The Burden of the Past
History, Memory, and Identity in Contemporary Ukraine
Anna Wylegała editor Małgorzata Głowacka-Grajper editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Indiana University Press
Published:11th Feb '20
Should be back in stock very soon
In a century marked by totalitarian regimes, genocide, mass migrations, and shifting borders, the concept of memory in Eastern Europe is often synonymous with notions of trauma. In Ukraine, memory mechanisms were disrupted by political systems seeking to repress and control the past in order to form new national identities supportive of their own agendas. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, memory in Ukraine was released, creating alternate visions of the past, new national heroes, and new victims. This release of memories led to new conflicts and "memory wars."
How does the past exist in contemporary Ukraine? The works collected in The Burden of the Past focus on commemorative practices, the politics of history, and the way memory influences Ukrainian politics, identity, and culture. The works explore contemporary memory culture in Ukraine and the ways in which it is being researched and understood. Drawing on work from historians, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and political scientists, the collection represents a truly interdisciplinary approach. Taken together, the groundbreaking scholarship collected in The Burden of the Past provides insight into how memories can be warped and abused, and how this abuse can have lasting effects on a country seeking to create a hopeful future.
This book is a welcome addition to a growing body of scholarly literature on Ukrainian identity and memory politics. . . . The two editors can be commended for having produced an excellent book, an important addition to ongoing discussions of Ukrainian memory politics in Ukraine.
-- Taras Kuzio * Europe - Asia Studies *This volume, edited by Anna Wylegała and Małgorzata Głowacka-Grajper, presents a remarkably consistent scholarly concept and a clear civic, or even political, agenda. . . . Both scholars of Ukraine and memory studies specialists will enjoy this solid and thought-provoking volume, which it is to be hoped will succeed in influencing ongoing conversations in Ukraine on such important topics for the future of the country.
-- Alessandro Achilli, Monash University * Modern Language Review *Using an interdisciplinary approach, Anna Wylegała and Małgorzata Głowacka-Grajper have succeeded in assembling a well-selected array of fieldwork and comparative research that explores hidden and forbidden memory of Ukraine's recent past. They have also effectively questioned how political as well as sociocultural and religious markers of today's identities polarize Ukrainian society given the lack of a common frame of reference and unhealed wounds. . . . It is a milestone collection of memories and testimonies of those who still remember and those who have forgotten; of those who continue to look critically at the present without forgetting their past.
-- Francesco Trupia * Harvard Ukranian StudiISBN: 9780253046703
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 776g
320 pages