The Memory of the Century

Institut für Spring 2001 die Wissenschaften vom Menschen Institute for Human Sciences A-1090 Wien Spittelauer Lände 3 Tel. (+431) 313 58-0 Fax (+431) 313 58-30 CONFERENCE The IWM’s first major conference of the year took place March [email protected] www.iwm.at 9th through the 11th at the Palais Ferstel in central Vienna. Scholars and public figures from around the world gathered to discuss the problem of historical memory, a problem that has moved into the center of political, social, and cultural debates in Contents many countries as they reflect upon the recent past. 9 Workshop Citizenship and Identity The Memory of the Century 11 Kolloquium Offene Seele – Harmonische Welt FRENCH PHILOSOPHER Paul Ricoeur opened the conference 12 Conference on Friday evening, March 9th with a public lecture on the When Globalization Fails... relation between memory and history. As in his main work, Temps et Récit, Ricoeur’s arguments in this keynote speech 15 Seminar with Slavenka Drakulic revolved around the presence of the absent in our imagina- The Politics of Truth and Justice tion, which he identified as the main problem of epistemo- logical and chronological reflection and hence of philoso- 25 Notes on Books phy and history in general. According to Ricoeur, the inter- Charles Taylor on Multiple secting lines of “actual presentation” and “representation of Modernities the past” constitute a riddle in the phenomenon of Sorin Antohi on Ioan Petru Culianu memory with respect to the question of truth. The talk’s three parts considered memory as the fundamental matrix, 26 Guest Contributions the external object, and the informed product of history, Michel Serres and Pierre Nora and addressed the paradoxes that result from these differ- on Memory ent functions. As the matrix of history, memory is a condition for 31 Political Commentary representing the past and always requires a narrator. Hence Lord Dahrendorf on Parliamentarism truth and objectivity of history are, for example, related to Paul Ricoeur the credibility of the witness. But the witness is contra- dicted by the epistemology of the document and the archive. Making reference to the notion of mentality in the Annales and Nouvelles Histoire schools of historiography and to Carlo Ginzburg’s conjectural paradigm of the trace, Ricoeur argued that memory as a matrix of history does not become an object of “scientific” history because memory itself is an object of the historian qua human scientist. Thus memory as a product remained out of sight until the ques- tions of the narration and rhetoric of history appeared. Ricoeur’s psychoanalytic conclusion was that we should not separate the work of memory from the work of grief. Pierre Nora, historian and editor of Les lieux de mémoire, began the Saturday session with a paper on the causes and effects of what he called the current world-wide upsurge in memory. It was in France, in Nora’s view, that the ardent, “almost fetishistic memorialism” began that later Conference THE MEMORY OF THE CENTURY spread to La- with other actors such as judges, witnesses, der Smolar, political scientist and director tin America, media, and legislators. In conclusion, of the Warsaw-based Batory Foundation. South Af- Nora warned, “To claim the right to The problem of the legacy of Com- rica, and memory is, at bottom, to call for justice. In munism reveals itself as a problem of the Eastern Eu- the effects it has had, however, it has often whole history of the last 50 years, Michnik rope. become a call to murder.” stated, seeking to historicize the picture of Accord- Following Nora’s lecture, Reinhart Communism in Poland. Communism ing to Nora, Koselleck took up the matter of war me- underwent a firm evolution, and people’s there were morials in the 19th and 20th centuries. The attitudes toward it changed fundamen- three basic theme of his tally in the course of time. It lasted much Pierre Nora, Charles S. Maier reasons for empirically- longer than Nazi-rule, and the vast major- this increa- based analysis ity of Poles were involved in one way or sed awareness of memory, in contrast to was the trans- another in the structures of Communist history, in France. The economic crisis of formation of power and helped to maintain this power. 