Loci Memoriae Hungaricae I. the Theoretical Foundations
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LOCI MEMORIAE HUNGARICAE I. THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF HUNGARIAN ’LIEUX DE MÉMOIRE’ STUDIES / THEORETISCHE GRUNDLAGEN DER ERFORSCHUNG UNGARISCHER ERINNERUNGSORTE Edited by Pál S. Varga – Karl Katschthaler – Donald E. Morse – Miklós Takács Loci Memoriae Hungaricae I. The Theoretical Foundations of Hungarian ’lieux de mémoire’ Studies / Theoretische Grundlagen der Erforschung ungarischer Erinnerungsorte Edited by Pál S. Varga – Karl Katschthaler – Donald E. Morse – Miklós Takács Debreceni Egyetemi Kiadó Debrecen University Press 2013 ISBN 978 963 318 383 0 © Debreceni Egyetemi Kiadó Debrecen University Press, beleértve az egyetemi hálózaton belüli elektronikus terjesztés jogát is Kiadta a Debreceni Egyetemi Kiadó Debrecen University Press www. dupress.hu Felelős kiadó: Dr. Virágos Márta Készült a Debreceni Egyetem sokszorosítóüzemében, 2013-ban Contents Pál S. Varga: Introduction ......................................................................................... 7 1. Theoretical Approaches ...................................................................................... 21 Aleida Assmann: The Transformative Power of Memory .......................................... 22 Jan Assmann: Communicative and Cultural Memory ............................................. 36 Pim den Boer: Lieux de Mémoire in Comparative Perspective ................................. 44 2. Discussion/Diskussion ....................................................................................... 51 Pál S. Varga: Kollektives Gedächtnis und Geschichtswissenschaften (Diskussionseröffnung) ........................................................................................ 52 Harald D. Gröller: Diskussionsbeitrag bez. des Eröffnungsreferats von Pál S. Varga ................................................................... 59 Csaba Gy. Kiss: Diskussionsbeitrag zum Eröffnungsreferat von Pál S. Varga.............. 64 Ferenc Velkey: Gedächtnis und Geschichte. Kommentare zur Diskussionseröffnung von Pál S. Varga .................................................................... 67 Péter György: Memory Fallen Apart: the Case of Two Cemeteries ............................ 72 Aleida Assmann: Response to Péter György, “Memory Fallen Apart: the Case of Two Cemeteries” ................................................................................... 78 Tamás Bényei: Remembering from Outside: A Response to Péter György’s Essay ......... 81 3. Ungarische Erinnerungsorte im zentraleuropäischen Kontext ........................ 89 István Bitskey: Ein religiöser Erinnerungsort in Mitteleuropa: Tyrnau (Nagyszombat, Trnava), das „Klein-Rom“ (Eine Fallstudie) ..................................... 90 Márta Fata: Erinnerungsort Bauernkrieg? Müntzer und Dózsa in der Geschichtspolitik der DDR und der Volksrepublik Ungarn im Vergleich .................. 101 4. The Socio-Psychological Approach .................................................................. 115 Ákos Münnich, István Hidegkuti: Structural Characteristics of Sites of National Memory ............................................................................................... 116 5 Judit Kovács, József Pántya, Dóra Medvés, Ágnes Bernáth: Communicating National Heritage to an Ingroup or to an Outgroup Member as a Group or as an Individual ............................................................................. 137 5. Literature, Film and the Sites of Memory ....................................................... 151 Tamás Bényei: Ghosts as Sites of Memory ............................................................. 152 Nóra Séllei: The Literary Heritage in Virginia Woolf’s Between The Acts: A Metatext of Cultural Memory ........................................................................... 169 Tibor Glant: Cardinal Mindszenty and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution on Film in the West, 1950–59 .................................................................................. 182 György Kalmár: What the Body Remembers. The Memories of Eastern- European Body Cinema: Pálfi György’sTaxidermia ............................................... 196 Notes on Contributors ......................................................................................... 206 Index ..................................................................................................................... 