WEEK 7-8 Flashcards
Politics of memory
shaped by cultural and structural factors.
Factors include choices of mnemonic actors, affecting the type of memory regime that emerges. The manipulation of historical memory is a strategic tool used by political actors to gain or maintain power, but these efforts are constrained by the prevailing cultural norms and collective beliefs of the society in which they operate.
Their manipulation of historical narratives can serve as a legitimation strategy.
Mnemonic Actors
Individuals or groups that actively shape and manipulate historical narratives for political purposes.
Memory regime
outcomes from the interactions of mnemonic actors - shaped by interactions reflecting either:
- conflict
- coexistence
- consensus
in the way past is remembered.
2 types of collective memory for KUBIK
Official and cultural memory
Mnemonic actors and entrepreneurs
teachers, historians, politicians, journalists
4 kinds of mnemonic actors
- Mnemonic warriors
- mnemonic abnegators
- mnemonic pluralists
- mnemonic prospectives
3 factors influencing a political actors decision when it comes to choice of their mnemonic strategy
- Cultural constraints imposed by the means, values and identities enshrined in the discourses actors know and consider using
- Cultural choices that actors make within these constraints
- Structural-institutional constraints of the political field in which they act
mnemonic warriors
us v. them
1 true history
collective memory is NON-NEGOTIABLE, only problem they have is making their version the right and widely accepted one.
Mnemonic pluralists
acknowledge multiple interpretations and versions of the past.
accept that in addition to ‘us’ and our version of history, there are ‘them’ and their own version.
they will engage in dialogue with you.
Mnemonic abnegators
They avoid engaging in memory politics altogether, either because they see no advantage in it or because the dominant narrative is uncontested.
Mnemonic Prospectives
utopic. future oriented. using their interpretations of the past to promote a vision of an ideal future.
official memory regime
memory regimes whose formulation and propagation involve the intensive participaiton of state institutions and political society
different types of memory regimes
fractured (emerges when mnemonic warrior enters and debates)
pillarized (no warriors, differences between actors and interpretations of the past, mostly pluralists / abnegators)
unified (all actors are abengators, resulting in a consensus about the past or a collective decision to avoid poltiicizing historical memory)
TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
memorialization and commemoration. Memorialization in the form of monuments, statues, and museums which all have a key role to play in healing the wounds of the communist past.
