Can the Past Serve the Present? The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-218
Author(s):  
Megan Liu
Keyword(s):  
Historical Memory ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nanjing Massacre ◽  
Simple Question ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
Shed Light

The memorialization of the Nanjing Massacre, constructed almost fifty years after the event, poses challenges for historians. This article asks the simple question: why? Why has the evolution of memory in China and Japan circumvented the issues of Nanjing for nearly half a century before letting it erupt onto the international stage in the past few decades? By examining the circumstances surrounding the opening of Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall and its ensuing impact, this article not only attempts to shed light on how the memorial has been misconstrued in global historical memory, and the fundamental historiographical debates surrounding it, but also the utility of memory in historical narrative. When dealing with the ghosts of the past in the politics of the present, is it ever possible to purge historiography and memory of government?

Collaboration, Complicity, and Historical Memory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia M. Horne
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Secret Police ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
The Past ◽  
Shed Light

The widespread complicity evident in the post-communist cases complicates approaches to transitional justice because it lays some of the blame on society. Lustration procedures use information in secret police files to shed light on the past. Those files contain information documenting how neighbors, friends, co-workers, and even relatives might have informed on you. There is a potential for such revelations about the scope of the interpersonal and institutional betrayals to undermine social trust and civil society. This chapter explores the problems associated with complicity and transitional justice measures by examining the cases of Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria. The cases highlight how historical memory is affected by negative revelations about the past. These cases illustrate how rising nostalgia can collide with truth telling, forcing the reconsideration and sometimes revision of historical memory.

scholarly journals MONUMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF HISTORICAL MEMORY

2021 ◽  
pp. 76-85
Author(s):  
I.A. Apollonov ◽  
◽  
A.A. Khlevov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Historical Monuments ◽  
Level Of Understanding ◽  
Historical Truth

The article examines the problem of the relationship between historical monuments and historical memory. The purpose of the article: to consider the hermeneutical significance of monuments. In this context, the sculptural image is considered as a special way of understanding the past and interpreting history. This approach involves the use of hermeneutical methodology in the study of historical monuments, in which monuments appear to be the assertion of certain values and ideas. The ideas expressed in the monuments connect the past with the present and the future, are the embodiment of the identification symbols of the people and the state. The ideological component of the semantics of historical monuments is investigated. It is shown that the monuments are used to establish a certain political project of power, which is justified by the construction of the corresponding historical narrative. At the same time, monuments appear as sacred symbols of historical memory in its essential aspect, as a fateful connection between the past and the present. The dialogical nature of historical memory is considered. It is proved that the main condition for such dialogicality is the apophatic horizon of historical truth, which allows us to see the unity and integrity of the historical process in the diversity of past events. The penetration into the apophatic horizon of the truth about the past determines the hermeneutic potential of the historical monument as a means of understanding and conceptualizing the memory of the past. The author considers the semantic levels of a historical monument: the external level, which addresses the facticity of a historical person or event, and the artistic content of the monument, which reveals the significance of this facticity. The semantics of the first level is determined by the ideologeme associated with the policy of memorization. The intrinsic value of this level leads to simplification, schematization of the image, turning the monument into a simple memorative sign. The second level involves the expression of the ideological content of history in the monument. Such a level of understanding is based on the personal characteristics of the hero to his specific historical significance and universal universal meanings. Thus, a hermeneutic circle is formed, in which the visual concreteness of the image combines the facticity of a historical person or event and the ideological content of this facticity.

scholarly journals Сreating the Narrative on the Cossacks’ History of the Civil War Era in the South of Russia in the System of the Soviet Ideology of the 1920s – 1930s

2019 ◽  
pp. 135-147
Author(s):  
Vasilina Klopikhina
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
North Caucasus ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of

