Activities per year
Abstract
For more than a decade, narratives about neglect and abuse of children placed in
out-of-home care in Denmark from the end of World War Two and onwards have
been a centre of attention in public space, not least because of the struggle to obtain
an official apology from the Danish state – a struggle undertaken by the National
Association of Godhavn’s Boys, a group of former institutionalised children or
care-leavers from the Boys’ Home Godhavn. The thesis deals with care-leavers who, in this particular historical landscape
of memories, have decided to ”open the drawer” in order to confront themselves
and others with experiences, previously surrounded by silence or oblivion. The aim
is to examine how care-leavers try to transform their inner selves and their social
surroundings by engaging themselves in their personal history. Empirically, the thesis is based on comprehensive field work at the Danish
Welfare Museum. For more than a decade, the museum has exhibited and
undertaken research, related to the history and lives of children placed in out-ofhome care, including the story of Godhavn. On a weekly basis, care-leavers contact
the museum to ask for information or to share their personal version of the larger
narrative. In collaboration with some of these men and women, I have created a
multi-layered empirical material, which provides a nuanced insight into the multiple
ways of making sense of and handling memories of an institutionalised childhood
and adolescence. Analytically, I examine the practices and processes of engagement with the
past as memory-work, which has a transformative potential. By working on and
with the past, the memories change from something carried within the body and
interwoven with everyday life to something obtaining an outer shape, which can be
subject to reflection, recognition and social critique. I will argue that memory-work
can be seen as an active performance of critical subjectivity, which enables a certain
control with one’s life story and allows a reshaping of one's self. At the same time,
the critical subjectivity activated through memory-work makes it possible to bring
personal experiences into the public debate as a shared ethical and political issue. In the actual analysis, I show how the memory work of care-leavers has been
actualised by the formation of Godhavn as a site of memory creating a space where
328
others show an interest as well as a willingness to listen to and believe in the
narratives of care-leavers. At the same time, Godhavn as a site of memory has
established a frame of meaning in which articulating and making sense of one’s
own memories have become easier. I also show how the transformative potential of memory-work is activated
through specific practices and processes. In particular, I show how narratives and
materialities like biographical objects, places and buildings, photographs, folders
and albums are used as means for an externalisation, reinterpretation and renewed
formulation of the past. I especially draw attention to written biographies as a
materialisation of the transformation of the self, whereas the published book can
function as an independent political actor in the public sphere. The thesis is historically and anthropologically composed and throws light on
the presence of the past in the present. Through my thesis, I contribute to the field
of memory studies with knowledge about a hitherto underexposed field: How
human beings, through active and creative memory-work, relate to, reflect on and
try to break free from the way they have been shaped by the past.
Original language | Danish |
---|---|
Awarding Institution |
|
Supervisors/Advisors |
|
External participants | |
Date of defence | 31. Jan 2019 |
Place of Publication | Odense |
Publisher | |
Publication status | Published - 12. Feb 2019 |
Related activities
- 2 Conference presentations
-
"To open the drawer" – transformations of the self and the social world through memory-work among former institutionalized children
Jensen, S. G. (Panel member)
29. Oct 2020Activity: Talks and presentations › Conference presentations
-
"At åbne skuffen" - om forandringspotentialet i tidligere børnehjemsbørns erindringsarbejde
Jensen, S. G. (Keynote speaker)
20. Feb 2020Activity: Talks and presentations › Conference presentations