Kultura sjećanja. Domovinski rata kao utemeljiteljski mit nacije - O razvoju jedne znanstvene discipline

Tihomir Cipek - Pregledni rad

The Culture of Memory and the Founding Myth of the Nation. On the Development of one Scientific Discipline

Sažetak
U tekstu se analiziraju teorije sjećanja Mauricea Halbwachsa, Jana Assmanna, Aleide Assmann i njihova funkcija u istraživanjima kulture sjećanja. Prema tim autorima, pojedinac se sjeća kao pripadnik neke zajednice ili društvene grupe, a sjećanje se dijeli na komunikacijsko, kulturalno, institucionalizirano sjećanje; potonje inauguracijom utemeljiteljskog mita omogućuje oblikovanje identiteta nacije. Analiza najvažnijih mitova osamnaest istraživanih nacija je pokazala važnost rata kao utemeljiteljskog mita, kod gotovo svih nacija. U Hrvatskoj tu zadaću obavlja Domovinski rat, koji čini jednu od osnovnih pripovijesti suvremenog hrvatskog nacionalnog identiteta. Pokazalo se da rat kao utemeljiteljski mit nije prijetnja demokraciji, već da je to opće mjesto većine demokratskih političkih poretka.

Abstract
The text analyzes the theories of memory of Maurice Halbwachs, Jan Assmann, Aleida Assmann and their function in research on the culture of memory. According to these authors, an individual remembers as a member of a community or social group, and memory is divided into communicative, acultural, and institutionalized memory; the latter, by inaugurating the founding myth, enables the formation of a nation's identity. Jan Assmann's theory of cultural memory and communicative memory is presented. He believes that communicative memory is transmitted through three generations at most, and is transmitted through the stories of witnesses, family members, photographs, and family objects. Assmann believes that this type of memory does not have a clear narrative structure. Unlike communicative memory, cultural memory has a clear narrative structure, and is cared for by the political and cultural institutions of the state, often civil society associations, and is stored in museums and is also found in school textbooks. An analysis of Aleida Assmann's work has shown that she distinguishes four models of memory with regard to their purpose: a) not remembering, forgetting; b) remembering in order not to forget; c) remembering in order to forget; and d) practicing dialogical memory, which seeks to gain insight into different interpretations of history. The second part of the text discusses the founding myth of the nation. It is emphasized that a myth is not some kind of invention or false consciousness, but rather we define it as a narrative that allows a nation to orient itself in history. An analysis of the most important myths of the eighteen nations studied has shown the importance of war as a founding myth for almost all nations. In Croatia, this task is performed by the Homeland War, which represents one of the basic narratives of contemporary Croatian national identity. It has been shown that war as a founding myth does not pose a threat to democracy, but that it is a commonplace of most democratic political orders.