Transmedia storytelling and family memory: an analysis on the example of a Polish family in the Soviet Union

This paper analyzes family memory storytelling and its transmedia dimension, taking a cue from studies by H. Jenkins (2006) on the example of a specific case study. In 1897, Tomas Drozdzewicz (1868-1919) moved with his family from Stazsow, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodship, to Kamyšlov, near Ekaterinburg, to work as a train driver. Among his eight children, three suffered political repression during the Thirties and one, Pëtr Tomaševič, survived gulag, being rehabilitated after Stalin's death. The case of the Drozdzewicz family and especially of Pëtr Tomaševič's history is interesting thanks to a variety of documents and texts that can be taken into consideration, among which his own personal memoirs recently recovered by the paper's author. In the last decades, numerous archives were made available online and personal histories and, in certain cases, written memories became a valuable tool to get in contact with the stories of individuals that were victims of repression. On the other side, several local projects, such as nameplates on town buildings, and the creation of cultural centers dedicated to Poles memory on today's Russian territory allow to understand better sides of XXth century history as well as the importance of identity for Russian citizens of polish origin. Finally, during the first decades of two thousands, Drozdzewicz family descendants worked on a wide research on family history with a publication dedicated to the destinies of each member. The paper suggests that these different kinds of narrations communicate on different levels and participate to a "memory world building", in a wide virtual text composed by many subjectivities. The paper reflects on the possibility of applying the concept of convergence to the understanding of memory and considers the impact of transmedia storytelling theoretical frame on the collective and individual memory studies.