The voices of silence: The case of Georgian history textbooks

Abstract

ABSTRACT Multiple studies in the Social Sciences and Humanities emphasize the importance of textbooks in shaping collective memory as well as the process of transmission to a new generation. The state is considered the main agent in the formation of dominant narratives transmitted through textbooks. This article attempts to demonstrate that public opinion and judgment are as such important vectors of the official rhetoric or policy meant to influence the prevailing discourse. In post-conflict societies, the wider scholarship suggests that silencing, a type of forgetting, is an effective tool when telling stories of traumatization. Silencing is not only a form of forgetting, but rather a self-sufficient, independent category, and a deliberately selected technique of remembering. It is an intentional strategy of voiceless speaking. Using a qualitative research method, I build my arguments on a textual analysis of the six most common Georgian school history textbooks from 1993 to 2018, focusing on chapters relating to the 1992–93 war in Abkhazia. I propose three types of silencing: traumatic, personalized and victimized. This study contributes to the vibrant discussion about memory agents, as well as correlations between individual, collective and official memory. It explores the impact of such memories on the national curricula.