What Should the Left Remember? Todor Kuljic’s “Manifesto”

 
PIIS207987840030361-6-1
DOI10.18254/S207987840030361-6
Publication type Article
Status Published
Authors
Affiliation: Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod
Address: Russian Federation, Nizhni Novgorod
Journal nameISTORIYA
Edition
Abstract

In his “Manifesto of the Left’s Memory” (2021), Todor Kuljich, a famous Serbian sociologist of Marxist inclination, presents new theoretical approaches for developing an alternative memory project. He sharply criticizes the dominant paradigm of cultural memory in the European Union, which serves the interests of capital. The defeat of state socialism after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 led to the restoration and naturalization of old values of the market, nation, and religion. The wars in the former Yugoslavia were merely a byproduct of this. The prevailing temporal structure of extended modernity criminalized the left’s past in the memory of victims of totalitarian regimes and overshadowed the horizon of hope for a better future. In the absence of a relevant “concrete utopia” for the left, according to Kuljich, they should engage in reevaluating their own past, regardless of the dictates of dominant memory. The emphasis should be on transforming passive melancholia into active one by turning to moments of revolutionary breakthroughs and missed opportunities. However, while formulating some theoretical principles, Kuljich left many practical questions regarding the politics of memory unresolved.

Keywordspolitics of memory, counter-memory of Marxist Left, countries of the former Yugoslavia
Received06.11.2023
Publication date25.03.2024
Number of characters40080
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