and non-ordinary experiences recur multiple times in these nostalgic narratives. Analysis of these desires and experiences leads us to conclude that contemplative experiences are desired by many, but experienced by only a few. We suggest the combination of Aleida Assmann’s theory of forgetting and remembering with the notions of nostalgia and sacrality as a way to successfully overcome the unproductive dichotomy between religious and cultural heritage.","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47180040","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Memory StudiesPub Date : 2023-06-30DOI: 10.1177/17506980231184560
Fannie Valois-Nadeau
{"title":"A creativity-focused anniversary: Montreal’s 375th anniversary celebrations at the heart of a cultural economy of the past","authors":"Fannie Valois-Nadeau","doi":"10.1177/17506980231184560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231184560","url":null,"abstract":"In 2017, the City of Montreal commemorated its 375th anniversary. Because it celebrated the city’s “creative” spirit more than its past, this 375th anniversary stands as an opportunity to explore reconfigurations of public anniversaries, which often take the shape of cultural mega-events. This article presents the different logics behind these celebrations, largely shaped by the communications and entertainment industries, and examines how they partake in developing of a cultural economy that benefits from the past. The purpose is thus not only to identify the presence of a commercial relationship but to explore how celebrations develop in light of the paradigm of creativity, which is currently a pillar of cities’ economic development policies. This article draws on interviews with people involved in the event organization, individuals sidelined by the process, and media and archives analysis.","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46879332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Memory StudiesPub Date : 2023-06-05DOI: 10.1177/17506980231176040
Zoltán Kékesi, Máté Zombory
{"title":"Beyond multidirectional memory: Opening pathways to politics and solidarity","authors":"Zoltán Kékesi, Máté Zombory","doi":"10.1177/17506980231176040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231176040","url":null,"abstract":"Our article responds to the ongoing crisis of memory politics that has brought the problem of de-politicization of memory studies scholarship to the forefront. This reflexivity is manifested in the demand for theories that explicitly address the problems of politics and solidarity. A representative theory in this regard is Michael Rothberg’s multidirectional memory that examines “the Holocaust in the age of decolonization” and offers a non-exclusive model of public remembering and reconciliation. While we acknowledge Rothberg’s attempt to overcome the “competition paradigm” of contemporary memory, we argue that the model of multidirectional memory as a politico-ethical framework of solidarity ultimately fails because of its underlying social ontology and presentist-ahistorical method of interpretation. We give a critical analysis of his model while applying the same historical and empirical focus. By doing so, we show that the direct theoretical link between memory and solidarity is the outcome of a de-politicization of the historical record. Ultimately, we make a case for Leftist-antifascist internationalism, a paradigm he misidentified as multidirectional Holocaust memory.","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49584989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Narrating political participation: How do lifetime activists remember their political experiences?","authors":"Rodrigo Serrat, Feliciano Villar, Karima Chacur-Kiss","doi":"10.1177/17506980231176042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231176042","url":null,"abstract":"Narrative approaches have gained popularity as a way to understand the construction and development of political identities over a person’s life span. However, little is known about how lifetime activists remember and make sense of different types of political experiences. To overcome this gap, this study aims to explore thematic and structural features of the narratives of lifetime activists about political experiences (O1), as well as examining differences in these features according to the type of experience described and the life stage at which the event narrated occurred (O2). Forty political activists aged 65 years or older were invited to explain a positive event, a negative event and a turning point in their political participation. The motivational themes, affective themes, themes of integrative meaning and structural elements of the narratives were analysed. Results show significant variations in these narrative features according to the type of political experience described and the life stage at which the event narrated occurred. Our study adds to the previous literature on political identities showing that, far from being monolithic, lifelong activists’ narratives about political experiences show significant variations according to these two features. Overall, the structural variations that we found in lifetime activists’ narratives about political experiences largely mirrored previous literature on general autobiographical narratives. This means that, regardless of whether life stories are general or domain-specific, their structural characteristics and the variations they show by life stage and type of narrated events are largely similar.","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45436432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Memory StudiesPub Date : 2023-06-02DOI: 10.1177/17506980231176038
