Overview
- Advocates the existence of conflicting interpretations of the past, and minority and dissenting narratives.
- Sees conflicting interpretations of the past as inevitable but not necessarily socially harmful.
- Argues that the EU needs to develop its common approach to the past in the face of multiple and conflicting narratives.
Part of the book series: Memory Politics and Transitional Justice (MPTJ)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Pluralist Approach to Memory
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Front Matter
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Pluralist European Mythscape
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Front Matter
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Conclusion
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book discusses a number of ways in which the dialogue about Europe’s past and future could be rendered more inclusive, such as the promotion of critical and sentimental education and the creation of virtual and actual social spaces in which citizens and organised identity groups can participate. The discussion about European memory is far from being a “merely” symbolic issue with no political consequences. Imagining Europe and its past in different ways will lead to different real political outcomes. For instance, thinking about European integration as an embodiment of the values of the Enlightenment (such as human rights, liberal democracy, and reason), as a guarantor of peace on the continent, as a guarantor of prosperity, or as a guarantor that massive human rights violations like genocide will “never again” be committed on its soil, all entail different political objectives. Similarly, conflicting understandings of European memory as either a thing or a social construct, aseither one memory or a plurality of memories, as either the end point of deliberation or a dialogical process, represent not merely inconsequential cultural “froth on the tides of society,” but crucially important issues with real political consequences. The book is intended to contribute to this discussion about the common European approach to the past (and thus to the future).
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Mano Toth is Visiting Lecturer at the Central European University, Austria. He earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, and specialises in European memory politics. His work has been previously published in Millennium, the Journal of Common Market Studies, and Memory Studies.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: European Memory and Conflicting Visions of the Past
Authors: Mano Toth
Series Title: Memory Politics and Transitional Justice
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79843-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-79842-0Published: 26 October 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-79845-1Published: 27 October 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-79843-7Published: 25 October 2021
Series ISSN: 2731-3840
Series E-ISSN: 2731-3859
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXIII, 246
Number of Illustrations: 12 b/w illustrations
Topics: European Politics, Memory Studies, Political Science