A magyar „emlékezet helyei” és a traumatikus múlt

Abstract

Memory is gaining ever greater significance in the formation of national consciousness. With academic historiography losing ground, this phenomenon is mainly caused by the coming into the forefront of collective memory. One of the crucial features of the nation is that it is also a memorial community; that is, the members of the nation remember in the same way and forget collectively as well. From the point of view of Hungarian national consciousness as a memorial community the Trianon-syndrome is the dominant point of reference, actually implying various meanings even today. This mainly stems from political faction. The cult of Trianon has revived lately, and it is fed by public history, offering the political utilization of the past. As opposed to this, the other evident example of the traumatic Hungarian past, the Holocaust is still unable to become a real national lieu de mémoire. Thus, two „cold” cultures of collective memory stand fatally opposed to each other, while both claim the position of the sole victim.