Memorializing Romanian-German Gulag Victims in the USSR through Historical Documents and Historical Fiction
This paper examines the memory of the Romanian-German victims of the Soviet Gulag as recorded in recent collections of testimonies and interviews, a museum exhibition, an audio-visual documentary project, and Herta Müller’s 2009 novel Atemschaukel. It employs Alexander Etkind’s notions of “soft...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Bucharest University Press
2021-12-01
|
| Series: | University of Bucharest Review. Literary and Cultural Studies Series |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ubr.rev.unibuc.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/AncaLucaHolden.pdf |
| _version_ | 1827776088084840448 |
|---|---|
| author | Anca Luca Holden |
| author_facet | Anca Luca Holden |
| author_sort | Anca Luca Holden |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper examines the memory of the Romanian-German victims of
the Soviet Gulag as recorded in recent collections of testimonies and interviews, a
museum exhibition, an audio-visual documentary project, and Herta Müller’s
2009 novel Atemschaukel. It employs Alexander Etkind’s notions of “soft
memory” and “hard memory” to discuss some of the key historical and political
events that have impeded the establishing of consensual remembrance policies of
the Soviet Gulag in communist Romania. I show how both German and
Romanian communities since 1990 have memorialized the Gulag and discuss
Atemschaukel as a legitimate impulse to document both personal and collective
trauma of the second and subsequent generations. I argue that in the absence of a
crystallized, hard memory, the historical documents and the historical fiction
analyzed serve as viable examples of soft memory that succeed in memorializing
the forced labor camps experience in its collective and individual forms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T13:59:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6cff33188d7d460c9245dc7c837c2032 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2734-5963 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T13:59:08Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Bucharest University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | University of Bucharest Review. Literary and Cultural Studies Series |
| spelling | doaj.art-6cff33188d7d460c9245dc7c837c20322023-11-02T05:05:29ZengBucharest University PressUniversity of Bucharest Review. Literary and Cultural Studies Series2734-59632021-12-01XI/2021210311610.31178/UBR.11.2.8Memorializing Romanian-German Gulag Victims in the USSR through Historical Documents and Historical FictionAnca Luca Holden0Five College Center for World Languages, Massachusetts; USA.This paper examines the memory of the Romanian-German victims of the Soviet Gulag as recorded in recent collections of testimonies and interviews, a museum exhibition, an audio-visual documentary project, and Herta Müller’s 2009 novel Atemschaukel. It employs Alexander Etkind’s notions of “soft memory” and “hard memory” to discuss some of the key historical and political events that have impeded the establishing of consensual remembrance policies of the Soviet Gulag in communist Romania. I show how both German and Romanian communities since 1990 have memorialized the Gulag and discuss Atemschaukel as a legitimate impulse to document both personal and collective trauma of the second and subsequent generations. I argue that in the absence of a crystallized, hard memory, the historical documents and the historical fiction analyzed serve as viable examples of soft memory that succeed in memorializing the forced labor camps experience in its collective and individual forms.https://ubr.rev.unibuc.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/AncaLucaHolden.pdfromanian-german minoritygulagdeportationsoft memorymemorializationherta müller |
| spellingShingle | Anca Luca Holden Memorializing Romanian-German Gulag Victims in the USSR through Historical Documents and Historical Fiction University of Bucharest Review. Literary and Cultural Studies Series romanian-german minority gulag deportation soft memory memorialization herta müller |
| title | Memorializing Romanian-German Gulag Victims in the USSR through Historical Documents and Historical Fiction |
| title_full | Memorializing Romanian-German Gulag Victims in the USSR through Historical Documents and Historical Fiction |
| title_fullStr | Memorializing Romanian-German Gulag Victims in the USSR through Historical Documents and Historical Fiction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Memorializing Romanian-German Gulag Victims in the USSR through Historical Documents and Historical Fiction |
| title_short | Memorializing Romanian-German Gulag Victims in the USSR through Historical Documents and Historical Fiction |
| title_sort | memorializing romanian german gulag victims in the ussr through historical documents and historical fiction |
| topic | romanian-german minority gulag deportation soft memory memorialization herta müller |
| url | https://ubr.rev.unibuc.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/AncaLucaHolden.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ancalucaholden memorializingromaniangermangulagvictimsintheussrthroughhistoricaldocumentsandhistoricalfiction |