Narrative analysis as a collective memory research method
https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6401-2020-2-81-93
Abstract
The interest towards the issues of collective memory has not faded since the “memory boom” of the 20th century. Despite the considerable amount of theoretical and fundamental research into the collective memory, its aspects and varieties, less attention has been paid to the methodological foundation of the discipline. The establishing of the methodological apparatus of Memory Studies is necessary for its final formation into an independent field of knowledge. Many researchers have been describing various approaches to defining the research methodology of Memory Studies. However, the suggested methods allowed to analyze only static and fragmented manifestations of collective memory. Nowadays, collective memory researchers see it, first of all, as a process unfolding in time. Such an understanding of memory as a process, possessing temporal characteristics, happening in a cultural context and dependent on as well as formative for its participating subjects, lead to the establishment of ideas regarding the narrative nature of collective memory. That calls for a necessity to define a relevant research method that would allow to evaluate social practices of collective memory as well as the historical and sociocultural context that affects them. The goal of the given work lies in the systematization of presented in the academic literature ideas of the narrativeness of collective memory and in the evaluation of the scientific potential of narrative analysis in collective memory research.
About the Author
A. A. Nechaeva
Saint Petersburg University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Aleksandra A. Nechaeva, applicant
bld. 7/9, Universitetskaya emb., Saint Petersburg, 199034
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For citations:
Nechaeva A.A. Narrative analysis as a collective memory research method. RSUH/RGGU BULLETIN. Series Philosophy. Social Studies. Art Studies. 2020;(2):81-93. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6401-2020-2-81-93
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