Affordances of memorability: Finnish reception of the oppression of Ingrian Finns in the Soviet Union

Abstract

By addressing recent discussions on reception within the field of memory studies, this article aims to analyze the reasons for the alleged absence of public memory relating to the history of Ingria and the experiences of Ingrian Finns in Finland by focusing on Inkerin romaani (2002), a posthumous novel by Toivo Pekkanen. Through analysis of three scales of reception, the article explores the dynamics of memory and affordances of memorability. It argues that understanding memory dynamics requires looking at the reception of memory as well as its blockages. Moreover, this article suggests that these aspects of memory dynamics can be fruitfully analyzed and theorized through the notion of affordances of memorability.