Narration of History and Transformation of the Conflict through Shifted Perceptions of the Other: The Case of Georgia

This study explores how discourses about past and narration of history have been developed and how they affect formation of identity in Georgia. The research methods include: interviews with twenty-five individuals representing various identity groups and having various social backgrounds, including those from breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Besides, in-depth biographical interviews method, I used thick description and engaged observation methods to get insight into public memorial practices and processing memory. I also dealt with secondary data, using comparative sequential method to understand whether there are changes taking place in history textbooks, wider literature, media products and speeches of the country’s leaders. This method also let me understand what are the changes in narration styles elaborated in public and political realms of Georgia. The research is based on understanding of how narration styles accumulated in different and specific milieus of society and public, and transmitted by political elites shaped identity boundaries that bring conflict as a modus vivendi and a modus operandi in generations of those who lived in Soviet Georgia and in modern day Georgia. Meanwhile, public disputes on matters of recent history illuminate the development of alternative languages of telling the history and its application in daily social life. The latter changes emerge in a variety of social and cultural conflicts alongside the boundaries of ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender identity and social status. Thus, society is divided and split, differentiating human beings bringing identification marks of the Other into discourse. Differentiation and conflict between various narratives and their bearers not always result in conciliation or consensus even if dialogue frameworks are set. It depends on public and political spheres in which these frameworks should operate. Power imbalances that are manifested in struggle and resistance do not always result in the emergence of the unifying and inclusionary political discourse. The persistence of contradictions between themes, styles and political effects of narration and representation contribute to seemingly unresolvable social-cultural and political conflicts. This research on how languages of telling stories of the past are elaborated and applied to actual societal, public and political spaces presents possibilities for positive transformation of inevitable conflicts and empowering of relevant groups of people engaged in them to develop emotional-cultural skills of learning and understanding perspectives of their own and of those identified as Others. This knowledge holds promise for affecting power imbalances too. The research concludes that learning based on critical thinking and empathy can shift perils of perception of truth of one’s own and widen spaces of cognitive and cultural processing of information and interpretation that may overcome and transform the deeply rooted older languages and styles of narration of history that divide public and polarize politics in Georgia.

Author

• Saldadze, Malkhaz

• Conflict transformation
• Cultural trauma
• Georgia
• History narrative
• Identity
• Intergroup dynamics

Identifier

hdl:1920/13898

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/13898