THE FRICTION BETWEEN MEMORY AND HISTORY: MNEMOHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE IN CONTEMPORARY LATVIAN POETRY
THE FRICTION BETWEEN MEMORY AND HISTORY: MNEMOHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE IN CONTEMPORARY LATVIAN POETRY

Summary/Abstract: Nowadays, in the creation of historical narratives, fiction texts are gaining increasing importance alongside historical research. It is attested by the topical trends in the early 21st century Latvian literary process manifested in the interpretation of historical topics. This article aims to highlight the significance of literature in the process of forming cultural memory and constructing historical perceptions, thereby soothing the existing friction between history and memory in historical research. The article focuses on the interpretation of the events of the Second World War in contemporary Latvian women’s poetry. As source texts the article uses poems by Andra Manfelde, Daina Sirmā and Gunta Šnipke. In the selected poetry examples, the trend of reviving historical memory and the application of a mnemohistorical perspective have been analysed. The theoretical and methodological base of the article comprises studies of mnemonic history and microhistory, research on postmemory and the ethics of memory, as well as cultural memory and trauma studies. The examples of poetry texts by Manfelde, Sirmā and Šnipke analysed in the article reflect life writing tendencies and are highly auto/biographical. The biographical approach provides an artistic platform for the infusion of personal microhistory into the collective/nation’s historical narrative. Literature thus offers a more comprehensive view of past events and their later impact and significance in a contemporary context. The poetic transformation of the wartime memories of the postmemory generation into poetry outlines the mnemohistorical perspective, bringing to the forefront the relevance of current political events.

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