Social Memory and Commemorative Landscapes in Medieval Europe’s East

This book investigates the social processes of memory formation that were at work among aristocratic groups in medieval Eastern Europe as they attempted to forge a new past that would be in conformity with the present. With an emphasis on the pioneering work of French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, it particularly explores the reciprocal relations between the production of social memory and the local environment. As such, the book tries to answer the question of why some historical events and personages, no matter whether they were real or imagined, became especially popular in specific localities, even though their connections with these places were dubious. The study focuses on how, from the sixteenth century onwards, social memories of Mindowe (Mindoŭh, Mindaugas), allegedly Lithuania’s first king, came to be associated closely with Navahrudak in the Upper Neman area rather than with Vilnius/Wilno, the Grand Duchy’s capital.

Uladzimir Kananovich is a visiting scholar at the Technische Universität Dortmund, and is affiliated with the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris). His main interests are chivalric culture, history of diplomacy, and social memories in the Middle Ages and early modern period.