Archive Photography That Forms a Personal and Collective Memory

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-67
Author(s):  
Eva Strazdina

Personal and family albums created by Latvians in the period from 1939 until the 1950s are placed in a wider social and historical perspective by analyzing its content, as well as the individual intent to create it. This work explores photography album as a tool to organize memories and how historical, personal photography albums serve and interact as evidence of private as well as a public past. The research tries to prove the historical authenticity in two personal albums created by Latvians during the Second World War and the following years – a visual diary illustrating the imprisonment in the Soviet working camp in Siberia and a family album memorializing the way and life of the Latvian refugees in the Alt Garge camp, Germany. Two personal albums (currently stored at the archive of the Museum of Occupation of Latvia) have become objects of historical value and are an informative source for learning, analyzing and educating about historical events.

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 127-143
Author(s):  
A.M. Rikel ◽  
N.V. Fedorova ◽  
I.B. Bovina

The category of generation and emotional reactions within the framework of collective memory are considered as central categories within the framework of the research presented here. It is assumed that historical events are associated with certain emotional experiences, and the collective memory retains extremely positive or extremely negative ones. The study was conducted using visual methods, in which the subjects were asked to assess their feelings and emotions when looking at photographs of various wars of the XX century. Conclusions are drawn about the most pronounced feeling of fear among all generations of Russians when assessing various images of war; the absence of differences in the perception of the Second World War among four generations of Russians (N = 589 people) in all emotional reactions, except for the experience of pride in the results of the war. Separately, the so-called “Y” generation is described, experiencing the least vivid emotional reaction, including in terms of feelings of empathy.


Author(s):  
Marina V. Novikova ◽  

The article attempts to characterize the state of historical con- sciousness of the Germans at the end of the 20th – beginning of the 21 st century. The article examines what factors influenced the formation of the “sacrificial narrative” in the collective memory of the Germans of the united Germany. The research is based on the publications in the German, Polish and Russian press, autobiographical works, interviews, diaries and memoirs of Gunther Grass, Gerhard Schroeder, etc., analyzes the works of art and filmography released at that time. Memories of the suffering of the German civilian population during the Second World War usually belonged to the individual memory or remained part of the German family history. True, the traumatic past was often used for political purposes, especially in the FRG in the matters related to the theme of exile. In the first decade of the new millennium, thanks to the changes in the cultural agenda – the release of a number of books and feature films, the plot of which was based on the suffering of the Germans, the traumatic past is at the center of public debate. However, the rethinking of the theme of the suffering of the German civilian population was met with a rather wary response in the global context, primarily from Poland and the victor countries.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Shammas

For many historians, the "Great Man" theory--emphasizing the centrality of powerful leaders in changing history--has (rightly) fallen out of fashion. Less credit is given to leaders; more attention is paid to the average person. Concurrently, for many international relations theorists, the demands of realpolitik and geopolitics are emphasized while the individual personalities of leaders and the collective personalities of cultures are de-emphasized. Yet, while the "Great Man" theory of history is limiting, certain historical events simply cannot be explained without reference to the passions, motives, and personalities of individual leaders. Relatedly, though the competitive desire for resources can explain some wars, the fiercest conflicts are fought not over tangible goods but over abstract ideals. The Second Punic War proves both points: Almost entirely on his own, for reasons related more to culture and ideals than resources, one remarkable man--Hannibal Barca--triggered the ancient world's deadliest world war. The next time resentment over an unfair treaty, bitterness, one driven leader, and clashing ideals would trigger such large-scale conflict would not occur until the Second World War.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Shammas

For many historians, the "Great Man" theory--emphasizing the centrality of powerful leaders in changing history--has (rightly) fallen out of fashion. Less credit is given to leaders; more attention is paid to the average person. Concurrently, for many international relations theorists, the demands of realpolitik and geopolitics are emphasized while the individual personalities of leaders and the collective personalities of cultures are de-emphasized. Yet, while the "Great Man" theory of history is limiting, certain historical events simply cannot be explained without reference to the passions, motives, and personalities of individual leaders. Relatedly, though the competitive desire for resources can explain some wars, the fiercest conflicts are fought not over tangible goods but over abstract ideals. The Second Punic War proves both points: Almost entirely on his own, for reasons related more to culture and ideals than resources, one remarkable man--Hannibal Barca--triggered the ancient world's deadliest world war. The next time resentment over an unfair treaty, bitterness, one driven leader, and clashing ideals would trigger such large-scale conflict would not occur until the Second World War.


