Abstract
This paper assesses the explanatory possibilities of the concept of prosthetic memory, with cinema as the enabler of popular understanding, when applied to the Korean War. The essay examines why it was that the conflict in Korea for many decades occupied a memory void and whether the explanations that have been offered for other similar “forgotten “wars are useful in relation to Korea. The analysis sugggests that cinema may be important in the formation of popular understanding but that there are serious analytical drawbacks in assuming that cinema can provide a window into popular mentalities.
Highlights
Many returned soldiers recollect their wartime experience as the highlight of their lives
In this essay I explore the function of cinema in influencing popular understandings of the Korean War
I argue that, until very recently, the national and individual narratives drawn on that war experience functioned in a ‘memory void’ (Irwin-Zarecka 1989) whose most notable characteristic was the absence of the veterans’ own voices, neither
Summary
Within the void surrounding the reticence of the returned Korean veterans, it is interesting to look at Hollywood’s potential to construct a coherent popular memory of the war.[22]. Landsberg’s ‘prosthetic memory’ includes the ideas above but as well suggests that new memories, what I have tagged as the outcome of a cinema-derived epistemological shift, can circulate widely and become part of the ‘personal archive of experience’ of a great many individuals who have not themselves seen the film, or any other modality of memory generation. She offers the example that the modern technologies of mass media have created a new, shared (prosthetic) memory of ‘American’-ness that has been a positive force in easing the incorporation of a series of new immigrant and AfricanAmerican cohorts into the ‘American’ nation. An additional underlying message of the film, that most likely would have been picked up by the US audience, emphasises the valour of the World War Two veteran in contrast with what is highlighted as the wavering uncertainty of the US soldier in Korea
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