scholarly journals The Politics of Calendars: State Appropriations of the Contested Iranian Past

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 861
Author(s):  
Ehsan Kashfi
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
State Appropriations ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Islamic Republic ◽  
Persian Empire ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Before And After

This paper seeks to investigate how commemorative practices, rituals, and holidays are invented, deployed, and recast for political and ideological purposes, to reinforce and sustain a particular narrative of national identity. It argues that the choice of particular moments of a country’s past to be commemorated in calendars as national holidays and the way in which the collective past is preserved and remembered both reflect and articulate a country’s vision of its present essence, of who its people are. Recognizing the link between the collective memory and national identity, the Iranian states before and after the 1979 revolution made a special effort to articulate their narrative of the past by commemorating a particular set of holidays and rituals. Viewing the calendar as a political artifact, this paper compares changes in the Iranian national calendars in the Pahlavi era (1925–1979) and the Islamic Republic (1979–2018). It examines the inclusion of new religious holidays and the removal of national days associated with the monarchy as well as the assignment of new meanings and celebratory practices to the old ones as the signifiers of a political maneuver to articulate a new shared public memory and narrative of identity since the 1979 revolution. It then examines two nationwide celebrations before and after the 1979 revolution, representing two state-sponsored, competing narratives of Iranian identity: firstly, the 2500-year celebration of the Persian Empire in 1953, and, secondly, the Ashura commemoration, a religious gathering dedicated to the remembrance of Shia Imams. These commemorations provided the state a unique political opportunity to present its own appraisal of the past and, in turn, national identity.

scholarly journals Between truth and memory: images in Lithuanian historical documentaries in post-communist transformation period

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-101
Author(s):  
Rūta Šermukšnytė
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
National Narrative ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Images ◽  
Historical Films ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Made In ◽  
Transformation Period

The goal of this paper is to reveal how and why the circulation of the same historical images takes place; whose values and, simultaneously, memory are conveyed through these images; what is the relationship between the audiovisual representation of the past and collective memory? The article states that manifestations of the visual stereotypes of Lithuania history in post-communist transformation period (1988–2004) are mainly based on certain cinematic tendencies. Historical films that are considered to be an adaptation of the national narrative cinematography have been predominant since 1988. This kind of narration is characterized by validation of history as a national value, formation of national identity and its stabilization rather than diversification and correction of the collective memory or the development of critical thinking. The current documentary material that is based on the understanding of history as a myth of the nation’s history is not aimed at creating a new visual and verbal narration about the realities of the past, but rather at recognizing what has been said and made in the previous works.

Cosmopolitanism: Reflections at the Commemoration of Ulrich Beck, 30 October 2015

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 131-140
Author(s):  
Homi K. Bhabha
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
Knife Edge ◽  
The Past

This is a tribute to Ulrich Beck and a rumination on his legacy in work on cosmopolitanism, translation, anxiety, and memory. Historical transitions and symbolic transmissions open up urgent questions about the connection between the structure of collective memory and the system of cosmopolitical thought. Public memory is embedded in an affective matrix of anxiety which is capable of creating the conciliatory conditions of political virtue and of fueling the terror of political passion. The vicious and sudden turn of cosmopolitan memory from reconciliation to revenge is less surprising if anxiety is seen as the translational moment that mediates relations between remembering and forgetting. Anxiety forces the discourse of cosmopolitan memory to confront its own alterity, negotiating a knife-edge balance between sympathy and antipathy. The ethics of cosmopolitanism is an anxious ethics of the past that refuses to die, confronting a future that will not wait to be born.

scholarly journals Las memorias nacionales: conflictos y límites / National Memories: Conflicts and Limitations

2017 ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Francisco Erice Sebares
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Identidad Nacional ◽  
The Past ◽  
National Memory

This article examines the relevance of the concept of national memory and its limits, defending the convenience of using an idea of collective memory which includes nations, these understood as specific communities of memory. It also analyses some key mechanisms in the diffusion by the States of a narrative on the past that is linked to the construction of national identity and legitimation of politics in the present. This diffusion is regarded as in a usually conflictive interaction with memories of groups or smaller collectives, as well as with other national communities.Key WordsCollective memory, communities of memory, national memory, teaching of history, commemorations, national identityResumenEste artículo se interroga sobre la pertinencia del concepto de memoria nacional y los límites de su aplicación, y defiende la utilidad de una noción de memoria colectiva extensible a las naciones entendidas como especificas comunidades de memoria. También analiza a algunos mecanismos claves en la difusión, desde los Estados, de un relato sobre el pasado ligado a la construcción de la identidad nacional y la legitimación de las políticas del presente. La difusión de la memoria nacional se entiende en interacción, generalmente conflictiva, con las memorias de grupos y entidades menores, o con las de otras comunidades nacionales.Palabras claveMemoria colectiva, comunidades de memoria, memoria nacional, enseñanza de la historia, conmemoraciones, identidad nacional. 

