This
course examines the diplomatic tensions that have emerged in recent years in
Central and Eastern Europe surrounding the interpretation of the history of the
twentieth century. The theoretical lens for this course derives
primarily-though not entirely-- from constructivist approaches to international
politics, and more specifically from the literature on ontological
security. We then use these theoretical arguments to examine such issues
as the tensions that have emerged between Western European and Central
European governments about the respective significance of the Holocaust and the
Gulag in shaping a common European memory, the conflicts between Central
European governments and Russia regarding interpretations of World War II, and
finally the internal and external struggles surrounding memory in
Ukraine.
REQUIREMENTS:
ATTENDANCE!
Four. daily written
responses to the reading of 300-500 words
Research paper
applying theoretical concepts in the class to a "memory conflict" of
the student's own choosing.
SCHEDULE:
MONDAY, March 21:
Part 1: Introduction and Theoretical Fundamentals:
Constructivism and Identity
Ted Hopf (1998), “The
Promise of Constructivism in International Relations Theory,” International
Security, 23(1) (Summer): 171-200.
Brent J. Steele (2008), Ontological Security in International Relations: Self-Identity and the IR State. New York: London: ch. 3, pp. 49-75.
Part 2: Memory and National Identity
Aleida Assmann(2006), “Memory, Individual and Collective” in Robert E.
Goodin and Charles Tilly, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Contextual
Analysis, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Olga Malinova (2021). "Politics of Memory and Nationalism, Nationalities
Papers. 49:6, 997-1007.
Felix Berenskoetter (2014), “Parameters of a National
Biography,” European Journal of International Relations, 20(1):
262-288.
Tuesday, March 22: PART 1:
The Politics of Memory
Jan Kubik and Michael Bernhard (2014), "A Theory of the Politics of
Memory," in Bernhard and Kubik, eds., Twenty Years after
Communism: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration," Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 3-37.
Berthold Molden (2016), “Resistant pasts versus mnemonic hegemony: On the power relations of collective memory ” Memory Studies, 9:2, 125-142
PART 2: Memory Landscapes in
Europe
Siobhan
Kattago, Memory and Representation in Contemporary Europe (Burlington,
VT: Ashgate, 2012), ch. 2, especially pp. 32-43.
Subotić,
Jelena (2019), Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after
Communism, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Ch. 1, pp.
17-45.
Maria
Mälksoo (2009), “The Memory Politics of Becoming European: The East
European Subalterns and the Collective Memory of Europe,” European
Journal of International Relations, 15(4): 653-680.
Wednesday, March 23: PART 1:
Securitizing Memory: Russian
Memory Politics Before 2022
Ivan Kurilla (2019). “Memory of the
War and Other Memories of Russia, 2019”, Point-Counterpoint, Ponarseurasia (May
8). http://www.ponarseurasia.org/point-counter/article/memory-war-and-other-memories-russia-2019
Maria Malksoo (2015), “’Memory must be defended’: Beyond the politics of mnemonical security,” Security Dialogue, 46:3, 221-237.
PART 2: Memory Wars between Russia and Estonia (and the Czech Republic)
Aliaksei Kazharski and Andrey Markarychev (2022), “From the Bronze
Soldier to the ‘Bloody Marshal’:
Monument Wars and Russia’s Aesthetic Vulnerability in Estonia and the
Czech Republic. 36:4 (November) 1151-1176.
Inge Melchior and Oane Visser(2011), "Voicing Past and Present Uncertainties,"
Thursday, March 24: Part 1: Memory Wars Between Poland and Russia
Yulia Nikitina
(2020), “Past Memories, Future Memories:
Race Against History”. The Journal of Slavic Military Studies 33:4,
514-516.
Vladimir Putin (2020), “ The Real Lessons of the 75th Anniversary of World War II, National Interest,”
(June 18.) https://nationalinterest.org/feature/vladimir-putin-real-lessons-75th-anniversary-world-war-ii-162982
George Soroka (2021), “The Politics of the Past: Polish Soviet and Polish-Russian Efforts at Historical Reconciliation,” Problems of Post-Communism DOI: 10.1080/10758216.2020.1844023
Part II: Ukrainian Memory Politics Before 2022
Oxana Shevel (2016), “The Battle for Historical Memory in
Postrevolutionary Ukraine,” Current History 115:783 (October) 258-263.
Tatiana Zhurzhenko (2021),
"Fighting Empire, Weaponizing Culture: The Conflict
with Russia and the Restrictions on Russian Mass Culture in Post-Maidan
Ukraine," Europe-Asia Studies, 73: 8, 1441-1468
Friday, March 25: The Impact of the War on European Memory
One Podcast,one video to be watched.
The Best: Crumbling Memory.
The Second Best, Memory War to War.
https://www.ponarseurasia.org/from-memory-wars-to-war-ponars-eurasia-online-academy/