Jade McGlynn - Researching Memory and Identity in Russia and Eastern Europe: Interdisciplinary Methodologies

The nascent field of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to that of memory, from what we know to how we remember it; changes in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory; panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination with the possibilities of memory enhancement; and the development of trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contributed to an intensification of public discourses on our past over the last thirty years. Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts affect what, how and why people and societies remember and forget. This groundbreaking series tackles questions such as: What is memory under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools for its investigation and illumination?

Cover illustration: Steve Allen Travel Photography / Alamy Stock Photo A collection of old Russian Soviet Revolutionary lapel badges. Image ID: DWHY86

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First and foremost, we would like to thank the authors who have contributed to this volume. We were consistently impressed by the quality and coherence of their chapters and findings and it has been a privilege to edit such a fine selection of chapters. As well as our contributing authors, we would like to thank Polly Jones for her support and guidance for this project from the very (pre-pandemic) beginning. The idea for this volume was sparked during the organisation of workshop at University College Oxford, entitled Space, Text, Speech: Memory in the Russian and East European Context, which was planned for April 2020 but cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We would like to express our gratitude to University College, The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities, and CEELBAS for their generous funding of that workshop and support on its cancellation. Finally, our thanks go to Mitch Riding and James Utley as well as to Palgrave Macmillan, and specifically to Ruby Panigrahi, Mala Sanghera-Warren and Lauriane Piette, for their support during the preparation and editing of this manuscript.

It is visible to even the most casual observer that narratives about history are a critical element to understanding politics across Eastern Europe. Covering this region where the deep scares of past violence are misused and instrumentalised in the conduct of everyday politics, the well-crafted volume represents an extremely timely contribution. Throughout the book, readers get acquainted with the numerous ways in which the past can be studied to appreciate why practices of remembering have such profound political and social implications. The multi-disciplinary volume includes extensive discussions of the theoretical starting points and displays the variety of methodological approaches so that we may gain a better understanding of the logics underpinning the perpetual presence of past experiences. The volume considers how the position of researchers determines the object of study itself, evaluates the different type of actors that are involved in shaping representations of the past and it does put at the centre of our attention the fact that narratives of the past circulate across borders.

Flix Krawatzek, Senior Researcher, Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), Germany and Associate Member of Nuffield College, University of Oxford, UK

Oliver Jones and Jade McGlynns volume is a timely and useful collection of innovative chapters dealing with numerous methodological issues that students of current memory politics in Eastern Europe and beyond have to deal with. It critically examines the approaches and methods of disciplines as different as psychology, moral philosophy, literary studies, history, sociology, and political science, in search of a productive dialogue between researchers involved in this increasingly important multidisciplinary field.

Nikolay Koposov, Distinguished Professor of the Practice, School of History and Sociology and School of Literature, Media, and Communication, USA