On the Significance of the Concept of Memory Culture in Urban Studies (A Case Study of Vilnius)

Abstract

This article aims to present the possibilities offered to urban studies by the concept of memory culture. The case study discussed is that of Vilnius in the 1990–2018 period. The definition put forward by C. Cornelißen, for whom memory culture is “the formal generic term for all possible forms of conscious human memory of historical events, personages and processes”, inspired the creation of a research model encompassing: the multilingual urban discourse of Vilnius (analysis of texts), interviews with representatives of the official and alternative discourses of Vilnius’ memory (analysis of oral histories), and spatial representations of the past (analysis of carriers of memory). This diversified corpus of sources will allow for as comprehensive as possible a description of the phenomenon that is present-day Vilnius’ memory culture; it will also extend the boundaries of research towards true interdisciplinarity.

Keywords

• memory culture
• literature as medium of memory
• texts of urban discourse
• carriers of memory
• transculturality
• performative city