memory studies

22 articles tagged with memory studies were found.

Decolonization of the space. The uncomfortable heritage of Ukrainian socialist cities

The process of decolonization in Ukrainian cities is significant because of the remaining socialist heritage. This includes architecture, urban planning structures, toponyms, and symbolic spaces. While this heritage is deeply implemented in the contemporary cityscape, it has also become the subject of criticism, particularly after the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014. Socialist cities such as Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kryvyi Rig played a prominent role in shaping the urban landscape and were conceptualized by Soviet urbanists in the 1920s and 1930s. These cities were designed to gain complete control over the social and professional aspects of residents’ lives, reflecting the ideological ambitions of the communist party. This article explores the importance of socialist cities in the context of colonial heritage, examining the origins of the idea and its ideological significance.

Essay by Anastasiia Bozhenko and Olesya Chagovets December 10, 2024

CBEES Memory Summer School 2024

The CBEES Summer School 2024 “The Return of History: Memory, War and the End of the "Post” is a specialized course that delves into in-depth studies of central theories of cultural memory.

By Ninna Mörner September 10, 2024

Theme: St. Petersburg in the 1990s. A window in time Introduction. St. Petersburg -- intangible heritage of the 1990s. Archiving work in progress

One cannot go back in time and cannot experience it as it was. Yet this collection of memoirs is an attempt at the restoration of the immaterial culture of the 1990s in St. Petersburg. It was written with the awareness of the integrated failure of the project by all its participants.

Essay by Anna Kharkina January 18, 2023

Chernobyl as a post-Soviet memory space How ideas of progress and fear shaped a nuclear heritage site

What Chernobyl means to different people has dramatically changed over time. Today, its image mostly invokes fear of radiation, illness, as well as uncertainty. The ruins of the plant are regarded as a somewhat unpredictable source of danger that needs constant attention and monitoring. This is a remarkable historical change from how Chernobyl used to be seen. Before 1986, the construction of Ukraine’s first major nuclear power plant symbolized progress and the hope for a better future. In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and recent media coverage of nuclear energy in this context, Chernobyl has truly become a memory space, serving as a place for projections of a multitude of attitudes regarding nuclear safety, catastrophe, war, maintenance and negligence.

Essay by Achim Klüppelberg January 18, 2023

“My goal is to break the narrative that Lithuania had nothing to do with the Holocaust”

Silvia Kučėnaitė Foti it the author of the book The Nazi’s Granddaughter: How I discovered my Grandfather was a War Criminal. After going through major trauma when discovering her grandfather was not the war hero she heard about but a Nazi collaborator, she started to investigate her grandfather’s past. Considering Jewish sources along with the Lithuanian sources Foti questions the Lithuanian official narrative denying any involvement in the Holocaust.

By Martina Urbinati October 25, 2021

Legislating Memory: From Memory Laws to Transitional Justice

Two panels on memory laws were arranged the same day as part of the annual series of on USSR 30 years after (1991-2021). The panel “Dealing with the totalitarian past: Laws on memory and legislation” took up how different countries have approached the Soviet past in legislation and by “memory laws”. The panel “Memory laws: an interregional perspective on commemoration and legislation” followed this theme up. An aspect discussed throughout the whole event was the Western vs. Eastern models of memory laws.

By Cagla Demirel and Martin Englund June 13, 2021

Repetition of Silence Monuments for a new time

When we look at our monuments, why is there so much presence and, at the same time, so much absence? Or is there not enough presence and not enough absence? Or is there too much presence and not enough absence? Or is there not enough presence and too much absence? And what can we do about this (dis)balance?

By Paulina Pukyté February 15, 2021

The voices of women across the generations

In this article the author, a multidisciplinary artist, reflects on the process of making the video project Red, 2015, (21:45 min.) and a sound installation The White Wall, 2015 (9:30 min.) about post-Soviet times and transgenerational silence about experiences with the Soviet Union.

By Kati Roover February 15, 2021

A city of amnesia Marcin Kącki’s Białystok. White Power. Black Memory

In his book of reportage: Białystok. White Power, Black Memory Marcin Kącki documents oblivion and denial of the memory of the former Jewish inhabitants of the city; paradoxically, it is also a call for this memory to be restored. In other words, we are dealing here with the two basic attitudes and forms of remembering historical trauma, distinguished by LaCapra: The first results in the process of “working-through”; the other is based on denial and results in “acting-out”.

By Jan Miklas-Frankowski February 15, 2021

Displaced time 10 photographs from restricted collections as a model for remembrance

This article focuses on the site-specific exhibition “Displaced Time: 10 Photographs from Restricted Collections” as a model of remembrance and an act against oblivion. The article analyses “Displaced Time” as part of ongoing memory work that aims to explain and understand the mechanisms of the Soviet period and its influence on contempora ry society. In order to analyze the power relations between photographs and archives, this article also explores the power relations between the photographer and the subject – the photographic gaze – as well as the power relations between the photograph and the reader – the agency of images.

By Annika Toots February 12, 2021