The thesis analyses historical narratives presented in exhibitions of the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and the Museum of Republika Srpska in Banja Luka. It also clarifies who promotes that particular representation of history and which factors influence the decisions museums make. The thesis builds on theoretical literature related to a role of museums in a process of memory institutionalization and identity building as well as to their potential to bring reconciliation in post-conflict society. The subjects of the research are the main museums dealing with the recent history in the two Bosnian autonomous entities, with the History Museum being in predominantly Bosniak while the Museum of Republika Srpska in predominantly Serb environment. The thesis explores the development of the museums, their organization, financing, self-presentation and most importantly the narratives of their permanent and temporary exhibitions. These are analysed especially from the perspective of definition of own group versus the others. The analysis covers museums' activities in the period from 1995 to present days. The thesis argues in detail that historical narrative promoted by the History Museum in Sarajevo reproduces the Bosniak narrative despite its efforts to play a role of state-level...

This thesis analyses the official narrative of the Homeland war which is supported by the Croatian state. The thesis follows its development from the very beginning when the war broke out until nowadays. At the same time the thesis deals with the state promotion of this official narrative in the four areas of the politics of memory. Concretely, these areas are: legislation, state institution Croatian memorial and documentation Centre of the Homeland war, education, state holidays and commemorations. Within the thesis, a special focus is put on the activities of the aforementioned Centre of the Homeland war which represents one of the tokens of the state promoted politics of memory as well as one of the main proponents of the official narrative. For research of the official narrative and politics of memory the thesis draws on the theoretical concepts of narrativization and institutional memory. This thesis is a one case study chronologically dealing with the period from the parliamentary elections in 1990 to nowadays events. On the basis of the analysis of the official narrative the main conclusion is that its interpretation of war event from the 90's has not almost changed and still the narrative presents exclusively Croatian narrative. The research of state influence over the perception of the...

This thesis aims to set a basic framework for "memories of communism" which come along with attempts on political construction of the past during post-1989 regime. Based on the example of public debate about "The Act on the Lawlessness of the Communist Regime and on Resistance Against It", we will attempt to reveal main resources of anti-communist rhetoric and symbols, and to clarify the role they played in forging political identities in the first half of the 1990s. While the introductory chapter explores concepts which allow us to conceptualize memory in the analysis of the political, other chapters are devoted to various interpretations of the past in the context of discussions of de- communization measures that belong to the category of "coming to terms with the past" (Lustration Act, The Act on the Lawlessness of the Communist Regime). Does Czech anti-communism result from those measures adopted between 1991 and 1993, or does their adoption seek to reduce the plurality of politics of memory? Are attempts to label the previous regime as criminal the exclusive form of anti-communism, or does anti-communism amount to a combination of moral, legal and political arguments that seek to criminalize the previous social and legal order? By analysing different types of utterances we will attempt to...

Cette thèse porte sur la genèse de la Politique Nationale des Musées au Brésil dans les années 2000. L’expérience consolide des espaces de mémoire en tant qu’objets d’une politique publique dans le pays et impact le développement de démarches similaires en Amérique du Sud, marquées par les idées de la muséologie sociale. Cette recherche analyse, à la lumière de l’approche cognitive, les variables permettant d’expliquer l’émergence de cette politique muséale, qui configure l’ensemble des actions étatiques envers les musées et leurs collections. Elle s’appuie sur des données issues d'entretiens auprès des décideurs politiques et membres de la communauté muséale, de l'analyse de sources primaires et secondaires sur l’activité des institutions de gestion muséale nationales, des discours, lois et plans stratégiques. Cette étude démontre que l’effort vers le développement des solutions locales pour la gouvernance mémorielle sous l’influence du mouvement de la « nouvelle muséologie », dans le cadre de la montée d’une démarche de reconnaissance de la diversité culturelle, trouve sa place dans l’agenda, lors de l’alternance politique qui permet l’arrivée au sommet de l'État du premier gouvernement de gauche dans le pays. La politique muséale apporte une re-signification symbolique majeure des discours et pratiques mémorielles au Brésil et fonctionne comme un élément de légitimation du nouveau gouvernement, élu grâce à un programme ciblé sur la démocratisation de la structure publique au nom de la « justice sociale ». / This thesis examines the genesis of the National Museums Policy in Brazil in the 2000s. The Brazilian model consolidated memory spaces as objects of public policy and served as a starting point for the development of similar initiatives elsewhere in South America, influenced by the theories of social museology. In order to explain the emergence of this museum policy, which encompassed all state actions towards museums and their collections, this research analyzes a combination of political, social, and cultural factors in the light of the cognitive approach. It draws on data from interviews with policy makers and members of the museum community, and analysis of primary and secondary sources related to the activities of national institutions of museum management, including speeches, legislation, and strategic plans. This thesis demonstrates that efforts towards the development of local solutions to memorial governance – under the influence of the movement of the "new museology," and as part of the rise of a process of recognition of cultural diversity – found its place on the political agenda due to a change of administration that led to the country’s first leftist government. The museum policy marked a major symbolic resignification of memorial discourses and practices in Brazil, and served as a means to legitimate the new government, which had been elected on a platform of democratizing public structures in the name of "social justice".

