Mälutööst elulooliste mälu-uuringuteni. Märkusi biograafilise kultuuriuurimise ja nõukogudejärgse Eesti mälu-uuringute seoste kohta
From Memory Work to Biographical Memory Research: Notes on the Interconnections between Biographical Research and Memory Studies Since the Post-communist Turn

Summary/Abstract: This article provides an analysis of the intersection of memory studies and biographical research in the study of Estonian post-Soviet memory processes and memories. Both lines of research emerged during the postcommunist turn, albeit with different dynamics and different possibilities to build on existing research traditions. Both are multidisciplinary in nature. This article focuses on the points of contact between biographical research and memory studies in social and scientific methodological processes. The authors show that biographical research, which played a significant role in documenting and disclosing the long-silenced past throughout Eastern Europe during the collapse of communist regimes, has shifted from memory activism to critical examination of memory contexts, mnemonic actors, power relations, and contradictions. To this end, first, the impact of the cultural institutions dealing with collecting oral histories and life stories is analysed as contributors to the Estonian post-communist turn. Second, an overview is provided of post-communist biographical research in Estonia from a memory studies perspective, focusing both on influential theories and methods and pointing to contributions to international memory debates. In addition, gaps in biographical memory work and research are highlighted. Biographical memory studies in Estonia grew out of anticommunist memory work in the late 1980s and early 1990s, being part of a symbolic process of truth and remembrance, actively shaping interpretations of the past, evoking and slowing down collective ‘memory shifts’.

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