scholarly journals Den anden revolution: De arabiske opstande belyst af arabisk postmarxisme

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 71-92
Author(s):  
Sune Haugbølle
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
General Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
Political Work ◽  
Intellectual Traditions

Denne artikel analyserer arabiske marxistiske intellektuelles læsninger af de arabiske opstande siden 2011 og introducerer til arabisk postmarxisme forstået som social teori, der baserer sig på hele den brede familie af marxistiske teorier og traditioner men forholder sig kritisk til den. Artiklen trækker på Alain Badious undersøgelse af begivenhed, situation og spor. For rigtigt at forstå en begivenhed som de arabiske opstandes betydning, må nogen engagere sig i at undersøge dette spor kritisk. Jeg argumenterer, at arabisk postmarxisme repræsenterer en kritisk undersøgelse af et Badiousk spor, der viser tilbage til uafklarede begivenheder i fortiden. Sporet går i retning af tidligere arabiske revolutioner, og de arabiske marxisters deltagelse i dem samt deres tidligere læsninger af forholdet mellem stat, samfund og intellektuelle. Deres erindringsarbejde er således også et politisk arbejde, der søger at forklare, hvordan de arabiske opstande blev muliggjort, og hvordan de adskiller sig fra tidligere revolutionære øjeblikke. Denne analyse viser yderligere, at ikke-vestlige samfunds egne læsninger og intellektuelle traditioner skal tages alvorligt i sammenlignende studier af revolution. Postmarxistisk teori er relevant for revolutioner, fordi den giver redskaber til at analysere det revolutionære subjekt, som Skocpol og andre ignorerede, men som revolutionsteori i dag har indset er af afgørende betydning for forståelsen af sociale revolutioner. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Sune Haugbølle: The Other Revolution: The Arab Uprisings in Light of Arab Post-Marxism This article analyzes Arab Marxist intellectuals and their readings of the Arab uprisings since 2011. In addition, it introduces Arab post-Marxism, or social theory drawing often critically on the broad family of Marxist theory and traditions. The article draws on Alain Badiou’s concepts of situation, event and trace. In order to understand events such as the Arab uprisings, someone must be engaged in examining the trace critically. I argue that Arab post-Marxism represents a critical examination of Badiou’s trace referring back to undigested events in the past. The trace points to earlier Arab revolutions, to the participation of Arab Marxists in them, and to their earlier readings of the relation between state, society and intellectuals. In this way, their memory work constitutes political work seeking to clarify how the Arab uprisings were made possible and how they are different from earlier revolutionary moments. On a general level, this analysis shows that intellectual traditions of non-Western societies and the way they engage their past must be taken seriously in comparative studies of revolution. Post-Marxist theory is relevant for revolutions because it provides tools to analyze the revolutionary subject, which Skocpol and others have largely ignored, but which, as most theorists of revolution theory acknowledge, is crucial for our understanding of social and political revolutions. Keywords: revolution, Arab uprisings, post-Marxism, collective memory, Badiou.

scholarly journals Nunca Más, Nie Wieder: ethical aspects of remembering in the narratives of Ravensbrück. Survivors, their descendants and other persons engaged in memory work = Nunca mas, nie wieder: aspectos éticos del recuerdo en la narrativa de los supervivientes de Rravensbrück, sus descendientes y otras personas involucradas en el trabajo de la memoria

2019 ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Sarka Kadlecova
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Shared Memory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Concentration Camp ◽  
Collective Trauma ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
Shared Trauma ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
Political Work

Resumen: Este artículo trata de la memoria colectiva de un campo de concentración nazi para mujeres. El objetivo de este texto es examinar la posibilidad de la construcción de la memoria compartida por las supervivientes del campo de concentración Ravensbrück, sus descendientes y otras personas, principalmente mujeres, dedicadas al trabajo de memoria en torno a este dominio particular. A partir de la teoría social del trauma de Jeffrey Alexander, se presentarán unos ejemplos del intenso trabajo cultural y político necesario para crear un trauma compartido. Con base en el análisis de los datos creados durante la investigación etnográfica multisitio, el artículo explorará los aspectos éticos del proceso de recordar y la fabricación de un trauma colectivo.Palabras clave: Ravensbrück, teoría social del trauma de Jeffrey Alexander.Abstract: This article deals with collective memory of a women’s concentration camp in Nazi Germany. The objective of this text is to examine the possibility of the construction of a shared memory by survivors of the concentration camp Ravensbrück, their descendants and other persons, mainly women, engaged in the memory work around this particular site of memory. Drawing on Jeffrey Alexander’s social theory of trauma, a number of examples of the intensive cultural and political work necessary for creating a shared trauma will be presented. Based on the data created during multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, the article will explore ethical aspects of the process of remembering and the fabrication of collective trauma.  Keywords: Ravensbrück, Jeffrey Alexander’s social theory of trauma.

