HISTORICAL MEMORY AS A FACTOR OF THE FORMATION OF SOCIETAL CULTURE

Abstract

The article is dedicated to research of relevant problems in the modern conditions in Ukraine and in the globalized world. The scientific research based on the phenomenological, hermeneutic methodology, as well as elements of psychoanalysis. The author analyzes the concept of memory and oblivion in detail. The comparison based on the basic concepts of Western scholars regarding memory problems, particularly: M. Halbwachs, J. Assmann, P. Nora, P. Konnerton and others. Most of them use the term “collective memory”, which was introduced into scientific circulation by M. Halbwachs. At the same time, significant attention is paid to structural and functional analysis of collective memory as a social phenomenon, distinguishing different types of memory, which, to some extent, influence the formation of societal culture. The author identifies two main trends to address issues of national memory policy in Ukrainian society: excessive and insufficient. In the context of the second trend the author analyzes specific “victim memory” as a kind of collective mechanism which leads to forgetting the past events that are experienced by society as traumatic. But modern society should be sure to discuss these issues in the public discourse. So now it is very important to work on the elaboration of a societal culture, which can consolidate nation.