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Remembering Independence, Desiring Enemies: Reflections on Nationhood in Contemporary Lithuania
[journal article]
Abstract "The paper addresses the remembrance of events surrounding the restoration of Lithuanian independence, as well as their repercussions on the present, concentrating on the younger generation that does not have first-hand experience of the period and, therefore, has to rely on other people's accounts,... view more
"The paper addresses the remembrance of events surrounding the restoration of Lithuanian independence, as well as their repercussions on the present, concentrating on the younger generation that does not have first-hand experience of the period and, therefore, has to rely on other people's accounts, textbooks, and other sources. If one considers the state and, especially, its social (or communal) dimension as impossible totalities, memory and history acquire significant importance as they both provide 'a magma of significations', out of which particular signifying structures are instituted in order to anchor meaning and exhort a unifying claim through dominant narratives that tend to subjugate the otherwise inevitable variety of discourses. The discourse of the Lithuanian history textbooks is analysed by outlining its emphasis on unity and selfsacrifice in 1988-1991, and by portraying the Lithuanian history as an unending struggle against enemies and their malevolent plots. Also, considering the accounts of young people, two tendencies are visible: first, a bias towards images of unity and self-sacrifice depicting the period concerned, second, the predilection to employ the categories of 'aliens' and 'enemies' is evident, significantly affecting perceptions of the present with widespread images of disintegration and decay in the absence of the Other." (author's abstract)... view less
Keywords
Lithuania; political independence; reminiscence; nation; identity; discourse; narrative; conception of history; collective memory
Classification
General History
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Document language
English
Publication Year
2012
Page/Pages
p. 16-30
Journal
Studies of Transition States and Societies, 4 (2012) 1
ISSN
1736-8758
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications