Suchergebnisse

The Rose Revolution in November 2003 created a setting characterized by major new challenges as well as major new opportunities for Georgia. After presenting the forces that gave rise to the Rose Revolution (emerging civil society, vibrant free press, weak state authority, and national memory and unity), several issues that will shape the future of Georgia are examined. The first of these is economic growth, which provides some reason for optimism, though the picture remains tenuous. The second is the struggle over Georgia's territory, in particular the challenges facing the state when it comes to breakaway territories. Frustration on this front remains to the present time. The third is the development of a strong state, something that provides particular challenges in light of the failing state inherited by the Saakashvili government, but something that showed some promising signs in the wake of the Rose Revolution. After a promising start, the Saakashvili government has recently drifted in the direction of over-centralization of power in the president's office, and this is cause for concern as the government continues to struggle to find its way.

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Prerequisites -- 2. A Sociocultural Approach to Mind -- 3. Beyond Vygotsky: Bakhtin's Contribution -- 4. The Multivoicedness of Meaning -- 5. The Heterogeneity of Voices -- 6. Sociocultural Setting, Social Languages, and Mediated Action -- References -- Name Index -- Subject Index

How Nations Remember asks how it is that entire nations can have such different views of the past. These are differences over specific events such as World War II, but they also take the form of different mental habits that shape national memory more generally. Drawing on psychology, anthropology, literary studies, and other disciplines, and on illustrations from Russia, America, China, and Georgia, the author examines notions such as "narrative templates," "narrative dialogism," and "privileged event narratives" that shape national memory, and concludes by outlining strategies for managing its destructive consequences.

The dynamics of collective remembering are examined by analyzing what happens when a "blank spot" in history is filled with information that had previously not been available or publicly acknowledged. Taking Russian accounts of the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 as a case study, it is argued that "schematic narrative templates" that shape deep collective memory give rise to a tendency to maintain this memory and help it overcome the "narrative rift" that occurs when embarrassing episodes from the past are publicly acknowledged. Schematic narrative templates are set forth as underlying strong conservative forces that resist change in collective memory at a deep level. It is suggested that debates grounded in formal history may help overcome this resistance to change but that such efforts will be limited as long as the forces of deep collective memory are not recognized.

The dynamics of collective remembering are examined by analyzing what happens when a "blank spot" in history is filled with information that had previously not been available or publicly acknowledged. Taking Russian accounts of the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 as a case study, it is argued that "schematic narrative templates" that shape deep collective memory give rise to a tendency to maintain this memory and help it overcome the "narrative rift" that occurs when embarrassing episodes from the past are publicly acknowledged. Schematic narrative templates are set forth as underlying strong conservative forces that resist change in collective memory at a deep level. It is suggested that debates grounded in formal history may help overcome this resistance to change but that such efforts will be limited as long as the forces of deep collective memory are not recognized. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2008 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]