Remembering a problematic past: TV mystics, perestroika and the 1990s in post-Soviet media and memory

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Huxtable
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Soviet State ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
Web Forum

This article examines memories of the TV psychic Anatoly Kashpirovsky, whose TV ‘séances’ were broadcast on Soviet state television in the late-1980s. Based on the results of interviews from Russians and Ukrainians conducted in 2013–2014, a television serial based on the rise of TV mystics in the late-1980s and a web forum devoted to discussion of the serial, this article uses memories of Kashpirovsky in both vernacular and public contexts as a means of understanding the place of perestroika and the 1990s in the post-Soviet historical consciousness. In particular, the article focuses on the continued contestation over the meaning of perestroika and the 1990s in Russian and Ukrainian collective memory and the different interpretative strategies used to explain the past. The article seeks to examine the different forms of memory work taking place in different memory spaces, from the popular, vernacular memories voiced in interviews, to public memories expressed within popular culture.

Collective Memory and Journalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Bosch
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Cultural Sites ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Journalistic Practice

The relationship between the practice and field of journalism and the interdisciplinary field of memory studies is complex and multifaceted. There is a strong link between collective memory production and journalistic practice, based on the proposition that journalists produce first drafts of history by using the past in their reportage. Moreover, the practice of journalism is a key agent of memory work because it serves as one of society’s main mechanisms for recording and remembering, and in doing so helps shape collective memory. Journalism can be seen as a memory text, with journalists constructing news within cultural-interpretive frames according to the cultural environment. Journalism also plays a key role in the production of visual memory and new media, including social media. Journalism is thus a key agent of memory work, providing a space for commentary on institutional and cultural sites of memory construction.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE GRANDMOTHERS OF PLAZA DE MAYO'S MNEMONIC FRAMING*

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-492
Author(s):  
Nicole Iturriaga
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Military Regime ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
State Terror ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
Framing Strategies ◽  
Political Landscapes

This article illustrates how human rights activists are negotiating post-authoritarian situations via framing strategies that counter the state's narrative of the past, puts state terror on full display, and aids activists in achieving their goals. In this article, I analyze the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo as a successful mnemonic-memory movement that advanced an alternative collective memory of Argentina's last military regime (1976–1983). I specifically focus on their use of memory work and the evolution of their framing approach. I demonstrate how their framing and frame bridging (rights of families, depoliticized science) was an emergent process that materialized across time and alongside emerging technologies, culminating in their overarching “right to identity” frame. Moreover, I analyze how the Grandmothers used these frames to navigate changing political landscapes and obstacles, and to attack social structures maintaining impunity for the regime's crimes. I ultimately argue that these actions, alongside their extensive memory work, have provided them a loud and powerful voice over the collective memory of Argentina's violent past.

scholarly journals Nostalgic Constitutional Identity

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Stambulski
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Defence Mechanisms ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Emotion ◽  
Temporal Structures ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
Constitutional Identity ◽  
Point Of Reference ◽  
The Eu

The paper deals with the link between the notions of constitutional identity and nostalgic collective memory. Starting from the notion of nostalgia of postmodern society as used in social theory, it shows that this cultural condition is reflected in in constitutions. The point of reference for contemporary political projects is no longer the future but the past. Longing for a lost homeland becomes a dominant social emotion. The author shows that this vision of the past is present in constitutions, especially in post-communist countries. It influences constitutional identity and, due to different temporal structures, is in conflict with the constitutional identity of the EU. The article ends with an analysis of the consequences of such a politics of nostalgia and the possible defence mechanisms against it.

The Mastered Past? Collective Memory Trends in Germany since Unification

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Langenbacher
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Second Period

The Federal Republic of Germany—both before and after 1989—has been influenced deeply by collective memories of the Nazi period and the Holocaust, a seemingly "unmasterable past." In a first phase after unification, memory trends, which had their origin in the mid 1980s, continued, but a second period, beginning around the 1999 move of the capital back to Berlin, however, witnessed the erosion of this older trend and the delayed rise of new memory dynamics. Substantively, there have been three vectors of memory concerning Nazi crimes, German suffering, and the period of division, especially regarding the German Democratic Republic. In this article, I outline the major collective memory dynamics and debates, first from a qualitative and then from a more quantitative perspective where I analyze the holdings of the German National Library. I conclude that an intense period of memory work characterized the postunification years, but the peak of concern was reached several years ago and the German future will be much less beholden to the past. Given inevitable normalizing trends and the unintended consequences of the hegemony of Holocaust memory, Germany's difficult historical legacy increasingly appears to be disappearing or even mastered.