1974 made very clear that development memorials to Thus there could be no analogy to post- after the Second World War, industrializa- the unknown war de-nazification in Poland. Moreover, tion and urbanization, had swept away soldier. Using the political transition at that time was a the entire rural way of life. This end of the photographs Reinhart Koselleck result of negotiations, and the absence of a LeGoffian “long Middle Ages of France” of memorials clear break made the effort to confront the led in turn to a growing interest in the from several eras and countries, Koselleck Communist legacy all the more difficult. French past. The second reason was a pro- illustrated a substantial change in the way The best way to break with the Com- cess of reinterpretation of the national the soldier is represented, with the strong munist past, Michnik argued, would in- past, a consequence of the post-de Gaulle monarchic traits in the 19th and the begin- deed have been to reveal the whole truth. era. The third was the intellectual collapse ning of the 20th centuries giving way to But what is the truth? Michnik made no of Marxism along with the factual end of the “democratized” face of the common secret of his doubts that it is contained in the revolutionary idea. The concept of his- man. secret police documents. In his view, the torical time based on revolutions and in- The meaning of war memorials opening of secret police archives only leads 2 formed by the notion of rupture, Nora ar- showed an even deeper and more impor- to demagogy or even to a threat to democ- gued, has been replaced by another con- tant shift. The 19th century made a strong racy. Some voices from the audience ar- cept of time based on a renewed notion of effort to give meaning to death on the gued against Michnik, claiming that it is tradition. battlefield in order to assure that soldiers not the opening but the sealing of archives In Nora’s view, two major historical would not die in vain. Such “endowing that damages democracy, for in that case phenomena have facilitated the rise of “the with meaning” (Sinnstiftung) was, how- there would still be a small number of age of commemoration.” The first is the ever, replaced by a “quest for meaning” people with access to secret documents so-called “acceleration of history”: utterly (Sinnsuche) or even a “demand for mean- who could misuse them. uncertain about the future, we do not ing” (Sinnforderung) after the First World Michnik’s old friend and opponent know how to constitute and preserve our War, and was finally substituted by a “de- Smolar altered the debate as he spoke more past. The end of any sort of historical tele- nial of meaning” (Sinnverweigerung) after about the role of “memory” of Commu- ology imposes on us a “duty to remember,” the Second World War. nism in current politics rather than about and leads to a kind of stockpiling of ves- Koselleck showed how memorials the past itself. He discerned three groups tiges from the past. The second phenom- stopped trying to justify death and war. in Polish politics, each of which has its enon is the “democratization” of history. Instead of trying to answer the question, own specific approach to the past. The Every group of people, former minorities “Why?” today’s memorial only tries to first group he called radicals. This group in any sense of the word, today strives to demonstrate the imperative, “Never considered the Communist regime to be a rehabilitate its past as a part and an affir- again!” The death of the lone soldier is no mere occupation. Its adherents wanted a mation of its identity. Hence, the previous longer represented, and the illustrative clear break with the legacy of Commu- distinction between history as a sphere of emphasis is placed upon those who sur- nism and were dissatisfied with the way the collective, and memory as a sphere of vived. In the case of Holocaust memorials the ancien regime had been dismissed. the individual with respect to the elabora- the figural motif has disappeared alto- The second group, Smolar continued, was tion of the past has ceased to exist. gether. the moderates. Many of them, Michnik Nora mentioned two main effects of After lunch the main topic remained included, fought against Communism the recent upsurge of memory. One is a present, but the character of the speeches before 1989 and used the language of to- dramatic increase in the uses of the past for changed significantly. Following the aca- talitarian theory in those days. After the political, commercial, and touristic pur- demic lectures of Ricoeur, Nora, and fall of Communism, however, they poses. The second is a change in the role of Koselleck, the audience witnessed a politi- switched to a more pragmatic language in the historian. Although historians once cal debate between two Polish speakers: order to facilitate communication with had a monopoly on the interpretation of Adam Michnik, historian and editor-in- former Communists and provide a chance the past, they must now share this task chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, and Aleksan- for reconciliation. IWM NEWSLETTER 72 Spring 2001 Conference THE MEMORY OF THE CENTURY In an allusion to Emerson, Smolar stated that theme of the public podium discussion Saturday there is a realm of memory and a realm of hope.

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