Border Commemoration in Contemporary Armenia

Author(s):  
Ekaterina Arkhipova

By the end of 20th century, history manipulation had become the main tool for mobilizing masses. To create a societal identity, a nation-state uses collective memory and creates an idea of the past as the purpose of self-existence. In addition to the chronological pattern, collective memory describes the geographical framework of society by creating them. The chapter analyzes the practice of determining geographical boundaries of Armenia in the collective memory of Armenians. Using the concept of “places of memory” coined by P. Nora, this chapter determines markers and geographical points as defined in the collective memory of Armenia residents as their own. The chapter presents the results of observations carried out by the author during the research made in 2014, as well as discursive analysis of memorial places from Armenian travel site as data that represent collective memory to the outsiders as informational messages. In conclusion, the author raises the question of the effective model of collective memory adopted in the name of societal development.

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-123
Author(s):  
Tyler S. Schafer ◽  
David R. Dickens

Disputes over historical representations often revolve around competing narratives about the past, but the processes through which these narratives are constructed are often neglected. In this paper, we extend the concept of collective memory using Brekhus’ notion of social marking to investigate the creation and maintenance of collective representations of the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. We analyze the claims made in speeches and communiqués produced by two opposing groups—the Mexican government and the Zapatista movement—in a decades-long dispute over land and indigenous rights. Moreover, we argue that processes of social marking can further explain the selective nature of collective memory, that is, how certain parts of the past are remem­bered and emphasized while others are de-emphasized and forgotten. Also, in our analysis of social marking, we identify a naturalization process that is utilized by actors in mnemonic battles to recast their constructed representations of the past as natural, pure, and true. We close with a discussion of how understanding the naturalization process as outlined here can shed light on current political and historical disputes.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-101
Author(s):  
Rūta Šermukšnytė

The goal of this paper is to reveal how and why the circulation of the same historical images takes place; whose values and, simultaneously, memory are conveyed through these images; what is the relationship between the audiovisual representation of the past and collective memory? The article states that manifestations of the visual stereotypes of Lithuania history in post-communist transformation period (1988–2004) are mainly based on certain cinematic tendencies. Historical films that are considered to be an adaptation of the national narrative cinematography have been predominant since 1988. This kind of narration is characterized by validation of history as a national value, formation of national identity and its stabilization rather than diversification and correction of the collective memory or the development of critical thinking. The current documentary material that is based on the understanding of history as a myth of the nation’s history is not aimed at creating a new visual and verbal narration about the realities of the past, but rather at recognizing what has been said and made in the previous works.


Author(s):  
Joana Gomes ◽  
Vitor Guerreiro

RESUMO: No século XX, fenómenos como a arte de massas - em particular o cinema - surgem concomitantemente a novas formas de relação entre poder político, ideologia, arte e estética. Com a Revolução Russa de 1917, e, mais tarde, os regimes fascistas que se espalham pela Europa, a alternância entre a experimentação estética arrojada e o arregimentar da arte à propaganda tornam-se realidades que, de um ou outro modo, impõem aos artistas alguma forma de posicionamento. Neste processo, é frequente as representações do passado servirem para possibilitar um certo discurso acerca do presente, sobretudo quando as representações directas deste se tornam «politicamente problemáticas» (i.e. perigosas). Tal é o que sucede com o próprio conceito de Idade Média, desde a sua origem. Este artigo pretende justamente explorar o modo como as representações cinematográficas da Idade Média servem diferentemente de veículo à de expressão de concepções estéticas, artísticas e políticas em dois filmes produzidos em países do ex-bloco socialista, onde as tensões e alternâncias de que falamos se tornam, mais do que uma questão meramente teórica, uma questão de sobrevivência: Alexander Nevsky de Serguei Eisenstein (1938) e Márketa Lazarová de František Vláčil (1967). ABSTRACT: In the 20th century, phenomena like that of mass art – particularly cinema – emerge in tandem with new forms of relationship between political power, ideology, art and aesthetics. With the Russian Revolution of 1917, and, later, with the spread of fascist regimes across Europe, alternating between bold aesthetic experimentation and the use of art as propaganda become factors that compel artists, in one way or another, to take some sort of stand. In this process, representations of the past are often employed so as to make it possible to speak about the present, especially when direct portrayal of the latter becomes ‘politically problematic’ (i.e. dangerous). Such is also the case with the concept of ‘middle ages’ itself, from its inception. Our aim in this paper is precisely to explore how representations of the middle ages serve, in different ways, as a vehicle for the expression of aesthetic and political views, in two films made in countries of the former socialist bloc, where the tensions and shifting pressures we mentioned become, more than a purely theoretical issue, a matter of survival: Sergei Einsenstein’s Alexander Nevsky (1938) and František Vláčil’s Márketa Lazarová (1967).