Family, Memory, and Identity: An Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Katie Barclay ◽  
Nina Javette Koefoed
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Individual Identity ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
National Memory ◽  
A Site

This article introduces a special issue on “family, memory, and identity.” Beginning with a survey of previous research in this area, especially exploring family as a site for collective memory, and the ways that family memory work shapes national histories, it introduces the contribution made by this special issue to our understanding of how family memory and national memory intertwine in the production of individual identity. Highlighting the key findings of the special issue, it particularly notes how family history research has the potential to challenge and reform national memory, and in doing so allows for rich and complex rethinkings of the past for both historians and members of the public.

The Palestinian Refugee Camps In Jordan: Between National Identity and Socio-economic Integration

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ala Al-Hamarneh
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Spatial Integration ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Distinct Character ◽  
Palestinian Refugee

At least 50 per cent of the population of Jordan is of Palestinian origin. Some 20 per cent of the registered refugees live in ten internationally organized camps, and another 20 per cent in four locally organized camps and numerous informal camps. The camps organized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) play a major role in keeping Palestinian identity alive. That identity reflects the refugees' rich cultural traditions, political activities, as well as their collective memory, and the distinct character of each camp. Over the past two decades integration of the refugees within Jordanian society has increased. This paper analyses the transformation of the identity of the camp dwellers, as well as their spatial integration in Jordan, and other historical and contemporary factors contributing to this transformation.

Collective Memory: Between Values and Historical Knowledge

2020 ◽  
pp. 124-142
Author(s):  
VICTOR BURLACHUK
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future

At the end of the twentieth century, questions of a secondary nature suddenly became topical: what do we remember and who owns the memory? Memory as one of the mental characteristics of an individual’s activity is complemented by the concept of collective memory, which requires a different method of analysis than the activity of a separate individual. In the 1970s, a situation arose that gave rise to the so-called "historical politics" or "memory politics." If philosophical studies of memory problems of the 30’s and 40’s of the twentieth century were focused mainly on the peculiarities of perception of the past in the individual and collective consciousness and did not go beyond scientific discussions, then half a century later the situation has changed dramatically. The problem of memory has found its political sound: historians and sociologists, politicians and representatives of the media have entered the discourse on memory. Modern society, including all social, ethnic and family groups, has undergone a profound change in the traditional attitude towards the past, which has been associated with changes in the structure of government. In connection with the discrediting of the Soviet Union, the rapid decline of the Communist Party and its ideology, there was a collapse of Marxism, which provided for a certain model of time and history. The end of the revolutionary idea, a powerful vector that indicated the direction of historical time into the future, inevitably led to a rapid change in perception of the past. Three models of the future, which, according to Pierre Nora, defined the face of the past (the future as a restoration of the past, the future as progress and the future as a revolution) that existed until recently, have now lost their relevance. Today, absolute uncertainty hangs over the future. The inability to predict the future poses certain challenges to the present. The end of any teleology of history imposes on the present a debt of memory. Features of the life of memory, the specifics of its state and functioning directly affect the state of identity, both personal and collective. Distortion of memory, its incorrect work, and its ideological manipulation can give rise to an identity crisis. The memorial phenomenon is a certain political resource in a situation of severe socio-political breaks and changes. In the conditions of the economic crisis and in the absence of a real and clear program for future development, the state often seeks to turn memory into the main element of national consolidation.

Justice, Acknowledgment, and Collective Memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Valls
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Truth Commissions ◽  
Place Names ◽  
The Past ◽  
Regime Transitions

In regime transitions, a number of mechanisms are utilized to memorialize the past and to reject the ideas associated with human rights abused of the prior regime. This is often done through truth commissions, apologies, memorials, museums, changes in place names, national holidays, and other symbolic measures. In the United States, some efforts along these lines have been undertaken, but on the whole they have been very limited and inadequate. In addition, many symbols and memorials associated with the past, such as Confederate monuments and the Confederate Battle Flag, continue to be displayed. Hence while some progress has been made on these issues, much more needs to be done.

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