What Memory for Migrant Women in Central Europe? Gendered Memoryscapes and Transcultural Histories Between Pasts and Futures
Abstract
The study critically explores various forms of representation and commemoration of migrant women in the public space or the lack of it. It aims to refine the conceptual apparatus and moves from the established concepts of communicative and cultural memory (J. and A.
Assmanns) to the more processual concept of transcultural memory (A. Erll).
It also draws attention to the usefulness of the notion of memory markers (S. Marschall).
The author argues that the perspectives of gender and migration encourage new readings of mnemonic landscapes and invite data-informed reflection on past, present and future coexistence with sociocultural others and their materialisations in the public space. The production of collective memory should not be understood as a neutral or apolitical process.
Memoryscapes can be seen as sociocultural (re)configurations and processes open to re-negotiations. Geographically, the study gravitates to Central Europe and explores the examples of early modern to contemporary migrant women.
It outlines a working typology of reference narratives. On the basis of the dataset and typology, the author coins the concept of the cost of memory in order to point out the largely low-budget, small-scale parameters of the commemoration of (migrant) women in the public space.