Encounter the Memory – Scandinavian History Cultures
This article deals with history culture in different areas in Scandinavia. The main points are as follow:
History culture is in official and political contexts masculine. Symbols of war, death and nationality create the realm in which political and ideological use of history flourish, while the feminine elements, especially the female sexuality, present passive pictures of the nation. This might lead to a diverse history culture whereas official political culture which narrative abbreviations connotation war affect men while a more personal and intimate history representation, such as advertisement, are supposed to affect women.
History culture produces different kinds of uses. A perspective on what Friedrich Nietzsche names the antiquarian way, is history as fetish. By means of the fetishistic use of artifacts as well as narrative abbreviations, history replaces absence in daily life and official politic, such as taboo or lack of positions in political agendas. An example of that is the Swedish campaign Levande Historia (Living History) on Holocaust. The idea was politically initiated and derived from certain assumption about lack of knowledge on Holocaust among Swedish schoolchildren, but also from a will to entrance the global social memory of World War II.
The historian has two roles in the official history culture. The first is the part as an expert on history and thereby an actor among others in the field of history production. The second function is that of the analyzer of history culture. This article stresses the idea that theory of social memory and history culture must include not only the reception of history, but also the reception and representation of history in areas we do not associate with history representation in order to seek for the connection between official history culture and private social memory.