III Forum Mondiale dei Giovani "Diritto Di Dialogo": Quale Memoria?/ III World Youth Forum "Right to Dialogue": Which Memory? Trieste 2-3 Ottobre 2010

From the Introduction by G. Valera: "This is a very complex book, because of the variety of the interventions and of the perspectives from which ‘memory’ as an object has been penetrated in order to recognize its ‘qualities’ (Which memory? was the title of the Forum); but also because the authors of the papers come from different countries and stories, have different cultural backgrounds and life experiences. Even the style of the texts is not homogeneous: some are literarily interesting, others appear in the shape of a brief essay (according to the granted space limitations), others as a simple contribution. But this variety proves to be coherent with the ‘multilingual’ approach the Forum is willing to enact. [...] I have insofar reached the end of this rereading – of course voluntary partial but nonetheless respectful – of the presented papers. But there is still one question worth to consider: I am referring to historiographical perspective suggested by a revisited notion of “cultural memory” (as used by Anastasia Vekshina in her paper). This perspective seems to be at the core of a historiographical reconsideration of the theme of memory (displayed on the other hand by a specialized bibliography, within which I will just mention the foundational work by Aleida Assmann, Erinnerungen, Formen und Wandlungen des kulturellen Gadächtnisses, 1999, It. trans. 2002). The tension between memory and memories revealed to be a constant feature of the various perspectives approaching the theme, urging to a subjective re-appropriation both of memories, in order to contrast a far too rigid and codified public or collective memory, and of memory, contrasting on the other hand a specialistic or experiential dispersion of memories preventing the historical elaboration of life (as a whole as well in private spaces as in time and spaces of history). This way a renovated understanding of cultural memory seems to be capable of contributing the narratives a new reflection on the past. It is certainly a complex category, variously declined by scholars, which has an intrinsic reference to the notion of culture and is marked by the contiguity with other memories otherwise qualified, e.g., public memory, collective memory, shared memory. We cannot investigate here all these themes, neither we can deepen the various aspects regulating that mutual fashioning, through subjective participation, of the individual dimension (even better, personal) of memory, and its collective dimension. Let’s just think about commemoration as an elaboration of memories between private and public spheres (with all the implications involved by this ‘public’ quality) or about sharing as an elaboration of shared memories within a voluntarily defined memory. Even if we are aware of all the potentials expressed by this notion and as well of the difficulties connected to it, it seems to us that cultural memory, as a heuristic category and as a programmed perspective, might give to memory that temporal openness it requires to become a space for change. (From the introducion by G. Valera) Papers by Gabriella Valera, Anastasia Vekshina (Russia), Alessandro Cattunar, Katia Knezevic (Croazia), Irma Bilali (Albania), Francesco Querin, Omer Masood Qureshi (Iraq), Hana Sustkova (Repubblica Ceca) Xhudi Berdica (Albania), Salvatore Vaccaro, Iva Ticic (Croazia), Slobodan Nikolic (Serbia), Grancesca G.M. Gastaldi, Tommaso Manzon, ANtony Atandi Anyona (Kenya), Gaetano Dato, Michela MOnferrini, Blessing Onyinyechi Fubara (Nigeria), Max Fassetta, Wiktor Macjej (Polonia), Cjharles MOnkam (Camerun), Kitamura Michiko (Giappone), MOna Seddighi (Iran), Carlos Ermnesto Easpinosa Navas (Ecuador), Zsofia Nagy (UngheriaI