Construction Of Cultural Memory Research Articles

Quare Memory in Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy

This essay adapts David Cregan's concept of ‘queer memory’ – a form of memory defined ‘by exclusion rather than inclusion’ – to the author of The Quare Fellow, analysing narrative gaps in Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy in order to better understand its construction of cultural memory. Situating Borstal Boy within a growing canon of Irish writing on coercive confinement, the essay contends that draft versions act as an important component of textual memory, as can be seen by the more explicit portrayal of queer sexuality in Behan's drafts. Both in its transgressive portrayal of queer masculinity, and in the ‘quare’ narrative strategies used to incorporate this material into the published text, Borstal Boy presents an author whose ‘quareness’ is a key part of his literary aesthetic.

Emigration of Christians from Iraq as Reflected in Selected Post-2003 Iraqi Novels

In recent reflections on the current situation of ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and the threat of their extinction, a number of Iraqi intellectuals have stressed they cannot imagine their society without the plurality and diversity that have contributed to the creation of a common interethnic and interreligious Iraqi identity and historical memory. Among them are writers who raise this issue not only in essays, articles and interviews, but also in their fiction. The aim of the present article is to show the interweaving of literary discourse on Iraqi minorities and the wider debate among Iraqi intellectuals on the deteriorating condition of Iraqi Christians – which has led to their mass emigration – as reflected in a number of post-2003 Iraqi novels. The literary image of this exodus cannot be discussed without addressing the position of Christians among other Iraqi communities currently and in the past, as well as the question of their identity. This article refers to the following novels: Taššārī (Dispersion, 2012) by In‘ām Kaǧaǧī, I‘ǧām (Diacritics, 2004) and Yā Maryam (Ave Maria, 2012) by Sinān Antūn, Sīra dātiyya riwā’iyya (An Iraqi in Paris: An Autobiographical Novel, 2012) by Samū’īl Šam‘ūn, Frānkanštāyn fī Baġdād (Frankenstein in Baghdad, 2013) by Ahmad Sa‘dāwī, and Sabāyā dawlat al-hurāfa (Slaves of the Imaginary State, 2017) by ‘Abd ar-Ridā Sālih Muhammad. The article is divided into four parts, including an introduction in which the above-mentioned debate is presented. The second part depicts the plight of Iraqi Christians after 2003 through a brief outline of the lives of four literary characters. The third part focuses on the situation of Iraqi Christians before 2003 by relating the memories of five fictional protagonists. These two descriptive parts are followed by some final remarks. The theoretical framework of this article is based on the reflections of Birgit Neumann and Astrid Erll concerning the role of literature as a medium in the construction of cultural memory.

Theorizing Media Memory: Six Elements Defining the Role of the Media in Shaping Collective Memory in the Digital Age

AbstractThis article wishes to untangle the relationships between media and collective memory and present the contribution of communication scholarship in general, and journalism studies in particular, to our understanding of the term “collective memory.” After presenting the roots of the concept, the article deconstructs it by providing six perspectives on the term: (a) its multidirectional disposition (from the present to the past and vice versa), (b) its concretization in media texts and other products, (c) the functional role it plays for the community, (d) its socio‐political aspects, (e) the technological qualities of the process of the mediatization, (f) its narratological characteristics and formation. Each of the abovementioned attributes throws a different light on the mediation of collective memory and provides insights regarding the role of the media in the construction of cultural memory and shared recollections in the digital age.

Migration Histories, National Memory, and Regional Collections

Migration Histories, National Memory, and Regional Collections

Российская история эпохи Просвещения в образах и эмблемах

Russian thinkers of the Enlightenment were sure that historical memory may be fixed both in texts and in visual images, therefore they assigned great importance to visualising the events of the past. Historical works formulated the logic of the development of events and depicted the image of the “glorious past” in historical painting, theatrical productions and ideological decor. Historical records were often filled with pictorial descriptions of characters or events, and also contained expressive frontispieces, illustrations, images of genealogical trees, emblems, etc. Such historians as M. V. Lomonosov, or N. M. Karamzin believed that the key events of Russian history should be reflected in painting, and they created original programs for that purpose. In “The ideas for pictural paintings from Russian history” Lomonosov proposes to monumentalise dozens of events in Russian history from the Conversion of Russia to Christianity to the modern times. The “History of the Russian State” by N. M. Karamzin was full of descriptions. It is probable that the graphic descriptions of historical characters made the “History of the Russian State” so popular. In this work Karamzin presented not only the logic of the development of events but also the successive pictures describing them. While reading his record of history, we can “see” the expressions of the characters’ faces, their costumes, the battle scenes. Historical emblems expressed historiosophical archetypes and played an extremely important role in the historical policy of the state, as well as in the construction of cultural memory. Academic historical painting of the 19th century followed as a direct consequence of the visualised “histories” of the Enlightenment and often developed the plots and stereotypes they formed. Historical emblems laid the foundation for various projects of “monumental propaganda” and ideological campaigns in the form of triumphal gates’ decorations, fireworks and other official objects designed to embody the state ideology.

