Conclusion

This chapter proposes a reflection on the role of forgetting and memory loss in relation to nostalgia and space. While, as many theories have shown, memory and forgetfulness are always coextensive, in these final pages I focus on the consequences of this “loss” as an effect of the translation and filtering work imposed by nostalgia, in post-conflict contexts. This forgetting has a potentially troubling political value if and when the process is hegemonic or distinctly ideological. This “memory editing” sets in motion processes of embellishment and adjustment, which can be dangerously adopted as new, official versions of the past, transforming a sweetened tale into common sense. To close the reasoning opened in the introduction to this book, I discuss in this final section the possible consequences when nostalgia becomes a device for (strategic) forgetfulness used to cut out what certain communities consider unimportant memories, therefore dodging their own historical responsibilities.