Author(s):  
Nicolangelo Becce

Seven decades after Japanese Americans were interned during the Second World War, former journalist and internment survivor Gene Oishi published Fox Drum Bebop (2014). The protagonist, Hiroshi, had been introduced in Oishi’s previous memoir, In Search of Hiroshi (1988), as “quasi-fictional” and “neither American nor Japanese, but simply me”. Yet, in the same memoir, Oishi had also described his inability to write about ‘Hiroshi’, thus settling on ‘Gene’ as a main character and waiting 28 more years before publishing a book about his true self. A comparison between the two books highlights that In Search of Hiroshi was written as an attempt at telling a story that would implicitly support the ‘model minority’ myth by offering an account of the internment experience as a direct response to the sociopolitical constraints related to the request by Japanese Americans for redress from the U.S. government. On the other hand, the more recent Fox Drum Bebop represents a fictional retelling of Oishi’s memoir which reveals the limits of the collective memory of the internment as developed during the redress years by openly defying the ‘model minority’ stereotype while at the same time once more denouncing the injustices suffered by the Japanese American community during the war. This essay focuses on Oishi’s double narrative as a reassessment of the collective memory of the internment experience and of its lasting effects on Japanese Americans.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Myroslav Shkandrij

<p class="EW-abstract"><strong>Abstract:</strong> When Dokia Humenna’s novel depicting the Second World War, <em>Khreshchatyi iar</em> (Khreshchatyk Ravine), was published in New York in 1956, it created a controversy. Readers were particularly interested in the way activists of the OUN were portrayed. This article analyzes readers’ comments and Humenna’s responses, which are today stored in the archives of the Ukrainian Academy of Science in New York. The novel is based on a diary Humenna kept during the German occupation of Kyiv in the years 1941-1943.</p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Dokia Humenna, <em>Khreshchatyi iar</em>, Second World War, OUN, Émigré Literature, Reader Response


Author(s):  
Marta Kurkowska

THE LOCALITIES explored herein, Jedwabne and Wizna, are both situated in the Łomża region of north-eastern Poland, close to each other. Only a few kilometres separate the two and yet what each can contribute and has contributed to local, regional, and national collective memory sets them oceans apart. The inspiration for this article was precisely this simple contrast. How is it that towns inhabited by persons of a similar culture evolve into symbols of radically different attitudes and actions taken by Poles during the Second World War?...


Author(s):  
J.O. Urmson

J.L. Austin was a leading figure in analytic philosophy in the fifteen years following the Second World War. He developed a method of close examination of nonphilosophical language designed to illuminate the distinctions we make in ordinary life. Professional philosophers tended to obscure these important and subtle distinctions with undesirable jargon which was too far removed from everyday usage. Austin thought that a problem should therefore be tackled by an examination of the way in which its vocabulary is used in ordinary situations. Such an approach would then expose the misuses of language on which many philosophical claims were based. In ‘Other Minds’ ([1946] 1961), Austin attacked the simplistic division of utterances into the ‘descriptive’ and ‘evaluative’ using his notion of a performatory, or performative utterances. His notion was that certain utterances, in the appropriate circumstances, are neither descriptive nor evaluative, but count as actions. Thus to say ‘I promise’ is to make a promise, not to talk about one. Later, he was to develop the concepts of locutionary force (what an utterance says or refers to), illocutionary force (what is intended by saying it) and perlocutionary force (what effects it has on others).


1962 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-141
Author(s):  
G. H. Donaldson

Since the Second World War we have been subjected to a flood of memoirs and counter-memoirs by generals, admirals, air marshals, and politicians. One of the direct results of this is that our vocabulary has been increased—if not enriched—by a military jargon. Most of the latter's terms have in fact very specialized meanings, and if they are used out of their proper context they can present a highly coloured view of a rather simple situation. Can these terms be applied with validity to historical situations of antiquity ? At first sight there is an attraction in theirvery modernity, for they seem to give a freshness of approach; but Professor Salmon's use of them in his recent article, ‘The Strategy of the Second Punic War’, has made the dangers of their use manifestly clear. By his use of these anachronisms—for that is surely what they are—Professor Salmon has given nothing new in the way of interpretation, but merely provided confirmation of Oman's dictum ‘Historians may have the most divergent views according to their predispositions’, and has exaggerated the capabilities of both sides beyond belief.


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