| Abstract [eng] |
The problem and relevance of this paper derive from a few aspects. Firstly, the interest of society in such commemorative places, as the last five years of events showed (the removal of the commemorative plaques of the military officer/diplomat K. Skirpa, partisan J. Noreika-Vetra and writer V. Valsiuniene). Also, the constant involvement of the communities in the creative process of such commemorative places. However, what raises the issue here is that the power of (not) allowing the building of such commemorative places in their hands has the Vilnius city council. In the literature, we can find many reports related to commemorative practices, such as the monuments (in most cases, by looking at them retrospectively). However, plaques are usually a secondary practice. Even though the commemorative plaques obtain some interest from society during moments of tension, they cannot demonstrate a coherent Vilnius city identity. Therefore, the main question of this paper is: What kind of identity of the city of Vilnius has been created by commemorative plaques already in the period of independence? After the analysis of the Vilnius city commemorative plaques hanged after the Lithuania Independence Restoration (1990-2022), this report aims to examine what kind of identity is formed in Vilnius city and through what identity narrative. The thesis follows these objectives: to define the main concepts of this report and to form the theoretical report foundation; to form the appropriate methodology for the analysis of the content of commemorative plaques as the remembrance places forming Vilnius' identity; to explore the creative process of commemorative plaques; to examine the Vilnius identity narratives created by the content of the commemorative plaques; after presenting the report findings, to introduce the conclusions of what the main identity narratives in Vilnius city formed by commemorative plaques are and what kind of Vilnius city identity is possibly formed by those narratives. The report found that commemorative plaques in Vilnius are created by a vast number of creators. Therefore, the identity is created incoherently. As the results show, there is a focus on the three main narratives. The first one is the Victims and Heroes. It records the most important events for Lithuania and Vilnius, such as the night of 13th January, partisan movement, and different victims mostly related to the Soviet Union and nazis' occupations in the 20th century. This narrative reveals the separation between “we” and “they”, while “we” are Lithuanian soldiers, and “they” are the enemy (usually soviets or nazis). The second is the narrative of the signs of the statehood of the Republic of Lithuania, which divides into the interwar period (1918-1940) and the restored independent Lithuania period (1990-now). In this narrative, the identity construction happens based on the question of who was the independence from and whom did Lithuanians not want to identify. In the perpetuation of the period of restored independence prevails the process of memorializing Lithuania as a part of Europe and presenting the Soviets as enemies and occupiers. Meanwhile, the identity of the cultural city Vilnius created by commemorative plaques becomes an exceptional identity narrative of this city that occurs through the long period of living places or work of the commemorated individuals. The geographical borders expand by involving the individuals commemorated in different languages. To sum up, the identity of Vilnius city is created by commemorative plaques through different identity narratives. By merging, they form the common Vilnius identity, which not only complements the national identity but also creates an identity of Vilnius that is unique from other cities. |
