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Introduction. The Anarchive of Memories : Restor(y)ing Cold-War Childhoods

  • Mnemo ZIN (author)
Chapter of: (An)Archive: Childhood, Memory, and the Cold War(pp. 5–26)

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Metadata
TitleIntroduction. The Anarchive of Memories
SubtitleRestor(y)ing Cold-War Childhoods
ContributorMnemo ZIN (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0383.00
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0383/chapters/10.11647/obp.0383.00
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightMnemo ZIN
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-04-22
Long abstractHow can we curate a collection of childhood memories to highlight multiple and multilayered stories beyond the fixed thematic organisation of a traditional archive? How can we archive memories in ways that offer audiences an opportunity to make their own interpretations and create new connections across memory stories, while inviting them to share memories in return? How can an archive be reflexive of its own creation, growth, and transformation, continuously arranging and rearranging, adding and affirming, disrupting and challenging the memories kept there? These questions guided the creation of this book, challenging not only ways of archiving ‘data’ but also the idea of memory as witness to history and complicating interpretations of childhoods lived during the Cold War. This chapter introduces readers to the anarchive, an evolving assemblage of childhood memories, artworks, scholarly articles, pedagogical frameworks, and methodological interventions that came out of our project ‘Reconnect/Recollect: Crossing the Divides through Memories of Cold War Childhoods’. It explains connections between memory work, collective biography, childhood studies, and the Cold War, and it offers some suggestions for engaging with the anarchive, including multiple thematic, artistic, and affective threads that we have found interesting, insightful, or surprising. This chapter is an invitation to enter and explore the memory anarchive.
Page rangepp. 5–26
Print length22 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Mnemo ZIN

(author)

Mnemo ZIN is a composite name for Zsuzsa Millei, Iveta Silova, and Nelli Piattoeva who grew up on the Eastern side of the Iron Curtain―Zsuzsa in Hungary, Iveta in Latvia, and Nelli in Karelia. Our paths first crossed ten years ago through an informal exchange of childhood memories and quickly evolved into close collaboration using collective biography research. Our collective name acknowledges the interdependent nature of our work against the individualist, hierarchical, and competitive culture of modern academia. It is inspired by the stories from Greek mythology, especially Mnemosyne―the goddess of memory, daughter of Gaia, and the mother of the nine Muses.

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