Guardians of Living History : : An Ethnography of Post-Soviet Memory Making in Estonia / / Inge Melchior.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Melchior, Inge,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage and Memory Studies ; 9
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (368 p.)

This book interrogates how people living in a society with an extremely complicated, violent past, only a short history of independence and a desire to belong to Europe engage with the past, both within their families and as members of a national community. In line with other scholarship on memory, it shows that many Estonians desire an established collective story, as they live in a society where their national identity is quite regularly under threat. At the same time however, that same closure is perceived to pose a threat to the survival of Estonian culture and independence. This book provides an intimate insight in the lives of Estonians from the countryside, former deportees, young intellectuals and memory activists, who all in their own ways act as guardians of a national history: a history which they wish to keep alive, apolitical and as close to their family stories as possible.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- Introduction: Persisting Pasts in the Margins of Europe -- Part 1. The Making of Estonian History -- 1. Making an Emotional 'History of the People' -- Part 2. The Meaning of Closure -- 2. On the Margins of History: Good Old Soviet Times -- 3. Personal Memories Becoming National History -- 4. Postmemory: The Inherited Obligation to Secure the Future -- 5. Committed to the Past: Memory Activists in Search of Dignity and Justice -- Part 3. Closure and a Significant Other -- 6. WWII on the Periphery of Europe: A Contested Chapter -- Conclusion: Guardians Of Living History -- List of Informants -- Full Reference List -- Index