Sensuous (Re)Collections: The Sight and Taste of Socialism at Grūtas Statue Park, Lithuania

Author: Lankauskas, Gediminas

Source: The Senses and Society, Volume 1, Number 1, March 2006 , pp. 27-52(26)

Publisher: Berg Publishers

Free trial available!

Key:

- Free Content

- New Content

- Subscribed Content

- Free Trial Content

Abstract:

The present paper is about Grūtas, a Lithuanian park-museum featuring recuperated Soviet-era artifacts. This museum is examined as a locus of public memory where the nation's socialist history is invoked through visual representations (recovered statuary) and by implicating the sense of taste ("Soviet" drinks and dishes served at the museum's café). The paper suggests that seeing the Socialist past at Grūtas activates memories of trauma and loss, while tasting that past summons up more nostalgic reminiscences. It is further argued that this museum constitutes a visual and gustatory critique of Lithuania's increasingly commodified and "modernized" present. It is also proposed that collective memory in today's Eastern Europe affords a productive ethnographic site in which to investigate the ongoing systemic transformations in the aftermath of communist rule.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.2752/174589206778055682

Free content The full text is free.

View now: