Notes on the Contributors Acknowledgements Foreword: Remembrance as a Human Right-- J.Winter Introduction-- A.Assmann & L.Shortt PART I: TRANSGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION Replacement Children: The Transgenerational Transmission of Traumatic Loss-- G.Schwab The Emotional Legacy of the Nazi Past in Post-War Germany-- G.Brockhaus PART II: INSTRUMENTS OF CHANGE To Remember or to Forget: Which Way out of a Shared History of Violence? A.Assmann Between Pragmatism, Coercion and Fear: Chosen Amnesia after the Rwandan Genocide-- S.Buckley-Zistel From Domestic to International Instruments for Dealing with a Violent Past: Causes, Concomitants and Consequences for Democratic Transitions-- B.Weiffen PART III: RE-IMAGINING THE PAST FOR THE FUTURE Re-Imagining East Germany in the Berlin Republic: Jana Hensel, GDR Memory and the Transitional Generation-- L.Shortt South African Transition in the Literary Imagination: Nadine Gordimer, J.M. Coetzee, Malika Lueen Ndlovu-- M.Reif-Huelser 'That's Not a Story I Could Tell': Commemorating the Other Side of the Colonial Frontier in Australian Literature of Reconciliation-- A.Schwarz PART IV: RESISTANCE TO CHANGE Deep Memory and Narrative Templates: Conservative Forces in Collective Memory-- J.V.Wertsch The 'Myth' of the Self: The Georgian National Narrative and Quest for 'Georgianness'-- N.Batiashvili Memory across Cultures-- A.H.Gutchess & M.Siegel Index.
Examining the role of memory in the transition from totalitarian to democratic systems, this book makes an important contribution to memory studies. It explores memory as a medium of and impediment to change, looking at memory's biological, cultural, narrative and socio-psychological dimensions. -- While it is well-known that memory is open to constant changes and transformations, this book adopts an innovative approach, emphasizing memory's role as a powerful agent of change. While political systems may change comparatively quickly, the social and cultural processes of adaptation and transformation take considerably longer. This volume explores memory as both a medium of and an impediment to change, offering an inroad into the problems, mechanisms and patterns involved in the complex processes that accompany the transition from authoritarian to democratic structures. Written by authors from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, the essays chart the terrain andsupply well-documented case studiesto extend knowledge on the relationship between social and political memory and the transition process.
Ämnesord
Regime change in literature. (LCSH)
Democratization in literature. (LCSH)
Political violence in literature. (LCSH)
Memory in literature. (LCSH)
Collective memory in literature. (LCSH)
Regime change -- Case studies. (LCSH)
Memory -- Political aspects -- Case studies. (LCSH)
Collective memory -- Political aspects -- Case studies. (LCSH)
Political violence -- Psychological aspects -- Case studies. (LCSH)
Democratization -- Psychological aspects -- Case studies. (LCSH)