Yuval Schneider

Guilt, Shame & Blame: Political Emotions and Collective Memory

My dissertation lies at the intersection of literature, memory studies, politics and psychology. It aims to gain a better understanding of political emotions and collective memory by analyzing them from a literary and rhetorical perspective. Although emotions are considered to be private and individual, they are often used as a rhetorical tool in public discourse. They can form collective identities and social alliances and are, therefore, political. This project will ask how political emotions circulate, how they are strategically instrumentalized and how they can impact social processes and interpretations of the past. As a case study, the dissertation will analyze German and Russian literature and rhetoric following the National-Socialist and Stalinist eras. It will focus on the emotions of guilt, shame and blame and their usage in regard to collective memory discourse. These emotions are anchored in social norms, they are associated with judgement and morality and are therefore considered to have a more significant impact on behavior and decision-making. Moreover, since there is close correlation between guilt, shame and blame, this project will analyze how these emotions can trigger and impact one another and how they can be manipulated to attain certain political agendas.
Through this analysis, the dissertation will attempt to shed light on the close interconnectedness of collective memory and political emotions. It will attempt to show that the two mutually support and influence one another. The usage of political emotions can impact the interpretation of the past and lead to changes in the collective memory narrative. At the same time, changes in the historical narrative can also shape policies in the present and influence the current public sentiment.