The Politics of Memory: (E-)Linking Communities in the Eastern Mediterranean

This presentation will analyse existing personal local Eastern Mediterranean memories, of oral histories, in the light of official accounts and there accompanying politics. It will also report on the LIME project which is creating a reservoir of oral histories and (comparative) texts about them, intertwining and overlapping the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean. While official political memories shape much of what people believe, individual ones carry a personalized weight oftentimes counteracting the former. It examines existing personal accounts of the vagaries of what is the eastern Mediterranean historical experience and juxtapose them with official political accounts, e.g. the recently published official report on Cyprus 1964-74. Of particular interest to me is finding ways to add to the personal voices, creating an ongoing, sustainable project and in some ways carrying on a prior EU initiative (see below). Especially the latter part will create a dynamic attempt at sustainability, making explicit the crossings evident in this region of the world.