The formation of the main forms of historical memory and historical consciousness in the world humanities: theory and historiography of the issue

Abstract

The article analyzes the formation of a number of key concepts of a separate direction of humanitarian research – memory studies, namely collective memory, cultural and historical memory and historical consciousness. The main attention is paid to the consideration of the formation of the specified concepts, their initial content and further content evolution. Given the peculiarities of the scientific approach of domestic historiography, the views of leading Ukrainian scientists on the specified issues were highlighted.

It has been determined that the actual ancestor and founder of memory studies is considered to be the French philosopher and sociologist Maurice Albrechts, who formulated the theory of collective memory on the eve of World War II. A kind of «boom» in the subject of memory studies dates back to the 1980s and 1990s, when Pierre Nora, Jan Assman, Eric Hobsbawm, Marianne Hirsch, Paul Ricoeur and other researchers published their large-scale works. It was in their works that the theoretical substantiation of the key conceptual and terminological apparatus of this subject was developed.

Domestic historical science, starting from the 1990s, has been actively involved in understanding and adapting the issues of memory studies to the context of national thematic specificity. Among other things, Ukrainian researchers are particularly interested in the relationship between historical memory and historical consciousness with issues of national identification and nation-building.

According to the results of the study, it was determined that the key issues of memory studies were considered in foreign humanitarian science in the second half of the twentieth century. Today, this issue is generally developed and structured, therefore, certain clarifications and intermediate generalizations are being made. This topic entered Ukrainian humanitarian studies after the proclamation of state independence and the elimination of the ideological monopoly of the methodology of Marxism. Its further development will allow for the conceptualization and concretization of the national aspect of the main forms of historical memory and historical consciousness.