Remembering and Forgetting
On Their Use and Abuse in Politics
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The concept of memory has become a key category of politics and social science theory. Remembering is not a natural process, but depends on social conditions. Political figures deliberately use remembering and forgetting as coequal acts and capacities of memory. Since antiquity, reference to the past has served to stabilise and legitimise political order, to form collective identities, and to secure political loyalty. The politics of memory are of particular importance after political upheavals. According to period and context, remembering and punishing or forgetting and forgiving have proven useful in escaping the power of the past.
(Osteuropa 6/2008, pp. 27–40)