FACING AND HIDING COLLECTIVE FACING AND HIDING COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES: THE ROLE OF RESPONSIBILITIES: THE ROLE OF

INTERGENERATIONAL NARRATIVES IN INTERGENERATIONAL NARRATIVES IN CONTROVERSIAL HISTORICAL IDENTITIESCONTROVERSIAL HISTORICAL IDENTITIES

Giovanna Leone – University of Rome - "La Sapienza", Italy Alberta Contarello - University of Padua, Italy

Graziana Curigliano, Giuseppe Mininni - University of Bari, Italy

8th ICSR – 31th August 2006 –

Theoretical assumptions (a)Theoretical assumptions (a)

Distinction between History SRs (Liu & Hilton, 2004) and Lived History (Halbwachs, 1950) SRs 

  History SRs Lived History SRs

Source Institutional; mass media

Family narratives; face-to-face narrative

Finality Informative; Entertainment

Affective (protection of family identity)

Theoretical assumptions (b)Theoretical assumptions (b)

• Distinction between Inter-group and In-group Reconciliation (Nadler, 2002)

    Paths Aims

Reconciliation after an Inter-group conflict

Instrumental(cooperative or neutral goals vs. competitive goals)

To separate interdependency between the two social identities of former enemies

Reconciliation after an In-group conflict

Socio-emotional(guilt-forgiveness cycles, across more generations)

To reintegrate interdependencybetween the two social identities of former enemies

Aims of the studyAims of the study

To Explore Social Representations of World War II by three generations of Italian participants

To Monitor Reconciliation processes after the in-group conflict between Italian Fascists and anti-Fascists

Material

Narrative compositions co-constructed by 4 focus group discussions: two groups of Elderly (N1=6; N2=6); one group of Adults (N3=6); one group of Youngs (N4=10)

Method

Discourse analysis with Appraisal System (Martin, 2000)  

ENGAGEMENT

  AFFECT   APPRAISAL ATTITUDE JUDGEMENT   APPRECIATION   GRADUATION

AffectAffect

• Luigi my parents. My mum …the bread 200 gr Black HOW IT WAS GOOD!(.) when Americans came they gave us a bread completely white, tasteless (0.2) white as snow it was! tasteless

• Michele the town was full of lights (.) I was a boy and I was curious (.) in 1945 I was 10 years old and I went to the cemetery and all along the road they put all these corpses, all along the road they put them (.) I can remember it quite precisely (.) an Englishmen who worked in the military offices in the harbour :::::: he had to be sitting at his desk and he remained sitting also when dead(.) I can really remember it precisely

Appreciation and judgementAppreciation and judgement Iacopo: also my grandmother tells that everything was

better in old times, and she did not starved (…) But when my grandmother says that she did not suffer a devastating impact of the war as many others did = ok my grandmother says they were well, lso the others ones, you know why? Because that was their mentality (.) You were (.) BOUND to think that way. My grandmother was not born yet and she::: she had ta number in the Party (.0,2)National Fascist Party ( (0.3) they did not have escapes, you could not think

ResultsResults

ATTITUDE ELDERLY ADULT YOUNG

Lived History SRs

(affect)

Autobiographical narrative

65% 0% 5%

History SRs

(judgement and appreciation)

Argomentative narrative

35% 100% 95%

DiscussionDiscussion

Elderly people narrative on WWII is characterized by emotional linguistic resources (Family Autobiographical narrative )

Youngs and Adults discuss on WWII with critics and judgements (Argomentative narrative)

Guilt attribution is uncertain: Youngs and Adults show a cognitive poliphasia (Wagner & Hayes, 2005), mixing institutional informations with family narratives

Conclusive remarksConclusive remarks

Focus group discussions of three generations of Italian partecipants about WWII suggest a slow transition, from the recalling of emotional autobiographical memories to the discussion on judgements about this historical period

Guilt attribution related to the in-group conflict is far to be clear

Family narratives play a major role in the cognitive poliphasia characterising Youngs and Adults discussions