Recently in the West, interest in the memory of the Holocaust considered as a commonly shared dark past has increased. In Ukraine the commemoration of the Holocaust is affected by the ongoing nation-building process, with a focus on the collective memories of the Holodomor (the Famine of 1932-1933) and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). At the core of the debates around the Holocaust remembrance lies the memorialization of Babyn Yar, a multilayered memory site where Jewish and non-Jewish collective memories compete. Public and political actors vie for its memorial space in order to promote their own views through recognition of their respective tragedies. The memorialization and landscape of Babyn Yar is therefore transformed together with changes in the memory politics of the Holocaust. This thesis studies the contemporary politics of memory and commemoration of the Holocaust in Ukraine with a focus on Babyn Yar and its memorial objects. Through the illustrations of the memory site this project analyzes the memorial space and grounds and explores the struggles over the collective memories in Ukraine.

Cette thèse est consacrée conjointement aux mobilisations et luttes de classement des groupes issus de la guerre de 1998-1999 au Kosovo et aux modalités d'accès à leur reconnaissance légale et légitime, ainsi qu'à l'étude du processus de construction de l’État au Kosovo et de la production de ses formes symboliques de consécration. Deux objectifs orientent ce travail : Le premier est de rompre avec certaines évidences et d'apporter de nouvelles pistes de réflexion sur la formation, l'identification, l'existence et la définition des groupes sociaux issus de la guerre (les victimes civiles, les anciens combattants, les prisonniers de guerre, les familles des personnes disparues, etc.). Le second est d'examiner les relations complexes entre le travail de domination symbolique de l’État au Kosovo et les luttes que mènent les groupes sociaux issus de la guerre pour pouvoir maintenir leur position dans l'espace social. / This thesis examines jointly, the mobilizations and the classification struggles of the post-war groups in Kosovo after 1999, focusing on the access procedures toward their legal and legitimate recognition. It also analyzes the State formation process in Kosovo and the production of its symbolic forms of consecration. Two main contributions of this work are: First, it highlights a number of issues on post-war groups formation, identification, lifestyles and definition (civils victims, war veterans, war prisoners, families of missing persons, etc.) needing reflection and it questions the conventional wisdom. Second, it examines the complex relationships between the symbolic domination work of the State in Kosovo and the struggles of post-war groups in freeing from their social condition.

In the thesis, I aim to analyze how people remember their past in changed political circumstances, what and who affect that memory, and why and how does rapture between social memory and historical narratives come about. My subject of inquiry is the personality of Josip Broz Tito and above that the period of socialism and the years of his reign. Studying these my intention is not in writing his biography, rather I use him as an object through which I can get a closer look at the production of a new social memory. I analyze my ethnographic data by using the theory of collective memory and politics of memory theory. Those two main analytical tools are combined with more concepts and hypotheses. The inquiry is done on multisited places, by doing multi-local ethnography namely in Croatia and Serbia. I argue that the mnemonic communities like nations, social groups or power elites influence how people perceive their past and consequently remember historical facts. In times of unstable political circumstances like the change of communist order into capitalistic one, people tend to make sense of their complex past by producing different narratives which are often contested.

A monument known as the Valley of the Fallen is located about fifty kilometers from Madrid. The complex was built by General Franco as a memorial to the victims of the Civil War. After his death, Franco himself was buried here in the basilica caved into the rock. The remains of the dictator situated at such a monumental site together with thousands of victims of the Civil War are, according to many, an unresolved issue for democratic Spain. As many meanings are assigned to the site, the debate about the Valley of the Fallen includes other topics as well. The thesis presents and analyzes the politics of memory and debate on the contested site of memory Valley of the Fallen from the beginning of the Zapatero government in 2004 until the end of the Rajoy government in May 2018. Based on the typology of mnemonic actors of M. Bernhard and J. Kubik, the thesis identifies and classifies national institutional actors participating in this debate. Transnational actors, as well as attitudes of the Spanish civil society, are also mentioned. Therefore, the thesis connects three areas of the collective memory studies: sites of memory, politics of memory and mnemonic actors.

