Strategy for national memory formation: institutional discussion of V. Yushchenko.

Abstract

This article examines institutional practices through which symbolic texts influence the formation of national memory. Studying the display texts, laws and the nature of monuments. The strategies of forming the policy of national memory are considered. The instability and inconsistency of the national identity policy are emphasized.

National memory is a key component of the collective identity of the state. Different interpretations of historical events risk creating different discourses that conflict with each other. And political institutions, as interpreters of the development of official texts, are responsible for the dichotomy of identical meanings. Symbolic texts, as structures of discourses, consist of arguments, metaphors, phonologies, linguistic, communication and normative acts. They are used through stories, news. This is a condition for the functioning of discourse, through which meaning is created as political diligence. The official political discourse creates a regulation that points to the official text. It relates to topics that are introduced into the public space, with political processes, political leaders, political events, the ideology of the state, etc. All the themes that society has to reflect, are challenging for political power. And the participants in such a discourse are the main actors of political processes: on the one hand – the political elite and political institutions, on the other hand – the public. The purpose of the article is to study political institutions as the main actors of official political discourse, which, through the policy of national memory, produce the collective meaning of the nation. The discovery of symbolic texts, patterns, and the themes that formed the strategy of national memory during the time of President Viktor Yushchenko will reveal the main advantages and disadvantages of forming the necessary directions for the development of this problem in the scientific and institutional space.