Angļu The paper deals with post-Soviet Latvian autobiographies as a site wherein the social representations of Soviet period have been constructed. That is, I am concerned with the discursive repertoire undertaken by the autobiographers to normalize the Soviet experience. The normalization discourse is analyzed on three different levels: relations with Soviet institutions, the practices of everyday life, and comparisons between Soviet and post-Soviet experiences. I contend that, along with criticism of the Soviet period, these Latvian autobiographers shift across these levels to reinforce a positive post-Soviet identity. Accordingly the negative representation is complemented by a pragmatic social representation (as I shall call it), and that, perhaps, is characteristic of many other post-communist societies. |
