POLITICS OF MEMORY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: ASSIMILATION FEATURES OF THE WESTERN MEMORIAL PROJECT IN ARAB LIBERALISM

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to analyze the liberal version of the politics of memory in the modern Arab world. The author analyzes the features and main directions of constructing the past by Arab intellectuals. The novelty of the study lies in the analysis of liberal trends in the actual memorial culture of the Arab world. Methodologically, the article is based on the principles of interdisciplinary historiography of historical and cultural collective memories. The author distinguishes the concepts of "historical politics" and "politics of memory". It is assumed that “historical politics” is conducted by political elites for the reproduction of conservative stability and loyalty. The author analyzes the “politics of memory” as a number of practices and strategies of Arab liberal intellectuals using radical humanitarian epistemology for construction and promotion of new versions and forms of the past, forming alternative memorial cultures and canons. The article analyzes the activity of liberal Arab intellectuals in contexts of the heterogeneity of modern intellectual historical culture. The article also analyzes attempts to transplant a radical humanitarian epistemology as a form of revision of historical memory. It is assumed that the liberal form of the memorial politics is alternative and marginal simultaneously, but theoretically and methodologically, the ideas of Arab liberals are comparable with the main trends in the development of Western interdisciplinary historiography of memorial cultures.