Concepts of historical memory and the politics of memory in the context of social and historical-humanitarian studies (historiographic analysis)

Abstract

The article presents a historiographic review of historical memory and, based on this, examines the meaning and features of the process of rethinking national histories. The relevance of the presented work lies in the fact that today there is a “memorial boom”, which leads to a critical analysis of the past, a revision of the main plots of the history of the state and society. Since gaining independence, the post-Soviet countries have been embraced by the search for national identity. In this search, an important role was played by the reevaluation of one’s own history; based on new methodological approaches, the colonial experience, postcolonial transformations are being investigated. Thus, this paper aims to analyze a wide range of theoretical and historiographic material, the works of the founders of the concept of memory, fundamental works of researchers, from whom new directions came, such as the “politics of memory” or “trauma of memory”, etc. The authors of this article consider the theoretical foundations of memory, which have become significant in such sciences as sociology, history, philosophy, political science, etc. The study uses historical-genetic, historical- comparative, historical-systemic methods, as well as methods of retrospective and prospective analysis. The historiographic review of foreign and domestic authors helped to consider and analyze such concepts as historical memory and historical politics. In the works of French, German, American researchers, the theoretical and methodological foundations of the category of memory were studied. Russian and Kazakh historiography are represented by modern research, which is aimed at studying the processes associated with mythologizing, politicizing these processes, commemorative practices, local and regional aspects.