Life Writing and Politics of Memory in Eastern Europe

This volume addresses the issues of remembering and performing the past in Eastern European ex-communist states in the context of multiplication of the voices of the past. The book analyzes the various ways in which memory and remembrance operate; it does so by using different methods of recollecting the past, from oral history to cultural and historical institutions, and by drawing on various political and cultural theories and concepts. Through well-documented case studies the volume showcases the plurality of approaches available for analyzing the relationship between memory and narrative from an interdisciplinary and international perspective.

This volume is a well-conceived collection of works dealing with the political aspects of historical memory. Simona Mitroiu has meticulously ensured that the individual chapters logically follow one another, but, at the same time, no one chapter overshadows another. The vastness of the range of subjects will benefit scholars and students seeking to understand the many problems of post-Communist East-Central Europe. (Francis D. Raka, The European Legacy, Vol. 23 (1-2), September, 2017)

Empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated, this interdisciplinary volume scrutinises heterogeneous forms of memory and the intricate workings of remembrance in the context of post-communist Eastern European societies. the book provides valuable insights into the complex dynamics of remembering and is of great significance to academics and practitioners interested in the topic not only in Eastern European but also in other contexts. (Tanya Narozhna, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 69 (6), 2017)

Autorentext
Michele Frucht Levy, North Carolina A & T State University, USA Ma?gorzata G?owacka-Grajper, University of Warsaw, Poland Csilla Kiss, University of Aberdeen, Scotland Hannah Kliger, The Pennsylvania State University, USA Katarzyna Kwapisz Williams, University of Lodz, Poland Ferenc Laczó, Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena, Germany Borislava Manojlovic, Seton Hall University, USA Simona Mitroiu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Romania Sheryl Perlmutter Bowen, Villanova University, USA Andrea Pr?chová, Charles University, Czech Republic Aigi Rahi-Tamm, University of Tartu, Estonia Irene Sywenky, University of Alberta, Canada Raluca Ursachi, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France Lidia Zessin-Jurek, Collegium Polonicum, Germany

Inhalt

1. Introduction; Simona Mitroiu
   PART I
2. Memories of Displacement and Unhomely Spaces: History, Trauma, and the Politics of Spatial Imagination in Ukraine and Poland; Irene Sywenky
3. Forgotten Memory? Vicissitudes of the Gulag Remembrance in Poland; Lidia Zessin-Jurek
4. When Memory Is Not Enough: Roaming and Writing the Spaces of the Other Europe; Katarzyna Kwapisz Williams
5. Re-Reading the Monuments of the Past; Andrea Pr?chová
   PART II
6. Dignity and Defiance: The Resilience to Repair and Rebuild in Response to Despair; Hannah Kliger and Sheryl Perlmutter Bowen
7. Individual and Official Narratives of Conflict in Croatia: Schools as Sites of Memory Production; Borislava Manojlovic
8. Bordering on Tears and Laughter: Changes of Tonality in the Life Histories of Estonian Deportees; Aigi Rahi-Tamm
9. Memory of Lost Local Homelands. Social Transmission of Memory of the Former Polish Eastern Borderlands in Contemporary Poland; Ma?gorzata G?owacka-Grajper
   PART III
10. Caught Between Historical Responsibility and the New Politics of History. On Patterns of Hungarian Holocaust Remembrance; Ferenc Laczó
11. From Skull Tower to Mall: Competing Victim Narratives and the Politics of Memory in the Former Yugoslavia; Michele Frucht Levy
12. Post-communist Romanians Facing the Mirror of Securitate Files; Raluca Ursachi
13. Divided memory in Hungary: the House of Terror and the lack of a left-wing narrative; Csilla Kiss