Creation of «Affiliative Postmemory» about the Epoch of Political Repressions (on the Example of Teenagers - Pupils 9-11 Classes)

Abstract

This article will discuss the problem of working with the memory of the “traumatic” events of the "era of political repression". The author took the concept of “postmemory” M. Hirsch as the methodological basis of the study. Analysis of the concept of M. Hirsch gives an understanding of how a person’s “affiliation” with an event takes place, allows us to analyze the mechanism of transition from a “memory policy” to a “memory practice”. An intermediate link in the transition and reformatting of the “familiative” postmemory into “associative” is the “affiliative” post-memory, based on emotional involvement, emotional experience and co-experience. The purpose of my research was to study how to form an “affiliative” postmemory of the “era of political repression” among pupils of grades 9-11. The main methods are experiment, interviewing, observation, content analysis of students' creative work. As a result of the study the most sensitive topics of the “victim” (person / society) and “executioner” (state) were analyzed. The theme of the executioner was complicated by the experience of two feelings: “guilt” (“I am the victim”) and “shame” (“I am the executioner”) in understanding the events of this era. Also, it was revealed that the usual dichotomy “victim” - “executioner”, “man” - “state” - is a significant simplification and prevents the formation of a more balanced picture about the events of the “era of political repression”. The formation of an “affiliative” postmemory allows adding topics of personal responsibility, personal choice, civic consciousness and others to the conversation about these events.