Animating the subjugated past: digital greeting cards as a form of counter-memory

This article discusses how popular culture products - digital greeting cards - interact with hegemonic historical narratives in the context of war remembrance. It employs the Foucauldian concept of counter-memory to analyse how user-generated mnemonic content interacts with historical power relations. Using content analysis to examine a sample of amateur greeting cards, the authors investigate how these cultural products engage with official and counter-official memory practices in Russia related to the Soviet victory in the Second World War. Specifically, the article explores how different visual elements are employed to (de)construct specific narratives about the Soviet victory and it discusses how the use of computer graphics, in particular animation, influences the potential role of greeting cards as a means of resurrecting the subjugated past.

Automated summary

This article discusses the interaction between digital greeting cards and hegemonic historical narratives in war remembrance contexts. It uses Foucault's concept of counter-memory to analyze the interaction between user-generated mnemonic content and historical power relations. Through content analysis of amateur greeting cards, the authors investigate how these cultural products engage with official and counter-official memory practices in Russia related to the Soviet victory in the Second World War. The article explores how different visual elements are used to (de)construct specific narratives about the Soviet victory and discusses how the use of computer graphics, particularly animation, influences the potential role of greeting cards in resurrecting the suppressed past.