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MAPPING LIFE STORIES of EXILED LATVIANS 1. Introduction

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MAPPING LIFE STORIES of EXILED LATVIANS 1. Introduction TRAMES, 2019, 23(73/68), 2, 145–157 MAPPING LIFE STORIES OF EXILED LATVIANS Ieva Garda-Rozenberga Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia Abstract. By using the framework of digital humanities and narrative research, I will discuss why and how to map life stories of exiled Latvians, what problems can occur during the mapping oral history, and what are the first/main results and visualizations of the ongoing research. Thereby, the basis of the article is the fundamental research in humanities whose approach regarding the use of IT will be twofold: (1) applicatory – employing IT tools and digital humanities methods for data procession, visualization and analysis; (2) reflexive – bringing under scrutiny the opportunities of digital scholarship in oral history. This will allow sharing the new knowledge and ways of research about oral history and migration issues in Latvia. Keywords: oral history, migration, narrative cartography, mapping DOI: https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2019.2.02 1. Introduction Since 2005 when Google released the Google Maps, mapping has become a common practice of our daily life – we add missing places, edit information (such as phone numbers and addresses of places), add pictures of places, write reviews and validate information added by other people. Therefore, maps seem to be the “conceptual glue linking the tangible world of buildings, cities and landscapes with the intangible world of social networks” (Hall and Abrams 2006:12). Researchers working in the digital humanities have also become interested in the possibilities afforded by interactive mapping technologies. On his blog in 2011, digital historian John Levin began collecting links to academic digital humanities GIS (Geographic Information Systems) projects in order to “see how space and place are being analyzed” in the digital humanities domain, “and what technologies are being used to do so” (Stadler et al. 2016:19). By September 2018, Levin had collected links to more than 218 projects (http://anterotesis.com/ wordpress/mapping-resources/dh-gis-projects/). Currently, the interest in maps 146 Ieva Garda-Rozenberga and their use in different contexts has become so persistent that as William Buckingham and Samuel Dennis argue “a new world of spatial information” (Buckingham and Dennis 2009:61), promising increased dialogue among carto- graphy, geography, the humanities, and citizens, has been created. Influenced by the growing interest in digital humanities, oral history researchers have begun a wide variety of oral history mapping projects (Caquard 2011, High 2016) by bringing to the forefront the interaction between place, memory, identity and sense of belonging (see, for example, The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project 2014; Mapping Memories: Experiences of Refugee Youth 2007). One such project, with the goal of studying the migration of exiled Latvians, is being conducted at the University of Latvia’s Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art. The project “Empowering knowledge society: interdisciplinary perspectives on public involvement in the production of digital cultural heritage” aims to carry out research on interaction dynamics of Digital Humanities (DH) and the develop- ment of knowledge society by developing a virtual research and involvement laboratory with integrated DH research and participatory tools. One of the research work packages intends mapping culture multimodally. The objective of this workgroup is to create and test the functionality of an IT tool for analyzing and visualizing geospatial data. The tool will be used for analysis of different types of sources of humanities, and thus, the group has representatives from several branches in humanities (folkloristics, oral history and literary studies). In the field of oral history, the mapping is closely linked with the study of examining the importance of a sense of belonging that roots a person in particular space/environ- ment, and how changes in or the loss of a geographic space is experienced. In order to explore these changes, this article will focus on the life stories of those Latvians, who fearing the return of the Soviet Armed forces and a new wave of terror, fled from Latvia during World War II, especially in 1944. 