215 6 Introduction Pál S. Varga Loci Memoriae Hungaricae: I. The Theoretical Foundations of Hungarian ’lieux de mémoire’ Studies / Theoretische Grundlagen der Erforschung ungarischer Erinnerungsorte II. A magyar emlékezethelyek kutatásának elméleti és módszertani alapjai* he concept of lieux de mémoire has become an internationally accepted academic term, despite Pierre Nora’s intentions and the fact that its use has raised many questions and occasioned many debates ever since. The concept of lieux de mémoire Tis a late by-product of the post-war period, an era that decreed that the nearest past was to be forgotten, including its most traumatic period, turning its attention towards the idea of progress and hope for a better future, as a legacy of the Enlightenment. The concept of sites of memory captures the very moment when the euphoria of progress first becomes disturbed by the suppression arising as a side effect of amnesia; and by a confusion in orientation, caused by the longing for the past and the loss of all the meanings attached to it. This is the very reason for the memory boom starting from the end of the 1970s with the theories of Pierre Nora and Jan Assmann, and continuing with the subsequent academic research into remembering. Nora, the creator of the concept of lieux de mémoire, had primarily attempted to describe the tragic loss of the glorious national past caused by the earlier epoch, with all the dubious efforts expended to save it, rather than to discuss the traumatic events of the recent past. The subject of lieux de mémoire created by Nora was connected with French national awareness based on a strong and unified statehood. Other foreign researchers of lieux de mémoire outside France found the concept generalized and doubted its translatability as well.1 Nevertheless, “sites of memory” as a concept indicating an epochal threshold, seems to overcome language barriers, surviving the authority of national narratives and proving to be valid both for alternative memories and memory dialogues. A recurring motif in the theoretical studies of the present volume is the assertion that monologic memories ruled by the concept of nation came to their end, as they “were mainly constructed around heroic actions and heroic suffering,” as Aleida Assmann maintains. It is time for scholars engaged in research to turn their attention towards the clashes of memory cultures and to the comparative research of national memories directed to common subjects, especially those excluding each other. Such research could prevent collective memory from remaining just a collective self-affirmation, and encourage its becoming a means of collective responsibility and an opportunity for dialogue between nations and groups. Hungary’s involvement in the research of lieux de mémoire was prompted not only by the desire to 7 contribute to contemporary European academic discourse, but also by the immediate circumstances that defects in collective memory have had a significant influence on the political split in Hungarian society, hindering the formation of any kind of social consensus. The modern trend of forgetting, typical of the way European societies have related to their past during the three decades after 1945, in Hungary has become the official guideline of the national policy of forgetting. This policy not only became an obstacle to creating an heroic national past but also led to the elimination of all recent traumatic memories from the public sphere. Due to these circumstances, Hungarian society did not, could not believe in the idea of progress, neither was it driven by a desire for forgetting. Remembering and attempts to construct meaning from past events took place in informal sub-cultural groups, without any chance of public confrontation between the isolated group memories and of establishing a common collective meaning. For society as a whole it meant losing the collective past. Even the last two decades following the political turn were not enough to eliminate the political split, or substitute for the lack of collective memory in some way. Hungary has now joined, after a small delay, the international research into lieux de mémoire. This delay may, however, prove advantageous. International editions published on national sites of memories remind us of the possibilities of using the term detached from its original context, while warning us about both the risks of such decontextualization, and the necessity of implementing new trends as they unfold from mutual dialogue. Theoretical Approaches, Discussions The first volume in this series contains the edited versions of the German and English papers given at the conference, Loci Memoriae Hungaricae—The Theoretical Foundations of Hungarian ’lieux de mémoire’ Studies, held at the University of Debrecen, between 14 and 16 November 2011. These essays recall the “classic” issues of collective memory and ’lieux de mémoire’ studies to the extent necessary for establishing a starting point as enumerated by Jan Assmann, in “Communicative and Cultural Memory,” Following Jan Assmann, Aleida Assmann and Pim den Boer examine some new perspectives: the former focuses on the transformations