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-48
Author(s):  
Bárbara Polo Martín

During past centuries, pandemics were something very natural to the human race, but as result of industrialisation during the 19th century, they became a larger problem. The arrival of populations to big cities provoked the development of irregular and overpopulated quarters without any measures of safety, and facilitated the expansion of diseases. The problem resided in sanitation problems, as the example of what happened in London and Paris. As a solution, in different cities, and as a starting point, Paris with the Haussman’s proposals, issued different reforms and extension plans were made in Spain (Nadal 2017, 357-385). Humanity believed that these extension plans would give us a healthy density and an ordered expansion. We opened big boulevards to believe that we had a wide city to walk, but nothing could be further from reality. At the beginning of 20th century, history repeated itself, and now, a new pandemic crisis has shown that cities have, again, a crisis of congestion. Keywords: cartography, cities, COVID-19, urban models


2019 ◽  
pp. 175069801986315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoav Galai

Since the early 2000s, the study of European Memory politics has proliferated, but has come to mean different things. It focuses either on the emergence of Holocaust remembrance as a shared cultural memory, disputes within European Union institutions over what the European collective memory should be, or diplomatic standoffs between Russia and its former satellites. I argue that while such complex multi-level memory politics defy an overarching theoretical categorisation, they can be understood through a comprehensive approach, which is achieved by considering the different narratives of the past to be interpretations of a common historical occurrence. This article argues that European Memory Politics as a whole occurs within a transnational mythscape of the Second World War, in which international actors promote their interpretations as simplified myths while warding off competing myths that negatively depict their mythical selves. An emergent narrative alliance between Russia and Israel, made in response to European memory politics, is used to illustrate the utility of the transnational mythscape framework for understanding memory politics beyond the national sphere.


LingVaria ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (27) ◽  
pp. 51-65
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Niewiara

Playing with Figures of Collective Memory in Artistic Work. Issues in Memory LinguisticsThe article presents an ethnolinguistic analysis of A. Stasiuk’s drama Czekając na Turka (‘Waiting for the Turk’). Staged in 2009, the play examines figures of communicative and cultural collective memory, to use Jan Assmann’s terminology. Particular attention is given to linguistic means of lexical and syntactic archaization of literary text, used to elicit associations with the past images of Turks in Polish and European imagination, and in consequence, to propose an interpretation of an important event in European culture and history at the end of the 20th century: the fall of the Berlin Wall. In comparison with the older concept of antemurale Christianitatis (associated with Ottoman Turks’ incursions against European countries), the importance of the modern, current concept is reduced.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
Stefan Marek Grochalski

The presented material is an attempt at analyzing the specific legal position of peace treaties. The author argues with the opinion which is put forward (not too often, though), maintaining that such treaties – due to their not expressing the will of states in a classical way – cannot be considered to be agreements as such. He presents the basic similarities and – first of all – differences, especially concerning the so-called final provisions, with reference to both typical international agreements and peace treaties, respectively. In the study, he formulates the thesis of a special role, significance and evolution of peace treaties, despite frequent disrespect for the resolutions they contain. Instances of peace treaties which were concluded in the past are recalled and analyzed, and juxtaposed with ones made in the 20th century, particularly those following the First and the Second World Wars.  