Analysis of Creative and Identity Processes among Mapuche Women Weavers in the Araucanía Region.

The Mapuche practice of weaving has occupied a transcendental role for this community in its system of symbolic representation. These textiles involve different elements of cultural identity for the community, for the wearers of the garments and, most of all, for their creators. This article analyzes the creation context in which the Mapuche textile tradition brings into tension different aspects of cultural identity and innovation within the construction of cultural memory. It examines two principal scenarios that arose from ethnographic work: 1) selection of materials; 2) preparation and fabrication. The findings show that, in both scenarios, the new rules emerging from religious and commercial concerns in the present-day context of these weavers are linked with the diverse positions taken by each woman. We discuss how these new rules are associated with different processes of cultural identity in this group of Mapuche women.

Memoria cultural y ficción audiovisual en la era de la televisión en streaming. Una exploración en torno a la serie Narcos como relato de memoria transnacional

This paper intends to delineate some axes of critical reflection on the potential of television fiction in the construction of cultural memory and in the articulation of memory transference dynamics of on a transnational scale. In particular, this issue is addressed through the analysis of Narcos (2015), an original production of Netflix, a streaming television company with global reach.

“Okay ladies, now let’s get in formation!”: Music Videos and the Construction of Cultural Memory

Abstract This paper explores strategies for constructing and perpetuating cultural memory through music videos, using Beyonce’s Formation (2016) and Janelle Monae’s Many Moons (2008) and Q.U.E.E.N. (2013) as case studies. The medium’s idiosyncrasies create unique ways of communicating and remembering, explored here within a framework of Cultural Studies and Memory Studies. Easy dissemination and the limited length of most videos ensure a large, diverse audience. The relative freedom from narrative constraints enables the director to create original imagery, and most importantly, the medium allows an intricate blending of performance and performativity; while the videos evidently are performances, they are strongly performative as well, not only with respect to gender and ethnicity but in significant ways also cultural memory. A close reading of Beyonce’s video Formation shows how she explicitly does the cultural memory of the New Orleans flooding. The videos by Monae are shown to produce counter-memories, relying heavily on the strategy of Afrofuturism. As such, these densely woven networks of visual symbols become palimpsests of black lived experience and cultural memory, passed on to millions of viewers.

Board Games and the Construction of Cultural Memory

Although much has been written about the potential of games for historical representation and their status as historical texts, there is little research placing games into a broader “cultural memory” framework. In this article, I argue that one unique way games as a medium can participate in constructing cultural memory is by simulating historically situated structural metaphors. To do so, I first introduce the concept of cultural memory and link it to material culture studies. I argue that games can be cultural memory “objectivations,” but in order to fully analyze them in this respect insights from game studies, namely, the meaning potential of rules, need to be applied as well. I then discuss how three board games, 1830: Railways and Robber Barons , Age of Steam, and Empire Builder simulate the structural metaphors identified by Wolfgang Schivelbusch that were used by contemporary observers to understand the experiential changes wrought by the railroad. I close by arguing that this type of research is valuable in that it opens up new understandings of how games influence the way a culture thinks about and remembers its past.

Narrations of a nation: Montenegrin self-representation through (re) construction of cultural memory

The paper considers a multi-levelled process of construction and reconstruction of Montenegrin cultural memory through the medieval national history revived in the 19th century theatre play Balkanska carica (Balkan empress, 1884) by the Prince and the first Montenegrin king Nikola I Petrović Njegoš, the opera with the same name by Dionisio de Sarno-San Giorgio (1891) and then one more time in 2006, when the opera was premiered, in the given political and cultural contexts.

