Page 17 - TLU magazine - The Way to The Top

"The feeling that our history and
its uniqueness isn't understood is common to many Eastern European countries."
that it was something similar to the holocaust. Some parts of the global audience may not like this comparison and this creates arguments. Our project is interested in those arguments.
How important is the role of politics besides art in this project?
One of our strengths is that we aren't staying strictly in the field of arts, but studying litera- ture and films in the context of wider memory politics. We study what kinds of aesthetic and political debates the pieces have triggered. Additionally, how states get involved with the creation and distribution of certain books and films through financial support, prizes, etc.
How many similar studies have been done before and what is the novelty of this project?
Eastern European memory culture and politics have been studied a lot, but comparative studies have always been difficult to carry out because of the amount of countries and languages spo- ken in Eastern Europe.
Eneken Laanes
ies have already found that cultural memory processes are global, but we haven't quite yet figured out how exactly different images of history spread. Translation and global studies should help us answer this question.
How big is your team and what researchers are you still looking for in the project?
There will be seven people taking part, in- cluding two experienced researchers, we are currently looking for two post-doctoral fellows and three doctoral students through a global competition. The team will start working on
1 September 2020. When gathering the team, it is important that members know different East- ern European languages and are knowledge- able of local memory cultures. The European Research Council grant is a rare opportunity to bring researchers of Eastern European culture from abroad to Estonia.
TALLINN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE / NO. 14 / SPRING 2020
"Translating Memories: The Eastern European Past in the Global Arena" is a project with a duration of five years (1 January 2020 to 31 December 2024), which was granted a 1.5 million euros from the European Research Council (ERC) in 2019. Project leader: TU School of Humanities comparative literature studies and cultural analysis associate professor Eneken Laanes.
The novelty of the project is the use of new
ideas and methods from translation studies
and global studies in addition to the methods
of studying cultural memory. Memory stud- Kertu Kula 17
Research communication specialist
Photo: Piret Räni