Mnemonic Emotion Narratives: A Conceptual Framework

• In Event: Beyond Nostalgia and Ruin: Mnemonic Emotion Narratives and the Postindustrial Memoryscape of Post-Socialist Europe

Abstract

This paper develops the concept of mnemonic emotion narrative (MEN) as a tool for analyzing moral emotions in the communicative and cultural memories of post-socialist (de)industrialization. Integrating insights from memory studies and the sociology of emotions, it explores how MENs reflect and shape social norms tied to industrial labor and its decline. By distinguishing between communicative memory -- rooted in everyday storytelling—and cultural memory -- mediated by institutions and heritage sites -- the paper examines how different mnemonic environments frame moral emotions in two national contexts: Poland and Lithuania.

Authors

• Joanna Wawrzyniak, U of Warsaw (Poland)

• Jogile Ulinskaite, Vilnius U (Lithuania)