scholarly journals Kościół katolicki wobec pamięci zbiorowej Polaków. Ciągłość i zmiana

2018 ◽  
pp. 135-146
Author(s):  
Paweł Stachowiak
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Polish Society ◽  
The Church

The paper attempts to present the leading objectives and motives of the ‘Church’s policy of memory’ before and after 1989. The author states that, like many other institutions of public life, the Catholic Church implements its own policy to shape the collective memory of Poles, both in terms of legitimization and content. At the time of the Polish People’s Republic, the first and foremost objective of the ‘Church’s memory policy’ was to counteract the activities of the communist authorities, which were carrying out a project to restrict the Church’s influence to the narrowly understood field of the priesthood and which ultimately aimed at the atheization of Polish society. The emphasis on the historical symbiosis of Polishness and Catholicism served the purpose of defending the traditional form of Polish religiousness and providing the Church with social support in the struggle to maintain the public dimension of its influence. Despite the change in language, the present objective of the Church’s historical narration appears similar: to oppose these aspects of secularization trends that drive the Church away from public space and so intensifying the phenomenon of the privatization of faith. Whether in the past or present, the Church’s vision of the past is to secure its own stability as an institution and retain the role of a significant factor contributing to the national and state conscience of Poles.

The Mastered Past? Collective Memory Trends in Germany since Unification

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Langenbacher
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Work ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Second Period

The Federal Republic of Germany—both before and after 1989—has been influenced deeply by collective memories of the Nazi period and the Holocaust, a seemingly "unmasterable past." In a first phase after unification, memory trends, which had their origin in the mid 1980s, continued, but a second period, beginning around the 1999 move of the capital back to Berlin, however, witnessed the erosion of this older trend and the delayed rise of new memory dynamics. Substantively, there have been three vectors of memory concerning Nazi crimes, German suffering, and the period of division, especially regarding the German Democratic Republic. In this article, I outline the major collective memory dynamics and debates, first from a qualitative and then from a more quantitative perspective where I analyze the holdings of the German National Library. I conclude that an intense period of memory work characterized the postunification years, but the peak of concern was reached several years ago and the German future will be much less beholden to the past. Given inevitable normalizing trends and the unintended consequences of the hegemony of Holocaust memory, Germany's difficult historical legacy increasingly appears to be disappearing or even mastered.

When ‘we’ are the alien forces: Misremembering the Conquest of America through the ‘Triumph over alien forces’ schematic narrative template

2019 ◽  
pp. 1354067X1989493
Author(s):  
Cesar Lopez
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
University Students ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Latin American ◽  
General Scheme ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
The Past ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Natural Territory

National narratives about the past play a central role in the construction of collective memory and national identity. Drawing on Wertsch’s notion of a schematic narrative template, the purpose of this article is to explore how Spanish university students’ narratives of the Conquest of America and the Latin American independence processes are informed by the ‘triumph over alien forces’ general scheme. The author proposes that this particular scheme mediates the misremembering of these foundational events while supporting key features of national narratives, such as the naturalized nature of the nation and national identity and the nation’s bond with a natural territory. Using a qualitative analysis, students’ narratives were confronted with the ‘triumph over alien forces’ plot. The results indicate that most students’ narratives conformed to the ‘triumph over alien forces’ scheme, misleading their understanding of the past. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the powerful presence of this scheme for developing collective memory and its impact in hindering historical understanding.

Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Collective Memories ◽  
The Past ◽  
Prevailing View ◽  
The Way

At a time when the Union between Scotland and England is once again under the spotlight, Remembering the Past in Nineteenth-Century Scotland examines the way in which Scotland’s national heroes were once remembered as champions of both Scottish and British patriotism. Whereas 19th-century Scotland is popularly depicted as a mire of sentimental Jacobitism and kow-towing unionism, this book shows how Scotland’s national heroes were once the embodiment of a consistent, expressive and robust view of Scottish nationality. Whether celebrating the legacy of William Wallace and Robert Bruce, the reformer John Knox, the Covenanters, 19th-century Scots rooted their national heroes in a Presbyterian and unionist view of Scotland’s past. Examined through the prism of commemoration, this book uncovers collective memories of Scotland’s past entirely opposed to 21st-century assumptions of medieval proto-nationalism and Calvinist misery. Detailed studies of 19th-century commemoration of Scotland’s national heroes Uncovers an all but forgotten interpretation of these ‘great Scots’ Shines a new light on the mindset of nineteenth-century Scottish national identity as being comfortably Scottish and British Overturns the prevailing view of Victorian Scottishness as parochial, sentimental tartanry

