The article aims to investigate the dialectic between memory and oblivion in the post-Soviet Russian ‘urban text’ after the invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, 24 February 2022 marked an «acceleration of history» (Nora 1984 I, XVII), a sharp caesura between a near past – the post-Soviet past – and a still uncertain future. This caesura has triggered a novel and unprecedented «work of memory» (Ricoeur, 2016: 40) but also a process of obliteration, which has redefined the functions and the roles of places themselves and, consequently, of everyday practices. This is reflected in the urban ‘text of the city’ in which there are operations of continuity of Western brands that have left (whether really or ap- parently) the country as a result of the invasion and sanctions, but also of removal, as in the case of the urban morphs linked to Memorial: from the clo- sure of the organisation’s headquarters to the dismantling of the plaques of the Poslednii Adres (Last Address) memory project.
Piccolo, L. (2024). Lost in Post: Memory and Oblivion in Post-Soviet Urban Text. In E.G. Barbara Antonucci (a cura di), Beyond the Last ‘Post’. Il turismo e le sfide della contemporaneità (pp. 147-156). Roma : Roma TrE-Press [10.13134/979-12-5977-407-1].
Lost in Post: Memory and Oblivion in Post-Soviet Urban Text
piccolo
2024-01-01
Abstract
The article aims to investigate the dialectic between memory and oblivion in the post-Soviet Russian ‘urban text’ after the invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, 24 February 2022 marked an «acceleration of history» (Nora 1984 I, XVII), a sharp caesura between a near past – the post-Soviet past – and a still uncertain future. This caesura has triggered a novel and unprecedented «work of memory» (Ricoeur, 2016: 40) but also a process of obliteration, which has redefined the functions and the roles of places themselves and, consequently, of everyday practices. This is reflected in the urban ‘text of the city’ in which there are operations of continuity of Western brands that have left (whether really or ap- parently) the country as a result of the invasion and sanctions, but also of removal, as in the case of the urban morphs linked to Memorial: from the clo- sure of the organisation’s headquarters to the dismantling of the plaques of the Poslednii Adres (Last Address) memory project.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
