DYNAMICS OF POLITICAL MEMORY IN EUROPEAN CONTEMPORARY SPACE: (NEO)NATIONALISM, TRANSNATIONALISM, AND AGONISM (original) (raw)
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This article examines European memory and memory politics. Taking as my starting point the deepening divisions between the “old” and “new” members of the European Union since the 2004 and 2007 enlargements, I investigate whether differences in official memory concerning World War II on the one hand and communism on the other should be regarded as permanent. Using examples from the development of West-European postwar memory-regimes and comparing them to the current state in postcommunist Europe I suggest that with respect to historical memory the two parts of Europe underwent similar developments, crises and debates, thus making eventual convergence and consensus possible. However, there are various factors that complicate progress in this area: postcommunist countries have to contend not only with their wartime history but also with the experience of communism, which latter colours the assessment of the former.
Postnational Relations to the Past: A " European Ethics of Memory "
International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 2013
In nation-building processes, the construction of a common past and references to a shared founding moment have played a well-documented role in fostering notions of a collective political actor. While notions of unreflective national collective memories no longer hold in an age of a postheroic " politics of regret " , the preferred subject of collective memories nevertheless often remains the nation, both in academic literature and in public debates. In this paper, my aim is to establish the role of collective memory in self-proclaimed " postnational " approaches—specifically in the context of European integration—and to assess in how far these approaches can claim to go beyond notions of memory handed down to us from earlier accounts of nation-building processes. I start by laying out two different approaches to a postnational collective memory as they emerge from the literature. The first approach aims at overcoming national subjectivities by focusing on a specific content: a shared, albeit negative, legacy for all Europeans. The Holocaust plays a particularly prominent role in this discourse. The second approach sees and seeks commonalities not so much on the level of memory content but rather on the level of specific memory practices (a " European ethics of memory "). While it is not aimed at dismantling the nation as a political subject per se, it also creates a European self-understanding that makes the symbolic borders of Europe look more porous: potentially everyone can employ these memory practices. However, as I will show, this approach knows its own attempts to define a postnational " essence " , most notably by tying the ethics of memory to a specifically European cultural repertoire.
Europe's Divided Memories After 1945: Notes on the Crisis of European Integration and Memory
Transform, 2020
Overview of the reclaiming of a European memory . The paper attempts to provide a definition of the different uses of European memory and sheds light on the duality between a cosmopolitan discourse and national narratives. The paper thus explores some of the political meanings attached to "Europe" and seeks to deconstruct their use during and after the Cold War.
Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 2011
Over the past several decades, the "politics of history" has become a significant aspect of domestic politics and international relations within Europe and around the world. The politicizing and instrumentalizing of history usually pursues two main objectives: first is the construction of a maximally cohesive national identity and rallying the society around the powers that be; second is eschewing the problem of guilt. The two are clearly interlinked; having liberated oneself of the sense of historical, political, moral or whatever responsibility, it is arguably much easier to take pride in one's newly minted "unblemished" identity based on the celebratory interpretation of one's country's "glorious past." This article intends to explore how the memories of some momentous developments in the tumultuous 20th century (above all, the experience of totalitarian dictatorships, World War II, the "division" and "reunification" of Europe, the collapse of the Soviet Union) and their historical interpretations relate to concepts of national identity in the post-Soviet lands.
Memory, Identity, and Nationalism in European Regions
Reference book
Memory studies is a well-established academic discipline, but the revised issue of ethnicity poses a new set of research questions, particularly in relation to the problem of the operational character of memory and ethnicity in the context of traumatized identity. Contemporary political processes in Europe, populism and nationalism lift in addition to ethnic challenges in the form of demographic shifts have created a situation, in which new national identities have been developed simultaneously with emerging new competitive historical memories. The interaction between politics and managed historical memory is of scholarly and practicality interest. This book is to shed light on the evolution in the politics of memory in European regions and beyond, as well as the tools and techniques of their empowerment. The topic of the book is a subject of public debates since it introduces new theoretical frameworks for collective memory, and European nationalism and regionalism analysis. All questions being discussed accentuate the urgency of memory and forms of nationalism during periods of crisis and/or austerity measures in contemporary Europe. As a comprehensive collection of cases, the publication represents the efforts of experts in the European and Eurasian regional development. The volume combines theory and empirical study; each chapter is based on a particular case, offering a coherent and pragmatic picture. Although different methodologies are used, cases address the key theoretical concepts of memory, identity, nationalism, and security as discursive practices and introduce public policies in contemporary European regions and those stated on the European track of values. By this approach, the volume provides a new lens to formulate a concept of Europe as multifaceted identity and diverse practices.
Special Issue: Transnational Memory Politics in Europe
Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 2015
In this introductory article to the special issue on 'Transnational Memory Politics in Europe,' we argue for closer scrutiny of the dynamics between the local and the transnational realms of memory. We contend that thus far, scholarship has neglected empirical analysis of transnational mnemonic practices in Europe. We seek to provide a theoretical framework bringing together remembrance with research on globalization, governance, and transnationalism as a way of overcoming the often nation-centric nature of memory studies. The central puzzle for us is how memories are (trans)formed, displayed, shared, and negotiated through transnational channels, while maintaining their local rootedness. In particular, we focus on the construction of narratives that have the power to transcend national boundaries, as well as the role of individual and institutional actors in driving those narratives to (un)successful representation.
Expanding Europe through Memory: The Shifting Content of the Ever-Salient Past
Collective memories of war and suffering have been crucial to the development of European integration since 1945. My basic thesis is that remembrance has also played an important role in the accession of new states to the organization that has come to be known as the European Union (EU). As the EU has expanded into new regions of Europe, particularly the post-dictatorial south and the post-communist east, continental institutions and existing member-states have been confronted by conflicting understandings of the past. Although the past has continued to push states towards membership in the EU, the nature of these remembered experiences has changed through the various rounds of expansion. In addition to tracing the role that memory has played in the widening of Europe, I argue that these confrontations have sparked important debates about the meaning of the past for Europe today.
H-Memory, 2013
Siobhan Kattago's most recent book discusses the issue of the presence of the past in contemporary Europe and the role it plays in different societies. Having published numerous works on the subjects of memory, history, and historical responsibility, focusing primarily on Estonia and Germany, she takes these two countries as representations of the two versions of the European historical narrative.[1] Kattago's previous work (Ambiguous Memory: The Nazi Past and German National Identity, 2003) has been praised for being an "informed and useful overview," but criticized for terminological chaos and not providing enough original analysis.[2] This book is not only a theoretical study of the persistence of the past but also an engaged text on the role and responsibility of public history and the tensions between history and politics.