The Concept of Trauma Society in the Works of German and Russian Social Scientists

In the past century, many nations experienced catastrophic events that produced cultural traumas reproduced in the mass consciousness from generation to generation. To understand similarities and differences between various types of historical collective trauma, this article provides an analytical overview of the works of German cultural scholar A. Assmann on contemporary German memorial culture, comparing them with J. T. Toshchenko's concept of a trauma society. Key attention is paid to A. Assmann's book “The New Discontent with Memorial Culture” about the experience of historical guilt for World War II as a national collective trauma by contemporary Germans. A comparison of Assmann's approaches with Toshchenko's works from 2010–2020 on historical memory and collective trauma in post-Soviet Russian society reveals commonalities and differences in the experience of national catastrophes. The conclusion is made that memorial culture associated with historical trauma, despite the presence of specific national features, has characteristics applicable to different countries. The concept of a “trauma society” should be considered universal, allowing research on historical memory and collective national trauma to be incorporated into the broader macrosociological theoretical framework of social development. At the same time, the qualitative differences between Russian trauma society, associated with the experience of the 1990s events, and German trauma society still experiencing the aftershocks of Nazi 1940s crimes are emphasized. A comparative review of discourses characteristic for various traumatized societies allows conclusion to conclude that it is necessary for the collective consciousness of societies to work with their historical memory, taking into account peculiarities of national culture, historical background, and current socio-political situation, in order to avoid socially dangerous destructive phenomena and processes.

trauma society, memorial culture, historical memory, communicative memory, collective trauma, national identity, сomparative sociology