[ Konferenz | Conference ]

BREAKING SILENCE OR MAKING A CLEAN BREAK. Sites and Modes of Commemoration. A Symposium with and by Ruth Wodak.

Eine Veranstaltung des Ludwig Boltzmann Instituts für Historische Sozialwissenschaft und des Kreisky Forums

Date: 26, 27, 28 June 2008

Place: Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue Armbrustergasse 15, 1190 Vienna

The symposium ‘Breaking Silence or Making a Clean Break? Sites and Modes of Commemoration’  assembles prominent international scholars from multiple disciplines (History, Political Sciences, Sociology, Rhetoric, Discourse Studies, German Studies, Media Studies, and Literary Studies) who are all concerned with investigating ‘the Politics of the Past’ in European nation states (Vergangenheitspolitik) from various perspectives and by applying different theoretical and methodological approaches. More specifically, all participants attempt to provide first answers to the overarching questions, such as: how should one deal with ‘traumatic’ pasts which are prevalent in every society? How should one deal with perpetrators and victims? Should one focus on a common future and ‘forget the past’? Can a ‘clean break’ be achieved? And which are the functions of such a ‘clean break’? Can we learn from the experiences from other cultures and non-European countries? And if silence occurs, what are the consequences, for perpetrators, victims, and the entire society? We are aware that these difficult and complex questions will not be answered once and for all; but we do hope that this symposium will contribute to future debates.

PROGRAM
Thursday, June 26
19.00: Welcome Ruth Wodak, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
19.15: On Individual Initiative; Keynote by Gitta Sereny, journalist and writer, United Kingdom
20.00: Reception (drinks)
 
Friday, June 27
09.30: A Battleground of Memory and Justice. Chile since the 1973 Coup; Keynote by David Sugarman, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Panel 1: SILENCE/SILENCING AND CENSORSHIP: MEMORY AND MEDIA
10.30: Historical Scholarship, Politics of the Public Past, and (Semi-) Private Memory; Mitchell Ash, University of Vienna, Austria
10.50: Considering the Violence of Voicelessness: Censorship and Self- Censorship Related to the South African TRC Process; Christine Anthonissen, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

11.10: Discussion
11.40: Coffee break
12.00: Creating Acceptable Meanings for the Present: Some Discourse Analytic Reflections on Verbal Commemorative Practices, Titus Ensink, University of Groningen, Netherlands
12.20: Transforming the Holocaust. Remarks after the Beginning of the 21st Century; Dirk Rupnow, University of Vienna, Austria
12.40: Discussion
Panel 2: THE POLITICS OF A ‘CLEAN’ BREAK?
15.00: Justice, Truth, or Internal Peace: Advantages and Disadvantages of Three Different Options Anton Pelinka, Central European University, Hungary
15.20: Clean Break and Usable History. The Hungarian Debate of the Historians; Andras Kovács, Central European University, Hungary
16.00: Discussion
16.30: Coffee break
17.00: Israel’s Prenatal Memory: Born in 1948 – Traumatized in 1938; Moshe Zimmermann, Hebrew University of Jerusalem,Israel
17.20: Spoken Silence –Bridging Breaks. The Discursive Construction of Historical Continuities and Turning Points in Austrian
Commemorative Speeches; Martin Reisigl, University of Vienna, Austria
17.40: Discussi on
 
Saturday, June 28            
Panel 3: Collective and Individual Trauma: Confronting War Crimes
09.30: Constructing Memories of War. The Case of Poland; Jan Gross, Princeton University, USA
09.50: Spain between Amnesia and Political Instrumentalization of the Recent Past; Walther Bernecker, University of Erlangen, Germany
10.10: The Legacy of the Holocaust and Scandinavian Small-State Foreign Policy; Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke, Danish Institute for International Studies, Denmark
10.30: Discussion
11.10: Coffee Break
11.30: Confronting War Crimes of the "Wehrmacht"; Walter Manoschek, University of Vienna, Austria
11.50: Images of the "Other" and Danish Politics of the Past: Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and the Dream of Cultural and Ethnic Homogeneity; Thorsten Wagner, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
12.10: From Collective Violence to a Common Future: Four Models of Dealing with a Traumatic Past; Aleida Assmann, University of Konstanz, Germany
12.30: Discussion