The Palestinian Refugee Camps In Jordan: Between National Identity and Socio-economic Integration

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ala Al-Hamarneh
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Spatial Integration ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Distinct Character ◽  
Palestinian Refugee

At least 50 per cent of the population of Jordan is of Palestinian origin. Some 20 per cent of the registered refugees live in ten internationally organized camps, and another 20 per cent in four locally organized camps and numerous informal camps. The camps organized by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) play a major role in keeping Palestinian identity alive. That identity reflects the refugees' rich cultural traditions, political activities, as well as their collective memory, and the distinct character of each camp. Over the past two decades integration of the refugees within Jordanian society has increased. This paper analyses the transformation of the identity of the camp dwellers, as well as their spatial integration in Jordan, and other historical and contemporary factors contributing to this transformation.

Collective Memory: Between Values and Historical Knowledge

2020 ◽  
pp. 124-142
Author(s):  
VICTOR BURLACHUK
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future

At the end of the twentieth century, questions of a secondary nature suddenly became topical: what do we remember and who owns the memory? Memory as one of the mental characteristics of an individual’s activity is complemented by the concept of collective memory, which requires a different method of analysis than the activity of a separate individual. In the 1970s, a situation arose that gave rise to the so-called "historical politics" or "memory politics." If philosophical studies of memory problems of the 30’s and 40’s of the twentieth century were focused mainly on the peculiarities of perception of the past in the individual and collective consciousness and did not go beyond scientific discussions, then half a century later the situation has changed dramatically. The problem of memory has found its political sound: historians and sociologists, politicians and representatives of the media have entered the discourse on memory. Modern society, including all social, ethnic and family groups, has undergone a profound change in the traditional attitude towards the past, which has been associated with changes in the structure of government. In connection with the discrediting of the Soviet Union, the rapid decline of the Communist Party and its ideology, there was a collapse of Marxism, which provided for a certain model of time and history. The end of the revolutionary idea, a powerful vector that indicated the direction of historical time into the future, inevitably led to a rapid change in perception of the past. Three models of the future, which, according to Pierre Nora, defined the face of the past (the future as a restoration of the past, the future as progress and the future as a revolution) that existed until recently, have now lost their relevance. Today, absolute uncertainty hangs over the future. The inability to predict the future poses certain challenges to the present. The end of any teleology of history imposes on the present a debt of memory. Features of the life of memory, the specifics of its state and functioning directly affect the state of identity, both personal and collective. Distortion of memory, its incorrect work, and its ideological manipulation can give rise to an identity crisis. The memorial phenomenon is a certain political resource in a situation of severe socio-political breaks and changes. In the conditions of the economic crisis and in the absence of a real and clear program for future development, the state often seeks to turn memory into the main element of national consolidation.

Enlightening Symbols

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Mazur
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Number System ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Mathematical Notation ◽  
Rhetorical Style ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mathematical Symbols ◽  
Before And After ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Different Cultures

While all of us regularly use basic mathematical symbols such as those for plus, minus, and equals, few of us know that many of these symbols weren't available before the sixteenth century. What did mathematicians rely on for their work before then? And how did mathematical notations evolve into what we know today? This book explains the fascinating history behind the development of our mathematical notation system. It shows how symbols were used initially, how one symbol replaced another over time, and how written math was conveyed before and after symbols became widely adopted. Traversing mathematical history and the foundations of numerals in different cultures, the book looks at how historians have disagreed over the origins of the number system for the past two centuries. It follows the transfigurations of algebra from a rhetorical style to a symbolic one, demonstrating that most algebra before the sixteenth century was written in prose or in verse employing the written names of numerals. It also investigates the subconscious and psychological effects that mathematical symbols have had on mathematical thought, moods, meaning, communication, and comprehension. It considers how these symbols influence us (through similarity, association, identity, resemblance, and repeated imagery), how they lead to new ideas by subconscious associations, how they make connections between experience and the unknown, and how they contribute to the communication of basic mathematics. From words to abbreviations to symbols, this book shows how math evolved to the familiar forms we use today.

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