War, transgenerational memory and documentary film: mediated and institutional memory in historical culture

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article makes use of history documentary films to examine mediated historical culture and memory narrated by media. It particularly focuses on transgenerational dimensions of memory in media representations – the idea of how collective memories are transmitted through media to a second generation of people who did not directly experience the actual events but who nonetheless have often been exposed to the traumatic tensions of the first generation. The article first asks how mediated memory provides different views on war in historical culture. Second, it discusses how the memory of war is negotiated in the contemporary institutional historical culture of a democracy. The article demonstrates that since the role of the state in public remembrance is no longer as clear-cut as before, at least in democratic countries, historical culture is a more appropriate and precise concept than either civil society or even public history for analysing the importance of memory in society. The article also confirms the notion that it is difficult, if not even impossible, to separate media-narrated memory into the collective and private spheres of life. The empirical body of research consists of three Finnish history documentary films on WWII screened or broadcast in 2017, when Finland celebrated its 100-year anniversary.