Germany is an example of a country which has been implementing transitional justice for decades and is still active in this field. What is more, contemporary Germans have recently come to terms with their not-so-distant past and their negligence in this area by showing the falsehood, backwardness, and injustice as negative foundations of the young Federal Republic. This article evokes the person of Fritz Bauer, the prosecutor in the state of Hessen. His struggle for human dignity and the memory of his achievements after his death exemplify an accomplished case of transitional justice and the memory of it. During his lifetime he contributed to bringing to trial numerous Nazi criminals, even at the cost of habitual threats and disregard. Forgotten for a few decades, Bauer and his legacy have been recently rediscovered and studied. Eventually, Bauer became a movie character and was finally brought back to the collective memory of Germans. The belated, but a well-deserved wave of popularity of Fritz Bauer in the German culture memory proves that reflections on the transitional justice are still topical and important.

The paper presents findings of the comparative study on relationships between remembrance story-telling and the transitional reconstruction of political identities. It identifies in which areas and fields of impact governments tend to use interpretations of the past to promote new leadership visions of society. Moreover, it verifies theoretical hypotheses related to the politicised remembrance and its role as a political asset during transformations, as well as it considers the theoretical framework of democracy-building (and a common prediction of its universal character). As a result, the study offers a detailed picture of the way remembrance narratives are transformed into explanations, justifications or legitimisation of new, post-authoritarian identities based on qualitative-to-quantitative analysis of the intensity of story-telling and its links with transitional identity politics. In the conclusion, the Authors present their consideration of research findings, and they discuss it with reference to the nature of transitional government’s remembrance policy as a sphere of social influence. 

The aim of this paper is to analyse the image of Yugoslavia in the collective memories of the post–Yugoslav societies. The author of this text, basing on an assumption that every society has a great number of collective memories, highlights the fact that among the Balkan nations one can find both supporters and opponents not only of the SFRY but also of the idea of the cooperation among the Southern Slavs. Both positive and negative opinions of Yugoslavia in the collective memories are based not on the sober assessment of the historical facts but on collective emotions and historical and political myths. The anti–Yugoslav discourse in primarily based on the national mythology. The discourse of the supporters of the Yugoslav tradition one the other hand, goes back in a large extend to the transnational myths. By discussing these two types of ideas about Yugoslavia, the author of this text tries to show their impact on the current political decisions.

The chall enges of political transformation in Argentina – the unfinished process of settlement of a dirty war

A political transformation that has started in Argentina in 1983 put an end on the reign of military junta, but at the same time it was related with a number of challenges for both first democratic governments and the argentine society as a whole. One of the most problematic issues resulting from the confrontation with the crimes from 1976 – 1983 was so called transitional justice and the problem of identity and collective memory of societies coming out of the period of trauma, which are characterized by a high polarization due to different, even contradictory at times interpretations and ideas about the past. The article attempts to analyze the difficult process of settlement of the dirty war period, including the characteristics of the preceding events, the policy of the first democratic governments and the original strategies developed by the argentine movement for human rights, which on the one hand aimed to combat with the impunity of the perpetrators, and on the other hand to counteract the social amnesia and to keep the memory about the tragic past events alive.

Birthday Anniversaries of the Veterans of Communist Party of China in the Internal Politics of the People’s Republic of China

This article analyses functions of birthday commemoration of veterans of Communist Party of China. Content analyses of official ceremonial speeches and case study was applied to research ceremonies of 120th anniversary of Mao Zedong birthday and 100th anniversary of Xi Zhongxun, Hu Yaobang and Liu Huaqing birthdays. The study is based on Maurice Halbwachs’s concept of collective memory. The results shows legitimizing function of those events – both of party rule over China and Xi Jinping leadership in the party.

The article deals with the subject of relations between theories of violence and the category of collective memory in relation to women’s war stories. The text introduces the issue of war and conflict, understanding the theory of violence, the category of collective memory and female war narratives, as well as the ways of their political interpretation. The interpretation is crucial because of method used in the research, meaning hermeneutics, but also because of the, presented here, perspective of polyphony.

Autor przedstawia genezę i analizuje symbolikę Memoriału Ofiar Komunizmu w Tallinie. Skupia się na założeniach koncepcyjnych przyjętych przez jego autorów, ale też bierze pod uwagę dokonywane później interpretacje przesłania monumentu. Przywołuje wydarzenia, do których odnosi się to miejsce pamięci. Opisuje okres sowieckiej okupacji Estonii i przedstawia bilans dokonywanych w tamtym czasie represji - masowych aresztowań, potajemnych egzekucji, deportacji ludności i brutalnej kolektywizacji rolnictwa. Tak zarysowany kontekst historyczny pozwala lepiej zrozumieć znaczenie opisywanego pomnika i jego miejsce na mapie pamięci współczesnej Estonii. Autor zwraca jednocześnie uwagę, że talliński pomnik stanowi istotny element nie tylko estońskiej, ale też - szerzej - europejskiej pamięci o ofiarach stalinizmu i komunizmu.

