Politics of memory and memorial culture in contemporary Yemen

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Abstract

The author of the presented article analyzes the features and directions of development of historical politics as wars of memory in modern conflict societies of the Middle East in the Yemeni contexts. It is assumed that the conflict in Yemen is stimulated not only by social, political and economic reasons, but also by contradictions based on mutually exclusive ideas about the past. The author shows that wars of memory are characteristic of both relations between countries of the region and individual societies. The aim of the article is to analyze how the collective historical memory of Yemen develops in a conflict society. Methodologically, the article is based on the interdisciplinary historiography of historical memory and historical politics. The novelty of the study lies in the comparative study of wars of memory as a factor in the development of historical politics and memorial cultures in modern politically unstable and unstable societies of North Africa and the Middle East. The article shows that 1) different visions and versions of Yemeni history and past stimulate political conflicts, 2) Yemeni political elites are involved in the process of history manipulation, which stimulates the instrumentalization of the past, turning it into a political resource, 3) memory wars in Yemen stimulate the nationalization of history. It is assumed that the processes of building a nation-state in Yemen are not complete, which forces the ruling political elites to use the symbolic potential of history as a mobilization resource. It is shown that history has become a symbolic battlefield, and memory wars have become a universal form of development of memorial cultures. The author believes that 1) the elites actively use the symbolic resources of history and will continue this policy in the near chronological perspective, 2) hypothetically military-political conflicts can be resolved, which will turn history into a battlefield, since contradictions cannot be completely overcome, 3) memory wars can become a universal form of internal and external communication of conflicting societies.

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