Transnationalizing Historical Memories: Memory Entrepreneurs and the Invisible Iron Curtain

• In Event: 156 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Cultural Politics and Media Framing

Abstract

In the age of cosmopolitan values, international organizations, and identity politics, memories of national atrocities become sites of fervent political contestation at the transnational level. The guiding question of this project is, "How, why and when do national historical memories diffuse transnationally?" This paper examines the case of communism remembrance memory entrepreneurs in Central and Eastern Europe as they promote historical memories about communism in the context of European integration. It draws on the debates and resolutions of European Union institutions since 2000 and a participant observation of an international non-governmental memory organization, the Platform of European Memory and Conscience. I argue that memories of communism and interpretations of the communist past that do not equate communism to Nazism and that do not seem to question the uniqueness of the Holocaust are tolerated at the European level, but others are not. More generally, those interpretations of communism that fit the European framework of values such as democracy, human rights, diversity, peace, tolerance, and citizenship are more likely to be assimilated from the national level into the transnational culture of remembrance. This study extends the literature on national identity and collective memory by introducing the transnational level of analysis and demonstrating the circumstances under which some mnemonic practices diffuse transnationally and others do not.

Author

• Iga Kozlowska, Northwestern University