Remembering Independence, Desiring Enemies: Reflections on Nationhood in Contemporary Lithuania

Abstract

The paper addresses the remembrance of events surrounding the restoration of Lithuanian independence, as well as their repercussions on the present, concentrating on the younger generation that does not have fi rst-hand experience of the period and, therefore, has to rely on other people’s accounts, textbooks, and other sources.If one considers the state and, especially, its social (or communal) dimension as impossible totalities, memory and history acquire signifi cant importance as they both provide ‘a magma of signifi cations’, out of which particular signifying structures are instituted in order to anchor meaning and exhort a unifying claim through dominant narratives that tend to subjugate the otherwise inevitable variety of discourses. The discourse of the Lithuanian history textbooks is analysed by outlining its emphasis on unity and selfsacrifi ce in 1988-1991, and by portraying the Lithuanian history as an unending struggle against enemies and their malevolent plots. Also, considering the accounts of young people, two tendencies are visible: fi rst, a bias towards images of unity and self-sacrifi ce depicting the period concerned, second, the predilection to employ the categories of ‘aliens’ and ‘enemies’ is evident, signifi cantly aff ecting perceptions of the present with widespread images of disintegration and decay in the absence of the Other.