Europe’s Troubled Pasts in Comparative Perspective

Giorgos Antoniou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece; Vasiliki Triga, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus.

How are deep, divisive conflicts remembered after they have ended? How can collective memories of the past shape the future? And what is the impact of the EU as an actor that helps the countries to overcome their troubled pasts? This book examines the processes of construction of collective and individual memories in post-conflict societies. The focus is on different types of troubled pasts, such as civil wars, genocides, and authoritarian past, and their representation in the public and private sphere through historical texts, fiction, cinema and art in eight different case studies. It specifically examines the impact of the recent crises on the emergence of past narratives as part of an anti-european movement. This book provides insights to scholars, policy makers and the general readers demonstrating the complex relation between violent events of the past, their representation in countries as Germany, Greece, Spain, Poland (and others) and the European entanglement.