Introduction

Belavusau, Uladzislau; Gliszczyńska-Grabias, Aleksandra

doi:10.1017/9781316986172.001

Cited by 12 publications

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“…33 Although the phenomenon of memory laws has a morally complex history and a global reach, the most intense research is being driven by the proliferation of memory laws in Central and Eastern Europe-notably, in Russia and Ukraine, Hungary and Poland, which stand out for violations of rule of law standards in their formulation. 34 According to some of the major scholars in this field, recent memory laws (circa 2010 onward) "seek to prioritize historical memory above political contestation. By institutionalizing a version of the past as a legally defended and hence politically untouchable single truth, this narrative is lifted above 'normal politics.'"…”

Section: Memory Laws and Politicized Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

What, at Long Last, Is Historical Theory For? Reflections on Historical Theory in a Post‐truth World

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2023

History and Theory

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The term “post‐truth” is a capacious trope that collects threats to the stability of shared knowledge on many fronts—digitally spread disinformation, ignorance and resistance to science, unabashed lies in the public sphere, mythologizing by resurgent nationalist forces, and so on. History is particularly vulnerable to this array. Post‐truth threats to serious history produced to professional standards for research and reasoning by historians free of coercion, intimidation, or pressures for co‐optation are too blatant to need explanation. Avenues of response to the politicizing of history have been protests by public intellectuals and academics and a growing scholarly literature recording the imposition of memory laws by the police powers of numerous states. Attacks on empirical history, and the academic freedom required to sustain it, provoke clear responses, but the situation of historical theory is more problematic. Historical theory is a superstructure of analysis that presupposes the free production of history that invites and justifies the cultural work of theorizing. Reading Karen S. Feldman's Arts of Connection: Poetry, History, Epochality, an erudite, philosophical contribution to historical theory advancing a severe critique of history's fundamental powers of representation against a widening background of nationalist state‐sponsored policing of history, produced an acute cognitive dissonance in this reviewer. In this essay, I frankly acknowledge this dissonant experience and lay out some of the most egregious causes of it in history distorted and undermined to nationalist ends in Russia, Poland, Hungary, and beyond. I pose the question of whether the intellectual work of theorizing history can continue with any confidence when the ground on which theory stands is being eroded and distorted.

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Section: Memory Laws and Politicized Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

What, at Long Last, Is Historical Theory For? Reflections on Historical Theory in a Post‐truth World

Partner

2023

History and Theory

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“…180 Though introduced under the guise of bringing society together after conflict, these laws can become a means of legitimizing a particular socio-political reality on which the new post-conflict state is reliant. 181 Rwanda is an instructive example. There, the gacaca courts were framed as a distinctly local TJ mechanism that would deliver post-genocide truth and reconciliation, yet even they became another forum for reinforcing 'victors' justice'.…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Law, ‘presentist’ agendas, and the making of ‘official’ memory after collective violence

Hearty

2022

Journal of Law and Society

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This article interrogates how law is used to make 'official' memory in transitional justice (TJ) contexts. It posits that law performs three key roles in the 'making' of memory after conflict and authoritarianism: visibility, definition, and judgement. Using insights from existing academic literature that has addressed TJ processes and mechanisms across geographical sites and time frames, it argues that law is central to memory making by rendering certain harms, victims, and victimizers either 'seen' or 'unseen', by categorizing certain actors and timeframes into binary groupings, and by judging particular actors and actions to be either morally good or morally bad. The decisions that law makes on each of these fronts, it is argued, are ultimately determined by how the prevailing post-conflict state wishes to have the divisive past understood in the present.

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“…In general perception, memory laws are legal acts that enshrine stateapproved interpretations of crucial historical events. 17 Other approaches treat memory laws as legal norms with the direct aim of expressing specific statements on the past, along with the explicit goal of banning the expression of certain statements. 18 another way to categorize memory laws is to divide them into two general, broad categories: "hard" memory laws include the penalization of certain statements about the past, while "soft" memory laws encompass declarative laws and parliamentary resolutions, and so on.…”

Section: Protected and Forbidden Symbols Of Memory In Ceementioning

confidence: 99%

Intersection of Conflicting Values: Symbols of Memory and Acts of Artistic Expression

Gliszczyńska-Grabias¹

2022

East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures

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Symbols of the past influence the present, very often in the way dependent on the will of those who currently “weave the story,” to use the expression coined by Olga Tokarczuk.1 This applies in particular to national symbols, burdened by historical trauma, whose rank and protection may become handy tools for controlling social and public narratives. In this context, it is the law itself, with its special category of memory laws, that very often turns out to be instrumentally used by the state apparatus to strengthen such narratives. In times of social peace, this kind of state-governed manner of how we remember and perceive symbols remains imperceptible. However, in times of turmoil, symbols can serve as legal weapons against rights and freedoms. Then, the protection of the national anthem or emblem, monuments or graphics may be turned into the de facto protection of the state against its critics. Labelling themselves as the guardians of “historical truth,” the authorities tend to secure the orthodox vision of the past. Importantly, this vision very often remains distant from the official findings of historians. It was exactly in such an ideologically and nationalistically burdened social atmosphere in Poland when Jaś Kapela, Polish poet and activist, decided to perform publicly his protest song. He did so by changing the official wording of the Polish national anthem into a pro-refugee appeal and broadcast it on YouTube, which eventually brought him before Polish courts, including the Supreme Court.

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Introduction

Cited by 12 publications

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What, at Long Last, Is Historical Theory For? Reflections on Historical Theory in a Post‐truth World

What, at Long Last, Is Historical Theory For? Reflections on Historical Theory in a Post‐truth World

Law, ‘presentist’ agendas, and the making of ‘official’ memory after collective violence

Intersection of Conflicting Values: Symbols of Memory and Acts of Artistic Expression

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