Politics of Social Memory and National Identity: Regional and European Context

This project involves multidisciplinary research into memorizing the past –the choice of events that become objects of public attention, evaluative meanings they reflect, the public interest in selecting precisely these events rather than some others and, finally, ongoing and competing politics of social memory decisive for constructing present-day national identity. In addition to multiple ideological, cultural and political legacies, we would also tackle ways of transmitting knowledge, values and images over time in material and cultural production, focusing not just on the standard – written and temporal – mode of memory transmission but also on spatial, digital, visual and acoustic signifiers of memorizing the cultural past, on how it is stored and activated. Through mutual influences of the various politics of memory and identity we will examine the values on which shared identity is built, and identify the strategies, forms and symbols most appropriate for representing national identity in regional and European contexts. Given that the politics of social memory shapes the symbolic and discursive logic of national identity, and that if successfully constructed it contributes to its affirmation, the main subject of this project is theoretical and historical reinterpretation of political and social ideas, knowledge and images relevant for contemporary collective memory, and their contextual and functional reassessment in light of current and future needs of the community.