{"title":"Solidarity: Memory work, periodicals and the protest lexicon in the long 1960s.","authors":"Sophie van den Elzen","doi":"10.1177/17506980241263237","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article examines the lexical memory work performed by the British New Left as it differentiated itself from the organised labour movement post-1956. It argues that activists use memory to reframe the meaning of keywords in the 'protest lexicon', and that this is an important, though usually implicit, activist cultural practice. Based on previous work in conceptual history and cognitive science, it begins by situating lexical memory work as an activity on the border between narrative historical memory, semantic memory and implicit collective memory. It then discusses the resignification of the word <i>solidarity</i> during the long 1960s, when lexical work was a key feature of the New Left's apostasy from traditional Marxism. Finally, it examines the case of the British heterodox Marxist journal, <i>Solidarity</i>, outlining how it intervened in the protest lexicon by wrenching free the keyword <i>solidarity</i> from previous meanings, changing its historical referent and, ultimately, resignifying it.</p>","PeriodicalId":47104,"journal":{"name":"Memory Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11481006/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Memory Studies","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980241263237","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/10/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CULTURAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article examines the lexical memory work performed by the British New Left as it differentiated itself from the organised labour movement post-1956. It argues that activists use memory to reframe the meaning of keywords in the 'protest lexicon', and that this is an important, though usually implicit, activist cultural practice. Based on previous work in conceptual history and cognitive science, it begins by situating lexical memory work as an activity on the border between narrative historical memory, semantic memory and implicit collective memory. It then discusses the resignification of the word solidarity during the long 1960s, when lexical work was a key feature of the New Left's apostasy from traditional Marxism. Finally, it examines the case of the British heterodox Marxist journal, Solidarity, outlining how it intervened in the protest lexicon by wrenching free the keyword solidarity from previous meanings, changing its historical referent and, ultimately, resignifying it.
期刊介绍:
Memory Studies is an international peer reviewed journal. Memory Studies affords recognition, form, and direction to work in this nascent field, and provides a critical forum for dialogue and debate on the theoretical, empirical, and methodological issues central to a collaborative understanding of memory today. Memory Studies examines the social, cultural, cognitive, political and technological shifts affecting how, what and why individuals, groups and societies remember, and forget. The journal responds to and seeks to shape public and academic discourse on the nature, manipulation, and contestation of memory in the contemporary era.