Dynamics of Memory and Identity in Contemporary Europe

The collapse of the Iron Curtain, the renationalization of eastern Europe and the simultaneous eastward expansion of the European Union have all impacted the way the past is remembered in today's eastern Europe. At the same time, memory in western Europe has changed significantly in recent years as the Europeanization of Holocaust memory and an ever-increasing sense of the need to stage a more "self-critical" memory has led to a change of emphasis in memorialization and commemoration. The increasing dissatisfaction among scholars with the blanket, undifferentiated use of the term "collective memory" is evolving in new directions. This volume brings the tension into focus, while also addressing the state of memory theory itself.