Trapped in the Past: Memories of Georgian Internally Displaced Persons on the Margins of Society. Issue 3 (18th June 2019)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Trapped in the Past: Memories of Georgian Internally Displaced Persons on the Margins of Society. Issue 3 (18th June 2019)
- Main Title:
- Trapped in the Past: Memories of Georgian Internally Displaced Persons on the Margins of Society
- Authors:
- Toria, Malkhaz
Pirtskhalava, Nino
Kekelia, Elene
Ladaria, Konstantine - Abstract:
- Abstract: From the early 1990s through the 2008 "Russo-Georgian war, " waves of armed conflicts in the Abkhazia and South Ossetia/Tskhinvali regions of Georgia forced thousands of residents, mainly ethnic Georgians, to leave their homes. More than two decades of protracted internal displacement, marked by tough economic and social problems, led this vulnerable community to a common trap in reckoning with the past: an overwhelming sense of the fundamental ruptures between the idealized past and current, miserable reality. Failures of the displacement policy and "side effects" of numerous humanitarian aid projects hinder internally displaced persons' social integration and leave them on the margins of Georgian society with almost a singular option: to constantly recall meaningful life in the lost homeland, which they remember as free of ethnic phobias and economic problems. In this article, we suggest that for persons who are internally displaced, memories are defined not only by their past lived experiences and present hardships, but also by the official historical narratives that argue that Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian "endemic" unity and cohabitation was destroyed by Russian imperial politics. Living in constant pain also narrows the future expectations of the internally displaced persons. However, it is the past and the memories that are supposed to be useful in achieving the utopian dream of a return.
- Is Part Of:
- Nationalities papers. Volume 47:Issue 3(2019)
- Journal:
- Nationalities papers
- Issue:
- Volume 47:Issue 3(2019)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 47, Issue 3 (2019)
- Year:
- 2019
- Volume:
- 47
- Issue:
- 3
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2019-0047-0003-0000
- Page Start:
- 429
- Page End:
- 444
- Publication Date:
- 2019-06-18
- Subjects:
- internally displaced persons, -- historical narrative, -- contested narratives, -- nostalgic memory
Ethnology -- Europe, Eastern -- Periodicals
Ethnology -- Former Soviet republics -- Periodicals
Immigrants -- United States -- Periodicals
305.8 - DOI:
- 10.1017/nps.2018.34 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0090-5992
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 6033.449000
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 10853.xml