Tallinna Ülikooli ASTRA projekt TLÜ TEE
Tartu Ülikooli ASTRA projekt PER ASPERA
Intensive seminar
Transcultural Memorial Forms: Contemporary Remembrance of War,
Displacement and Political Rupture
17-19 March 2017
Tallinn University, Estonia
Hosting institutions: Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts, Tallinn University,
University of Tartu
Supporters: European Union Structural Funds, ASTRA project TLÜ TEE, ASTRA project TÜ PER
ASPERA, Nordic Summer University, Under and Tuglas Literature Centre of the Estonian
Academy of Sciences
Program Director and Organiser: Eneken Laanes, Hanna Meretoja
Programme Committee: Siobhan Kattago, Annika Toots
Venue: Tallinn University, Narva mnt 29
From Andreas Huyssen’s idea of the Holocaust memory as the trope for other traumatic histories
and Michael Rothberg’s work on multidirectional memory to Ann Rigney’s idea of the scarcity of
memorial forms scholars of memory have in the past decade drawn attention to the fact that in
order to be voiced past experiences need the support of other memories. Further, Alison
Landsberg’s work on prosthetic memory has highlighted how memories travel across vast
geographical and historical distances with the help of the technologies of mass culture and are
adopted by people and communities who do not have any experiential link with them. This
seminar is interested in the ways in which narrative strategies and memorial forms developed
primarily in the context of the Holocaust memory and postwar migration have contributed to the
representation of other histories of war and political conflict in the Nordic region and across
Europe, and also how they are currently being used to make sense of contemporary experiences
of war and displacement.
The seminar explores the ethical and political questions related to the use and abuse of artistic,
political, and intermedial storytelling practices that function as transcultural memorial forms and
that may facilitate or hamper the articulation of regional differences and the historical specificity
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of different conflicts. What gains and dangers are involved in adopting the narrative memories
of others? Our hypothesis is that in contrast to the competing political discourses on twentiethcentury totalitarianisms the arts have developed more productive comparative approaches that
negotiate national and regional differences and address the ethical complexity of narrating
traumatic experiences of war, conflict, displacement, and political rupture. Also important to the
ethical potential of artistic narrative practices is their linking of memory to imagination in such a
way that allows us to envision a future-oriented ethics of memory.
Keynote speakers:
Ann Rigney (Utrecht University)
Michael Rothberg (University of California, Los Angeles)
Requirements for Participation
Graduate students who wish to present a paper related to the topic can apply by sending a
proposal (ca. 300 words) to Eneken Laanes ([email protected]) by 15 November 2016.
Additionally, 15–20 interested graduate students can apply for participation in the seminar by
sending a letter of motivation (ca. 200 words). Students who are not members of GSCSA are
required to add a short CV to specify their education and research interests. You will be notified
of your participation by 15 December 2016. Upon full participation in the programme a student
will be awarded 2 ECTS points. Upon full participation in the programme with a presentation or
with completion of a 2000-word essay on relevant topic, a student will be awarded 3 ECTS
points (deadline 1 May 2017). Participation in the course is free of charge.
The intensive seminar is being held in collaboration with the research network of Narrative and
Memory: Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics of the Nordic Summer University
((http://nordic.university/study-circles/4-narrative-memory), Graduate School of Culture
Studies and Arts, supported by Tallinn University’s ASTRA project, TLÜ TEE (European Union,
European Regional Development Fund) and the Under and Tuglas Literature Centre of the
Estonian Academy of Sciences.
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