The Demand to Progress: Critical Nostalgia in LGBTQ Cultural Memory

This article argues that, while representations of tragic lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) histories are disseminated widely, positive aspects of the past must be largely pushed out of the cultural imaginary to support a vision of the present in which sexual rights and freedoms have been achieved. It proposes that this view relies on a linear progress narrative wherein the experiences of LGBTQ people are held as consistently improving over time. In considering the construction of cultural memory through popular media and art, it claims a nostalgic turn to the past as a useful political tool for dismantling the pacifying aspects of the present.

Memory and interpretation: new approaches to the study of the crusades

This article describes the connection between studies of memory and the history of the crusades. The authors argue that integrating memory into crusades scholarship offers new ways of exploring the aftermath of war, the construction of cultural memory, the role of women and families in this process, and the crusading movement itself. The article draws on and extends recent trends in crusade scholarship that understand the crusades as a broad religious movement that called upon and developed within a cultural framework that was wider than previously acknowledged. It examines the historical and theoretical development of memory studies and then outlines the recent historiography of crusading studies. The article then introduces a series of essays, which together examine the creation, communication and dissemination of crusade memory.

La Tumba Tebana 49 y su propietario, en el paisaje sacralizado del occidente tebano, Egipto

The starting point is the study of Neferhotep’s tomb (TT49) and its links to the natural physiognomy and material endowment of the regional landscape for the realization of the New Kingdom funerary practices. The poor preservation of the material evidence required to implement analytical ways that transcend traditional Egyptological approaches -monumentalists and classifiers, and privilege the study of human behavior. The exis-tence of documentary and archaeological records made evident the need to establish interdisciplinary researches, inasmuch their location in the landscape, its construction and decoration attended practical issues –deposition of mummies- as symbolic -funerary rites-, and social - alliances-. Consequently, theoretical guidelines interrelate concepts coming from: archaeology, emphasizing the symbolic allocation of the space and the physical properties of the material record in the formation of deposits; history, in terms of social reproduction and construction of cultural memory; and anthropology, for understanding the social and transcendental balance for which the ritual practices have contributed. It is expected to recognize how cultural memory building operates in the consolida-tion of a sacred landscape, sensitive to ideological changes and ‘invigorated’ by ritual celebrations.

History, a Literary Artifact? The Traveling Concept of Narrative in/on Historiographic Discourse

History, a Literary Artifact? The Traveling Concept of Narrative in/on Historiographic Discourse

Writing war, writing memory. The representation of the recent past and the construction of cultural memory in contemporary Bosnian prose

Focusing on the work of Miljenko Jergović, Nenad Veličković, Alma Lazarevska, and Saša Stanišić, this paper examines how the representation of the recent past intertwines with the construction of collective memory in contemporary Bosnian prose. The author argues that a first, significant function of recent Bosnian literature consisted of not only witnessing the horror of the Bosnian war but also turning historical events into sites of memory. This is especially true for the literature about the wars of the nineties—the siege of Sarajevo, Srebrenica, etc. However, the involvement of Bosnian authors with the recent past—in prose written during the war as well as in more recent works—proves to be more complex and seems to be indicative of a growing interest in and reflexivity upon the ways in which collective and individual memory are constructed. This paper suggests that the interest in memory/remembering the recent past has been accelerated by the war and the social and political turmoil of the nineties. This liminal situation urged writers firstly to represent the horrors of the recent past in order to prevent them from falling into oblivion. Secondly, because war emerged as a kind of turning point, a radical break between past and present, writers were compelled to reflect on the processes of remembering and oblivion and on the ways identity is constituted by a strange and often unpredictable interplay of both.

A Hero and a Homeland for Armenians in America: Photography and the Construction of Cultural Memory

Both portrait and landscape, historical scene and contemporary monument, and, ultimately, both engraving and photograph, this image contains the keys to a significant story from modern Armenian cultural history. In the years following World War I hundreds of Armenians immigrated to the United States, where through the creation of objects such as this picture, they reconstituted their community, emphasizing the longevity of their history, their unity as a minority culture, and their identity as a diaspora.