Introduction. The article is devoted to the problem of forming the narrative on the history of the Don, Kuban and Terek Cossacks during the Civil war in the system of Istparts (Commissions on the history of the October revolution and the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)) of the North Caucasus. The experts had not only the task to write a “different” history of modern times, but also to form a historical narrative, which was to reflect the interpretation of events permitted by the authorities as the basis for a new model of historical memory. Creating the narrative in the operation system of Istparts determined the principles of selecting material and formulating key research issues. Methods and materials. The study is based on the methodology of “new local history”. The author analyzes local historical narratives as images of the past created by Istparts of the North Caucasus with the help of discursive analysis. Analysis. The paper analyzes the interpretation of the Cossacks’ history in the period of the socio-political crisis. It was found that in the 1920s the attention of researchers was focused on the search for class differentiation and struggle in the Cossacks’ history. As a result, local historical narratives present an original interpretation of the Cossack stratification, which demonstrates the authors’ desire to present the history of the Cossacks in accordance with the methodological instructions of the Commission on the history of the October Revolution and the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). At the same time, they reflect judgments that are not limited to the ideological paradigm. This is due to the fact that in local historical narratives it was not always possible to combine the peculiarities of the historical process in the region with the proposed scheme and settings of the center. In the 1930s, there was a change in substantial aspects of constructing a new model of historical memory and historical narrative as its basis associated with the assertion of Stalin’s sole power. Published works were publicly criticized and banned. The authors of such works were repressed in the era of the Great terror. At this time there appeared new ideological interpretations of the Cossacks’ history. Since 1936, the political campaign “for the Soviet Cossacks” had been reflecting in creating the narrative in the system of Istparts. Results. Scientific analysis of sources and coverage of complexity and ambiguity of the historical process in the region were replaced by simple but “correct” ideological statements. With the help of interpreting the past focusing research attention on class stratification and explanation of the Cossacks’ place in the history of the Civil war a new image of the Cossacks was formed in public consciousness.

Editor's Note

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Kaliel
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Red River ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The Past ◽  
Relationship Of

The articles published in our Fall 2016 edition are connected loosely under the themes of public memory and the uses of identity in the past. We are thrilled to present to you three excellent articles in our Fall 2016 edition: The article "Dentro de la Revolución: Mobilizing the Artist in Alfredo Sosa Bravo's Libertad, Cultura, Igualdad (1961)" analyzes Cuban artwork as multi-layered work of propaganda whose conditions of creation, content, and exhibition reinforce a relationship of collaboration between artists and the state-run cultural institutions of post-revolutionary Cuba; moving through fifty years of history “’I Shall Never Forget’: The Civil War in American Historical Memory, 1863-1915" provides a captivating look at the role of reconciliationist and emancipationist intellectuals, politicians, and organizations as they contested and shaped the enduring memory of the Civil War; and finally, the article “Politics as Metis Ethnogenesis in Red River: Instrumental Ethnogenesis in the 1830s and 1840s in Red River” takes the reader through a historical analysis of the development of the Metis identity as a means to further their economic rights. We wholly hope you enjoy our Fall 2016 edition as much as our staff has enjoyed curating it. Editors  Jean Middleton and Emily Kaliel Assistant Editors Magie Aiken and Hannah Rudderham Senior Reviewers Emily Tran Connor Thompson Callum McDonald James Matiko Bronte Wells

Institutional Historical Memory and History in Post-Soviet Belarus

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-73
Author(s):  
Alena Marková
Keyword(s):  
Historical Memory ◽  
Typical Feature ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
National History ◽  
Nationality Policy ◽  
Second Shift ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Government ◽  
Clear Shift

