Historical Memory as the Basis of Group Identity

Abstract

The paper examines the role of historiography in the formation of the identity of imaginary communities ("wegroups") by conceptualizing the past. Historiographic concepts serve both to define the boundaries of "their" group and selfidentify its members, as well as to form opinions about other "we-groups". Concepts of identity based on the common perceptions of the past in this community are created within the framework of special institutions. They are considered as a phenomenon of "historical memory", which is a modus of "cultural memory". A distinctive feature of "historical memory" is an appeal to the mythological images and mutually exclusive interpretations of the past. In the ideological aspect, historiography serves as the basis for justifying the claims of this "we-group" in the present.