Begin here: reading Asian North American autobiographies of childhood

An analytically innovative work, Begin Here widens the current critical focus of Asian North American literary studies by proposing an integrated thematic and narratological approach to the practice of autobiography. It demonstrates how Asian North American memoirs of childhood challenge the construction and performative potential of national experiences. This understanding influences theoretical approaches to ethnic life writing, expanding the boundaries of traditional autobiography by negotiating narrative techniques and genre and raising complex questions about self-representation and the construction of cultural memory. By examining the artistic project of some fifty Asian North American writers who deploy their childhood narratives in the representation of the individual processes of self-identification and negotiation of cultural and national affiliation, this work provides a comprehensive overview of Asian North American autobiographies of childhood published over the last century. Importantly, it also attends to new ways of writing autobiographies, employing comics, blending verse, prose, diaries, and life writing for children, and using relational approaches to self-identification, among others.

Challenging the Selectivity of Memory in 1950s West Germany: Erwin Sylvanus’s Dr. Korczak and the Children

The end of the Cold War and German unification have brought about a more complete treatment of the Nazi past in Germany, one that includes the perpetrators of the Holocaust. Since the early 1990s, perpetrators have increasingly become a part of the discourse about the Nazi past, in historiography as well as in fictional literature. I would argue, however, that perpetrators have been part of the cultural memory of (West) Germany since the first post-war decades. Many dramatists wrote plays that included Nazi perpetrators as characters and, in doing so, confronted Germans with this difficult and suppressed memory. One of these was Erwin Sylvanus, who wrote Dr. Korczak and the Children in 1957 in order to challenge his contemporaries’ faulty memory of their difficult past. With his play, Sylvanus countered their strategies of distancing themselves from the crimes of the Holocaust and from those who committed them. Employing a Pirandellian technique, he presented Germans with a Nazi character who reminded them that the perpetrators had come from out of their midst and were still with them in the present. After its world premiere in 1957, the play was performed in West Germany numerous times in the late 1950s and early 1960s. An examination of newspaper reviews written in response to these stagings reveals, however, that the playwright’s attempt at stimulating more critical self-reflection in discourse about the Nazi past was largely unsuccessful. The majority of reviewers interpreted the productions as a memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and they saw these performances as celebrating the spirit of humanism exemplified in the play by the character of Janusz Korczak. This reception illustrates Germans’ conflicted struggle with remembering the perpetrators’ experience and highlights the role of the media in the construction of cultural memory.

Challenging the Selectivity of Memory in 1950s West Germany: Erwin Sylvanus’s Dr. Korczak and the Children

The end of the Cold War and German unification have brought about a more complete treatment of the Nazi past in Germany, one that includes the perpetrators of the Holocaust. Since the early 1990s, perpetrators have increasingly become a part of the discourse about the Nazi past, in historiography as well as in fictional literature. I would argue, however, that perpetrators have been part of the cultural memory of (West) Germany since the first post-war decades. Many dramatists wrote plays that included Nazi perpetrators as characters and, in doing so, confronted Germans with this difficult and suppressed memory. One of these was Erwin Sylvanus, who wrote Dr. Korczak and the Children in 1957 in order to challenge his contemporaries’ faulty memory of their difficult past. With his play, Sylvanus countered their strategies of distancing themselves from the crimes of the Holocaust and from those who committed them. Employing a Pirandellian technique, he presented Germans with a Nazi character who reminded them that the perpetrators had come from out of their midst and were still with them in the present. After its world premiere in 1957, the play was performed in West Germany numerous times in the late 1950s and early 1960s. An examination of newspaper reviews written in response to these stagings reveals, however, that the playwright’s attempt at stimulating more critical self-reflection in discourse about the Nazi past was largely unsuccessful. The majority of reviewers interpreted the productions as a memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and they saw these performances as celebrating the spirit of humanism exemplified in the play by the character of Janusz Korczak. This reception illustrates Germans’ conflicted struggle with remembering the perpetrators’ experience and highlights the role of the media in the construction of cultural memory.

Memory and Amnesia in the Presentation of the Hanamatsuri of Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Cornell University
 
 The Hanamatsuri is a complex ritual presented by around 17 communities located around a tributary system flowing into the Tenryû River which runs through the prefectures of Shizuoka, Nagano, and Aichi in Japan. It is associated with the end of the year, the New Year, and the revitalization of the world. Mapping the local onto the national is a significant concern that has been generated out of this festival. Maintaining a discourse of authenticity is another concern. These issues are set within a postmodern framework, as the author illustrates how elements of Japan’s postmodernism filtered down to the communities which perform the Hanamaturi. Ina larger sense, this paper participates in the academic inquiry in Japanese religious studies into how ritual and popular religion contribute to the construction of cultural memory.