Abstract Belarusian institutional historical memory (as defined by Richard Ned Lebow) and the interpretation of Belarusian national history have experienced radical shifts in the past several decades. The first shift (1990–1994) was characterized by radical rejection of the interpretational and methodological patterns of the Soviet period, resulting in the creation of a new concept of Belarusian national history and historical narrative. The second shift in the existing historical narrative and institutional memory followed rapidly. It came with the transformation from a parliamentary republic into a parliamentary-presidential (1994) and then presidential republic (1996). The second wave demonstrated a clear shift towards a methodological, theoretical approach and terminological framework typical of the historiography of the Soviet period. These changes were in response to the growing demands for ideological control of institutionalized historical research supported by the government in the same decade. One of the characteristic features of recent Belarusian state-sponsored historiography (Lyč, Chigrinov, Marcuĺ, Novik and others) is the linking of post-Soviet national initiatives to Nazi occupation and collaboration in World War II. Another typical feature is simplifying historical explanations and often using undisguised pejorative terminology. The last shift in institutional historical memory also resulted in further re-interpretations of many symbolic centres and milestones of Belarusian history (for example, the period of the first years of post-Soviet independence, the introduction of new national symbols (Pahonia coat of arms and white-red-white flag) and the interwar nationality policy of Belarusization of the 1920s.)

ON THE NEED TO COLLECT, PRESERVE AND STUDY DISAPPEARED NAMES OF SETTLEMENTS

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-192
Author(s):  
S.A. Popov
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Local History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
The Disappeared

The article deals with the problem of collecting, preserving and researching the disappeared names of localities in the subjects of the Russian Federation, which for centuries have become an integral part of the historical and cultural heritage of the peoples of our country. The author believes that only a comprehensive analysis of the past oikonyms in nominational, lexical-semantic, historical-cultural, historical-ethnographic, local history aspects will restore the linguistic and cultural systems of different time periods in different microareals of the Russian Federation. The author comes to the conclusion that in order to preserve the historical memory of the disappeared names of geographical objects, local researchers need the support of regional state authorities and local self-government.

The Fall of Tripoli in 1289 in the Perception of Christian Communities of the Middle East

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
К.А. Панченко
Keyword(s):  
Educational Level ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Religious Polemics

Abstract The article examines the conquest of the County of Tripoli by the Mamelukes in 1289, and the reaction of various Middle Eastern ethnoreligious groups to this event. Along with the Monophysite perspective (the Syriac chronicle of Bar Hebraeus’ Continuator and the work of the Coptic historian Mufaddal ibn Abi-l-Fadail), and the propagandist texts of Muslim Arabic panegyric poets, we will pay special attention to the historical memory of the Orthodox (Melkite) and Maronite communities of northern Lebanon. The contemporary of these events — the Orthodox author Suleiman al-Ashluhi, a native of one of the villages of the Akkar Plateau — laments the fall of Tripoli in his rhymed eulogy. It is noteworthy that this author belongs to the rural Melkite subculture, which — in spite of its conservative character — was capable of producing original literature. Suleiman al-Ashluhi’s work was forsaken by the following generations of Melkites; his poem was only preserved in Maronite manuscripts. Maronite historical memory is just as fragmented. The father of the Modern Era Maronite historiography — Gabriel ibn al-Qilaʿî († 1516) only had fragmentary information on the history of his people in the 13th century: local chronicles and the heroic epos that glorified the Maronite struggle against the Muslim lords that tried to conquer Mount Lebanon. Gabriel’s depiction of the past is not only biased and subject to aims of religious polemics, but also factually inaccurate. Nevertheless, the texts of Suleiman al-Ashluhi and Gabriel ibn al-Qilaʿî give us the opportunity to draw conclusions on the worldview, educational level, political orientation and peculiar traits of the historical memory of various Christian communities of Mount Lebanon.