2019 ◽  
pp. 64-72
Author(s):  
О. М. Богдан

Humanity has always thought about memory, its features, its role and significance in an individual’s life and society. However, in the 20th century much more attention was paid to this characteristic of human mind in science and art than before, besides, the interpretations of this concept have become quite changeable and diverse.At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century in the scientific field, memory was viewed as a purely personal, individual act of recollection (A. Bergson, Z. Freud), however, later the theories of collective memory and the memory of entire groups and nations appear (M. Halbvaks, P. Nora, I. Assman). Due to the tragic events of the 20th century history and the gradual passing away of its witnesses, the subject of memory also becomes popular in art, especially in literature.The purpose of the article is to determine what place in the artistic basis of Romain Gary's «The Kites» the category of memory occupies, what meaning it carries and in what varieties it is used in the novel.The relevance of the article is due to the fact that since 2018 Romain Gary's novel «The Kites» has been included in "Foreign Literature" curriculum of secondary education as one of the optional works, and the theme of memory is only mentioned but not thoroughly studied in the existing critical articles.Having carried out the research, we may conclude the following: 1. Memory as a characteristic of human mind and a socio-cultural phenomenon becomes the object of close attention of both scholars and people of art in the twentieth century. 2. Such interest to the above-mentioned phenomenon was caused, firstly, by the peculiarities of the historical process in the 20th century, full of disastrous events that people tried to forget as a traumatic experience; secondly, by the emergence of new concepts of memory in philosophy and psychology.For Romain Gary and the heroes of his novel «The Kites», memory is a pledge of active citizenship of a person, a source of threat to his existence and an erroneous perception of reality, lack, weapon and a source of strength in the fight against evil, a pledge of peace and harmony, sense of life and redemption from non-existence and a path to eternity for a certain person.


Author(s):  
Monika Smialkowska ◽  
Edmund G. C. King

AbstractThis introductory chapter starts by situating Shakespeare commemoration in the context of recent theory on cultural and collective memory. It then examines the relationship between literary memorialisation and the nation state before problematising commemoration events outside Europe in the context of postcolonial and decolonial theory. Commemoration events have become fraught, it suggests, because of a growing tendency to focus on the politics of the present. This presentist position, which typically represents the values and interests of the past and present as radically opposed to one another, presents challenges for traditional modes of memorialisation, which in the past have sought to demonstrate positive links and continuities between the literatures and cultures of past and present. The introduction concludes with a set of detailed summaries of the chapters in the volume.


Author(s):  
Tatiana A. Iakovleva ◽  

The article is devoted to the problem of memory visualization in the language of photography. Photography is presented as a sign system and a communicative tool of culture, as one of its mnemonic and memorial techniques. An image archive is created through a photo. It becomes a refuge of memory and material for the reconstruction and reinterpretation of memory. The author explores the nostalgic, retrospective genre of photography. The appearance of this genre demonstrates an increase in the demand of culture, society and personality for memory, to assert themselves in the present through a search for a connection with the past. The purpose of the article is the analysis of the visual language of photographic projects related to the theme of memory, the analysis of visual rhetoric, and the identification of a set of "visual toposes" and metaphors of memory. This article reviewed the projects of two young Ural photographers Anastasia Bogomolova and Sergey Poteryayev. Their work connects the theme of memory, the problem of reconstruction, reinterpretation and retranscription of the past. These projects are a kind of visual research of personal and collective memory, the development of the problems of places of memory and mythology of the place. The theme of memory in projects is directly related to the problem of identity. In the course of the study, the author of the article relies on materials from creative projects and exhibitions, information from copyright sites. The author also uses materials interviews in which photographers talk about themselves, about the history of project creation, conceptual ideas and creative orientations. Creativity of Anastasia Bogomolova appears as a performative act, as "unpacking the archive". For a photographer, memory becomes the basis of individual and family identity. In the exposition space, photographs are complemented by objects, video and sound installations, and performances. The projects of Sergey Poteryaev represent photo stories about real places and people. The photographer refers to the relationship of the fate of the disappearing settlements and their inhabitants. Using a collage technique, the photographer connects the past and the present, creates pictures of memory. The analysis of the visual language of the photo projects was carried out, the conceptual bases of the projects and creative techniques were investigated. The article identifies the key methods and techniques of working with photography, the basic metaphors and images through which personal, family, and collective memory became visible. The author shows that both photographers apply a topographical approach to memory in accordance with the nature of photography. Project photos convey such memory characteristics as paradox and surreality, multi-layered and collage, selectivity, fragmentation, and construction. The events of the past are distant from us, but images of memory exist in the present. Images of memory can fade; overlap each other like images in a photo. At the same time, they are overloaded and insufficient. Just as memory is changeable, mobile, its images can be fluid, distorted, but they help us comprehend the past for the present.


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