Postmemory of trauma as transgenerational еmpathy: Remembering the Santa pain in Pontic dialogical singing

Abstract

This article examines the relation between music and the transgenerational trauma of the Pontic Greeks - the descendants of the 1923 Black Sea [Karadeniz] refugees. More specifically, the article concerns the 1921 destruction of the Santa locality, in Gümüşhane province, and how the memory of this violence is negotiated in the practice of dialogical and participatory singing called parakathi or muhabeti. It is demonstrated how muhabeti enables Pontians to cultivate an empathic postmemory of the 1920s refugees’ Santa trauma and what this might mean for trauma theory in general.

Keywords

• music performance
• dialogue
• monumentalization
• postmemory
• empathy