The aim of this thesis is to describe two central narratives of the Holocaust in the collective memory of Poland on the example of the clash of these narratives in one of the biggest debates in Polish history, triggered by the publication of Jan Tomasz Gross's book Neighbours in 2000. The first attempt to focus legislatively on those who do not follow the official narrative of the past of the Holocaust, was the creation of "Lex Gross" in 2006 during the first period of the reign of the right-wing conservative political party PiS. In 2018, the proposed legislation was elaborated into an Amendment to the Act on the IPN, known as "Holocaust Law" which had provoked a great controversy. The aim of this one-case study of the amendment is to present the motives for the amendment and explain the controversy it provoked within the framework of politics of memory of PiS. The amendment is interpreted in the context of different narratives of Holocaust, so-called memory wars - that means in the collective memories of the national states on the one hand, and of transnational acteurs on the other. Thus, memory may become the subject of populism, which heralds the disintegration of the neoliberal consensus.

Esta dissertação se dedica ao estudo do Direito à Memória e à Verdade enquanto um dos seis eixos estruturadores do 3º Programa Nacional Direitos Humanos (PNDH-3). O trabalho tem por objetivo identificar e analisar as contribuições e as lacunas que o Programa reforça junto à luta por memória, verdade e justiça no Brasil. Conduzo esta pesquisa a partir do estudo sobre o processo de inclusão e revisão do Direito à Memória e à Verdade no PNDH-3, avaliando seus avanços e recuos no tratamento da questão das reparações aos crimes da ditadura (1964-1985). Com a sistematização do processo de inclusão do Direito à Memória e à Verdade discuto de que forma a Lei da Anistia, enquanto instrumento de garantia da imunidade dos militares após o fim do regime, tem implicações no alcance das atuais políticas de reparação do país. Em um segundo momento, é feita a interpretação documental do texto do Programa, visando compreender o que cada uma das suas três diretrizes propõe e quais objetivos elas alcançam dentro dos preceitos da justiça de transição. Por fim, ao cruzar os desafios e recuos enfrentados pelo PNDH-3 durante o seu processo de revisão (iniciado em dezembro de 2009 e concluído em maio de 2010), busco refletir sobre as dificuldades da construção do Direito à Memória e à Verdade como instrumento de reparação no governo Lula (2003-2010). Esse estudo permite analisar os instrumentos utilizados pelo Estado brasileiro no processo de reparação aos crimes praticados durante a ditadura e problematizar como se constrói a política de memória no país a partir também das demandas não incluídas na agenda governamental. Com este trabalho viso contribuir com a reflexão histórica sobre esse processo reparatório de modo a inserir o PNDH-3 em um quadro mais amplo de políticas de Estado a partir dos conceitos de justiça de transição e política de memória. / This dissertation is dedicated to the study of the Right to Memory and Truth (Direito à Memória e à Verdade - DMV) as one of the six structuring axis of the 3rd Human Rights National Program (3º Programa Nacional Direitos Humanos - PNDH-3). The work aims at identifying and analysing the contributions and the gaps that the Program reinforces in relation to the struggle for memory, truth and justice in Brazil. I conduct this research departing from the study of the process of inclusion and revision of the Right to Memory and Truth in the PNDH-3, evaluating its progresses and drawbacks regarding the treatment of the issue of reparation to the crimes committed by the dictatorship (1964-1985). Through the systematization of the process of inclusion of the DMV, I discuss, as background, how the Amnesty Law, as an instrument that has guaranteed the immunity of the military after the end of the regime, has implications for achieving the current reparation policies in the country. In a second moment, the documental interpretation of the Program\'s text is undertaken, envisioning the comprehension of what is proposed by its three guidelines and which objectives those guidelines reach within the precepts of transitional justice. Finally, whilst crossing the challenges and retreats faced by the PNDH-3 during its revision process (initiated in December 2009 and concluded in May 2010) I seek to reflect about the difficulties of the construction of the Right to Memory and Truth as a reparation instrument during Lula\'s administration (2003-2010). This study enables the analysis of the instruments deployed by the Brazilian State for the reparation of its crimes committed during the dictatorship. Moreover, it makes possible to problematize how the politics of memory in the country is also constructed through demands that are not included in the governmental agenda. Through this work I aim at contributing for the historical reflection regarding the reparatory process, thus, inserting the PNDH-3 in a broader picture of State policies departing from concepts of transitional justice and politics of memory.