Kristal Bivona
{"title":"Mnemonic interventions: Memory and transitional justice at a Uruguayan prison-mall","authors":"Kristal Bivona","doi":"10.1177/17506980231176038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231176038","url":null,"abstract":"In 1986, Uruguay’s maximum security Punta Carretas Prison closed following a riot in the context of Uruguay’s transition from authoritarian civic-military dictatorship (1973-1985) to constitutional democracy. In 1994, the building reopened as Punta Carretas Shopping, one of Uruguay’s most luxurious shopping malls. In this article, I show how two site-specific installations at the prison-mall—the temporary photography exhibition, Brava: Memoria fotográfica de Punta de las Carretas (2019) and the permanent memorial installation, Memorial Ex Penal de Punta Carretas (2020)—put forth distinct versions of the past to shape the memory of Punta Carretas. I call these mnemonic interventions because they interrupt the shopping trip and divert attention away from leisure and consumption toward remembrance, provoking the shopper to engage with the space of the former prison and its history. I demonstrate how different stakeholders struggle over memory in Uruguay in a context in which impunity undermines efforts toward truth and justice. Mnemonic interventions at Punta Carretas Shopping reveal the ongoing struggle over how the past should be remembered in Uruguay decades after the transition to democracy, showing the impact of recent transitional justice policies to demarcate sites of memory and resistance.","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44028245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Memory StudiesPub Date : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.1177/17506980231162321
James E Young
{"title":"Remembering the victims of COVID-19: From personal to civic to reparative memory.","authors":"James E Young","doi":"10.1177/17506980231162321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231162321","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic had exploded in New York City, across the country, and around the world. At its height, thousands of people were dying every day in quarantined intensive care units and Covid wards, their families forbidden from attending their loved ones' last living moments, even to say good-bye. The victims were dying in isolation, consigned to make-shift morgues, and buried or cremated-without ceremony, without grieving loved ones present. To commemorate the victims of Covid communally in real time would also be to turn the mourners themselves into new Covid victims. Commemorative and collective grieving processes would have to be deferred until it was safe to gather together again. But memory deferred is also memory transformed with new and devastating meaning. In this short reflection on how the meanings engendered by memory of those lost to Covid-19 morph over time, I explore the differences between the memory of personal loss, civic memory, and reparative memory.</p>","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":"16 3","pages":"646-650"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10225787/pdf/10.1177_17506980231162321.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9578378","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Memory StudiesPub Date : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.1177/17506980231162325
Natasha Zaretsky
{"title":"Near and far: Tracing memory and reframing presence in pandemic-era Argentina.","authors":"Natasha Zaretsky","doi":"10.1177/17506980231162325","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980231162325","url":null,"abstract":"Memory has been a central foundation of democracy and civil society in Argentina since the first years of the military dictatorship (1976–1983) when groups occupied public spaces to protest systematic disappearances and state repression that left 30,000 victims. It has taken decades to achieve some form of justice for state terror and repression, much of that shaped by the culture of memory and accountability that hinged on embodied forms of public protest. But what happens to cultural memory when a pandemic precludes traditional forms of gathering? And what does this reveal about how Argentines renegotiate the significance of shared remembering and presence? Building on ethnographic fieldwork in Buenos Aires, this visual essay examines the significance of shared embodied practices of remembering through the lens of pandemic restrictions that invite new insights into the relationship between presence and political belonging. Rather than simply reacting to specific instances of injustice, this essay argues for the significance of cultural memory practices as fundamentally constitutive of democratic culture and civil society in Argentina as it faces new challenges.","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":"16 3","pages":"576-592"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10225789/pdf/10.1177_17506980231162325.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9578375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}