2 On the Social Distribution of Soldiers’ Memories: Normalization, Trauma, and Morality
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Edna Lomsky-Feder
Abstract
This chapter aims to address the interrelationship between personal and national memories of war as reflected by the recollections of different generations of combatants among Israeli society. This multi-generational observation offers the analysis a dynamic dimension and enables us to learn of how the interrelationship between personal and national memory changes in different historical-cultural contexts, and in accordance with the nature of the fighting. More particularly, the article aims to explore the cultural discourses that shape the field of memory within which the subjects remembering operate. That is, to identify the different discourses that grant meaning to the combat experience, track their changes over time, examine their interplay, and situate the mode through which they shape personal memories and are shaped by them. In the analysis, special attention was paid to the various shifting manifestations of the trauma discourse that has become central to shaping Israeli war memory compared to other discourses: the heroic, critical, and resilience. The tension between the discourses and ongoing interpretive shift from heroism to resilience and vulnerability creates a new category of meaning for personal memories of war, which I refer to as “normalized trauma.”
Abstract
This chapter aims to address the interrelationship between personal and national memories of war as reflected by the recollections of different generations of combatants among Israeli society. This multi-generational observation offers the analysis a dynamic dimension and enables us to learn of how the interrelationship between personal and national memory changes in different historical-cultural contexts, and in accordance with the nature of the fighting. More particularly, the article aims to explore the cultural discourses that shape the field of memory within which the subjects remembering operate. That is, to identify the different discourses that grant meaning to the combat experience, track their changes over time, examine their interplay, and situate the mode through which they shape personal memories and are shaped by them. In the analysis, special attention was paid to the various shifting manifestations of the trauma discourse that has become central to shaping Israeli war memory compared to other discourses: the heroic, critical, and resilience. The tension between the discourses and ongoing interpretive shift from heroism to resilience and vulnerability creates a new category of meaning for personal memories of war, which I refer to as “normalized trauma.”
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface: Interpretive Lenses in Sociology – On the Multidimensional Foundations of Meaning in Social Life vii
- Notes on Contributors xii
- Acknowledgments xvii
- Introduction: Interpreting Contentious Memories and Conflicts over the Past 1
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Interpreting Memories in the Social Dynamics of Contention
- On the Social Distribution of Soldiers’ Memories: Normalization, Trauma, and Morality 29
- Feminist Approaches to Studying Memory and Mass Atrocity 49
- Mobilizing Memories: Remembrance as a Social Movement Tool in the Vieques Anti-Military Movement (1999–2004) 69
- The Ballot of Donald and Hillary: Hateful Memories of Celebrity Leaders 89
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Racism, Exclusion, and Mnemonic Conflict
- Building a Case for Citizenship: Countermemory Work among Deported Veterans 113
- Commemorations as Transformative Events: Collective Memory, Temporality, and Social Change 134
- Contentious Pasts, Contentious Futures: Race, Memory, and Politics in Montgomery’s Legacy Museum 154
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Genocide, Memory, and the Historicizing of Trauma
- Remembrance and Historicization: Transformation of Individual and Collective Memory Processes in the Federal Republic of Germany 177
- Enlisting Lived Memory: From Traumatic Silence to Authentic Witnessing 197
- Changing Memories of the Shoah in Post-Communist Countries: New Memories and Conflicts 217
- How Difficult Pasts Complicate the Present: Comparative Analysis of the Genocides in Western Armenia and Rwanda 236
- Conclusion: Memory and the Social Dynamics of Conflict and Contention: Interpretive Lenses for New Cases and Controversies 258
- Index 266
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface: Interpretive Lenses in Sociology – On the Multidimensional Foundations of Meaning in Social Life vii
- Notes on Contributors xii
- Acknowledgments xvii
- Introduction: Interpreting Contentious Memories and Conflicts over the Past 1
-
Interpreting Memories in the Social Dynamics of Contention
- On the Social Distribution of Soldiers’ Memories: Normalization, Trauma, and Morality 29
- Feminist Approaches to Studying Memory and Mass Atrocity 49
- Mobilizing Memories: Remembrance as a Social Movement Tool in the Vieques Anti-Military Movement (1999–2004) 69
- The Ballot of Donald and Hillary: Hateful Memories of Celebrity Leaders 89
-
Racism, Exclusion, and Mnemonic Conflict
- Building a Case for Citizenship: Countermemory Work among Deported Veterans 113
- Commemorations as Transformative Events: Collective Memory, Temporality, and Social Change 134
- Contentious Pasts, Contentious Futures: Race, Memory, and Politics in Montgomery’s Legacy Museum 154
-
Genocide, Memory, and the Historicizing of Trauma
- Remembrance and Historicization: Transformation of Individual and Collective Memory Processes in the Federal Republic of Germany 177
- Enlisting Lived Memory: From Traumatic Silence to Authentic Witnessing 197
- Changing Memories of the Shoah in Post-Communist Countries: New Memories and Conflicts 217
- How Difficult Pasts Complicate the Present: Comparative Analysis of the Genocides in Western Armenia and Rwanda 236
- Conclusion: Memory and the Social Dynamics of Conflict and Contention: Interpretive Lenses for New Cases and Controversies 258
- Index 266
