Heroes and heroism as representations of collective memory

Abstract

The article presents the results of the interdisciplinary philosophical-sociological study of heroism. In the theoretical introductory part, the authors conducted the semiotic analysis of the concept of heroism in the context of the concept of chronotope in Western-European culture; identified the constants of the Russian semantics of the ‘hero’, ‘heroism’ and ‘heroic’; described the dynamics of changes in the meanings of the ‘heroic’, ‘deed’ and ‘feat’. The sociological approach follows the philosophical understanding of heroism and considers this phenomenon through a social relationship (In N.K. Mikhailovsky’s perspective). To comprehend the relationship between the hero and the crowd, the authors refer to such sociological approaches as creative and relational theories of social action and P. Donati’s relational sociology. The empirical part presents the results of the sociological survey of 1,350 Russians from different generations in eight federal districts; thus, the authors consider the concepts of hero and heroism as representations of collective (historical) memory. The empirical study consisted of two parts: the first one focused on the collective memory of Russians and their historical knowledge, the second one - on heroes and heroism in the interpretation of the Soviet and post-Soviet generations. The results of the first part show the general weakening of collective memory, and the events of older history are less interesting and less known than, for example, those of the Soviet period. Most of the significant events in the Russian history are perceived as triumphant, not as traumatic, and most military campaigns, including the current ones, are perceived through the figure of the winner, not the loser. Respondents believe that there was more heroism in the past. Heroism is associated with such personal qualities as strength, activity, a sense of duty, desire to save others not for profit, the ability not to give up even in the most difficult situation. The hero is perceived not only as a savior, but also as a truth-seeker, which is especially significant for Soviet generations.

Keywords

• hero
• heroism
• russian generations
• collective (historical) memory
• representations of memory
• chronotope
• semiotic analysis
• triumph and trauma