Vēsturiskā atmiņa Latvijas teātra jaunās paaudzes mākslinieku darbos: izrādes „Dvēseļu utenis” piemērs

2020 ◽  
pp. 269-275
Author(s):  
Ieva Rodiņa
Keyword(s):  
Historical Memory ◽  
Intergenerational Relationships ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Political Theater ◽  
Hermeneutic Phenomenological ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Humanistic Study ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Flea Market

The aim of the research “Historical Memory in the Works of the New Generation of Latvian Theater Artists: The Example of “The Flea Market of the Souls” is to focus on the current but at the same time little discussed topic in Latvian theater – the change of generations and the social processes connected to it, that are expressed on the level of world views, experiences, intergenerational relationships. Most directly, these changes are reflected in the phenomenon of historical memory. The concept of “postmemory” was defined by German professor Marianne Hirsch in 1992, suggesting that future generations are closely related to the personal and collective cultural traumas of previous generations, which are passing on the past experience through historical memory, thus affecting the present. Grotesque, self-irony, and focusing on socio-political, provocative questions and themes are the connecting point of the generation of young Latvian playwrights born in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including such personalities as Jānis Balodis, Rasa Bugavičute-Pēce, Matīss Gricmanis, Justīne Kļava, etc. However, unlike Matīss Gricmanis or Janis Balodis who represent the aesthetics of political theater, in Justīne Kļava’s works, sociopolitical processes become the background of a generally humanistic study of the relationships between generations. This theme is represented not only in “The Flea Market of the Souls”, but also in other plays, like “Jubilee ‘98” and “Club “Paradise””. The tendency to investigate the traces left by the Soviet heritage allows to define these works as autobiographical researches of the identity of the post-Soviet generation, analyzing life in today's Latvia in terms of historical memory. Using the semiotic, hermeneutic, phenomenological approach, the play “The Flea Market of the Souls” and its production in Dirty Deal Teatro (2017) are analyzed as one of the most vivid works reflecting the phenomenon of historical memory in recent Latvian original drama.

Reputation and Gossip in Game Theory

2019 ◽  
pp. 213-229
Author(s):  
Charles Roddie
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Strategic Behavior ◽  
Third Party ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Behavior ◽  
Future Behavior ◽  
The Game Theory ◽  
Shed Light

When interacting with others, it is often important for you to know what they have done in similar situations in the past: to know their reputation. One reason is that their past behavior may be a guide to their future behavior. A second reason is that their past behavior may have qualified them for reward and cooperation, or for punishment and revenge. The fact that you respond positively or negatively to the reputation of others then generates incentives for them to maintain good reputations. This article surveys the game theory literature which analyses the mechanisms and incentives involved in reputation. It also discusses how experiments have shed light on strategic behavior involved in maintaining reputations, and the adequacy of unreliable and third party information (gossip) for maintaining incentives for cooperation.

Populism and Memory: Legislation of the Past in Poland, Ukraine, and Russia

2021 ◽  
pp. 088832542095080
Author(s):  
Nikolay Koposov
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
The Holocaust

This article belongs to the special cluster “Here to Stay: The Politics of History in Eastern Europe”, guest-edited by Félix Krawatzek & George Soroka. The rise of historical memory, which began in the 1970s and 1980s, has made the past an increasingly important soft-power resource. At its initial stage, the rise of memory contributed to the decay of self-congratulatory national narratives and to the formation of a “cosmopolitan” memory centered on the Holocaust and other crimes against humanity and informed by the notion of state repentance for the wrongdoings of the past. Laws criminalizing the denial of these crimes, which were adopted in “old” continental democracies in the 1980s and 1990s, were a characteristic expression of this democratic culture of memory. However, with the rise of national populism and the formation of the authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes in Russia, Turkey, Hungary, and Poland in the 2000s and 2010s, the politics of memory has taken a significantly different turn. National populists are remarkably persistent in whitewashing their countries’ history and using it to promote nationalist mobilization. This process has manifested itself in the formation of new types of memory laws, which shift the blame for historical injustices to other countries (the 1998 Polish, the 2000 Czech, the 2010 Lithuanian, the June 2010 Hungarian, and the 2014 Latvian statutes) and, in some cases, openly protect the memory of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity (the 2005 Turkish, the 2014 Russian, the 2015 Ukrainian, the 2006 and the 2018 Polish enactments). The article examines Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian legislation regarding the past that demonstrates the current linkage between populism and memory.

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