This paper aims to share a story of Kenya narrated by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s A Grain of Wheat and analyse its narrative in accordance with Ernest Renan’s article entitled “What is a Nation?” to reveal a part of its journey from their dependence on the British colonial rule to their independence. The whole novel is anchored in the collective memories of some of the Kenyans, describing what they have undergone so far under the British colonial rule and how they have gained their independence with the help of the Mau Mau freedom fighters who mostly sacrifice their own life for their nation’s peace and liberation. This collective memory helps them get together to remember their past and build their present for their future and at this point Thiong’o’s novel seems to echo Renan’s arguments focusing on the basics of the nation. As Renan states in the article, embracing the past memories, accepting all the stories of sacrifice and devotion as well as their own suffering, holding a common and strong will for the present and building the future by punishing the traitors as an example for the others who might think of betraying their togetherness and unity are all the requirements to be fulfilled to create a new nation and Thiong’o’ appears to apply each of them to be sure that they eventually have their own independent nation.

The semiological approach to the studies of the political myth by the example of the Smolensk myth

This article is an attempt to present the Smolensk myth (which is a very important subject in Polish myth studies) from the perspective of the semiological approach. The analysis of the two most important theories in that field: one by Roland Barthes and another one by Tadeusz Biernat, will allow to examine the mythologization of the social and political reality after the Smolensk catastrophe. That examination will be conducted by analysing the ways of creating symbolic signs which may express the mythical political meaning. That analysis will also enable the depiction of the semiological meaning of political myths in the events or statements from the times after the catastrophe. In conclusion, the aim of this article will be a depiction of an historical event, which had an enormous impact on today’s Polish political reality, from the perspective of creation of the mythical constructs in the collective memory.

Memory of world war II in the novels of Kate Atkinson

The article analyzes Kate Atkinson’s novels «Life after Life», «Ruins of God» and «Transcription» in terms of memory studies. The current objectives of the study were: 1) to outline private memories in the textual structure (these are the main correlates of individual and collective memory); 2) revealing the relationship between the injuries suffered by the heroes and the «wounds of time» inflicted by World War II; 3) understanding the mechanism of «crystallization» of collective memory in a particular cell («place of remembrance» in novels); 4) delineation of the boundaries of the cultural archive, which is reproduced by the author. The study found that the main message of the novels is focused on the theme of World War II, its understanding and reflection in the collective memory of the British. Through the images of the main characters, the author recreates the memories of wartime. It is noticed that in all novels the chaotic, instead of chronological principle of reproduction of the past is applied: the plot acquires cyclic character. This image principle mimics the work of the human brain, which sporadically emits layers of memory. This kaleidoscope of memories follows the author’s logic: the scattered fragments of memory form a coherent history, correlated with the national archive. Teddy Todd is a survivor who survived to preserve the memory of his fallen comrades («places of remembrance») and to testify about war crimes, as well as to nurture a new generation of Britons. At the same time, Ursula Todd and Juliet Armstrong present a feminine but polar experience of war. At first glance, there are no significant differences between the heroines: both work for secret military departments, contributing to the approach of victory, both took the place of men who went to the front. At the same time, Juliet Armstrong is a double agent recruited for espionage in favor of the Soviet Union, who, through her own betrayal, separates herself from the collective memory. Miss Armstrong’s memoirs do not correlate with the National Archives, but are the antithesis of the British collective consciousness, constituting an unexplored «white spot» (the phenomenon of betrayal is indeed something of a native «stain»). The post-war duty of Teddy and Ursula Todd, the true heirs of national values, is to heal the «place of remembrance» and to preserve the memory of the fallen. Todd’s memories should be embodied in «places of remembrance» (monuments, museums, military burials, works of art, etc.). The conditional archive of the novel, the «place of remembrance» recreated in it, correlate with the collective memory of the peoples of Britain, thus encouraging the understanding of the traumatic experience of World War II.

The presented study explores the ways in which two events from the history of Poland – the baptism of Mieszko I and the so-called ‘pagan reaction’ – are shown in history textbooks and curricula. Both of these events are treated here as remembrance sites, creating the historical canon, which constitutes one of the pillars of Poles’ memory of the past. The method of public discourse analysis was applied. The analysis of textbooks and curricula showed that while the christening of Poland is presented as an exceptional remembrance site in its history (one of the major events constituting the historical canon), the so-called pagan reaction is a hardly noticeable event. The attitude to the Slavic past, which is characteristic for the analyzed texts, can be placed within the discourse of depreciation, to which the argumentation, linguistic means, and the symbolism have been subordinated.

The Role of (Post)memory and Film in the South Korean National Narrative and its Impact on Relations with Japan

There seems to be a barrier in relations between Japan and South Korea that, despite shared interests and values, is an obstacle to building a lasting reconciliation. Political solutions that are supposed to be permanent and unchangeable (such as the agreement on comfort women) are being undermined. The idea of unresolved historical disputes and the lack of sufficient apologies has been ingrained in South Korea, which influences the perception of Japan as a dishonest partner. Subsequently, the brutality of authoritarian rule and the restriction of civil rights became associated with the legacy of the colonial period. Although political elites on both sides agree on the need to build future- oriented relationships, these efforts encounter internal resistance. Analysis of the role played by the collective memory of the colonial period allows us to notice antagonisms that lead to the reification of reality in which lasting reconciliation without solving historical disputes is impossible. Using the film, a post-memory with a strongly emotional tone is constructed, reinforcing anti-Japanese resentments. The analysis of the development of film narratives about the colonial period serves to capture changes in the national discourse and leads to conclusions regarding the impact not only on relations with Japan, but also on the connection between the anti-colonial discourse and the criticism of authoritarian power. The rhetorical vision presented in the films has been so deeply rooted in the national narrative that changing it seems extremely difficult - which is why it constantly threatens the building of lasting reconciliation with Japan.