2. Mapping qualitative data The so-called spatial turn in the humanities was in large part closely linked with the rise of the geographic information systems (GIS). It took, however, several decades until the system was adapted to the mapping of qualitative data (interviews, life stories, literary texts, images and sound), thus earning the name qualitative geographic information system (QGIS). Today, QGIS is employed not only for the integration of qualitative data; it also provides qualitative data analysis methods, such as grounded analysis or discourse analysis (Elwood and Cope 2009, Knigge and Cope 2006). This has allowed researchers to generate knowledge about society and historical, cultural and social processes taking place within society. As a result, in place of performing quantitative spatial analyses, QGIS is more likely to be used to interpret and understand people’s lived experience (Kwan and Ding 2008). Mapping life stories of exiled Latvians 147 In step with QGIS, cartography also developed by addressing its relationship not only with the related topics of geography and the use of maps, but also by reviewing key words in the field, especially the notion of ‘place’. The under- standing of place as a “geographical space that is defined by meanings, sentiments and stories rather than by a set of coordinates” (Opp and Walsh 2010:5) has recast the role of memory (Hague 2005, Tasker 1999). Highlighting the role of memory in creating the meaning of a place, which not only enacts on but is itself embedded in memory, inscribed and shaped by landscapes, topographies and environment, Gastón Gordillo concludes that “every memory is, in a funda- mental way, the memory of a place” (Gordillo 2004:4). This memory is then expressed, for example, via memorial plaques and instruments of cultural memory and, particularly, through stories. In agreement with geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, who argues that “narrative produces place, and place in turn fosters and produces narrative” (Tuan 1991), cartographers quite shortly almost unanimously acknowledged that the meaning of a place consists of its geographical coordinates, as well as its historical development and the people and stories associated with it (Gordillo 2004, Hague 2005, Linhard 2019, Opp and Walsh 2010, Pearce 2008). Since the end of the 20th century, the map and mapping has also become an analytical tool in history studies, where maps are supplemented especially by personal narratives such as oral histories, life stories, and biographies (Knopf 2014, Knowles et al. 2015, Kwan and Ding 2008, Linhard 2019, Madden and Ross 2009). For example, “for indigenous communities, where oral traditions have mythical, historical, and spatial functions, map becomes the tangible link between the oral story and the ancestral occupation of the land” (Caquard and Dimitrovas 2017:17). This idea can be applied to other geographical processes, such as migration that takes people away along certain paths, places, borders. However, researchers go beyond geographical information. They listen to personal narratives to find out “the factors that explain why they crossed at specific points, how they reached these points, who was or was not with them, how they traveled, and how the actual outcome of their border crossing differed from the expected outcome” (Linhard 2019:124). 3. Migration and narration Tabea Linhard and Timothy H. Parsons have stated that “migration does not just take place, it takes place between spaces, and it is in the precarious and often difficult position of the ‘in-between’ where most migration stories emerge” (Linhard and Parsons 2019:4). The stories are full of powerful, living memories about life in the native land, about the narrators’ fates and migration to other countries, about the difficulties in settling into a new life, about the ups and downs. The position of the ‘in-between’ also raises the question of what it is that connects a person to a certain place/environment and how changes in – or even the 148 Ieva Garda-Rozenberga loss of – that geographic space are experienced. This can also be seen in the case of exile Latvians. In the middle of the 20th century the most common reason for leaving for another country was the Second World War and the subsequent occupation of Latvia. As a result of the Soviet occupation, approximately 200,000–250,000 refugees fled from Latvia at the end of the Second World War – it was around 10 per cent of the population (Strods 2006, Veigners 2009). Approximately 120,000 refugees ended up in Germany’s Western occupation zones (Kangeris 2000), and more than 4,000 refugees fled in boats to Sweden (Jansone and Robežniece 2008, Lasmane 1993). As a result, the largest diasporas of Latvians were established in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Great Britain and Australia. Narrated memories play a special role in the creation of a diaspora. Many crucial characteristics of a diaspora – such as the history of leaving the homeland, memories of home and a strong group consciousness – are largely created through narration (Bela et al. 2016). As well as a new experience which also has to be included in some form of cultural expression, most often – narratives. When listening to life stories of Latvians living abroad, we can see that memories of the first years of life in exile – the so-called transition period, when most people still hoped to return to Latvia – are composed of individual events, usually without creating a broader and more detailed narrative. However, as Barbara Kirshenblatt- Gimblett (1983) has pointed out – every exile has a story to tell. First days, months, and years were filled with new experiences – often traumatic, confusing and cumbersome, hence giving rise to countless jokes and anecdotes about culture shock, name change, linguistic and cultural incomprehensibility, poverty and oddities in immigrant nature.
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