The Pride and Prejudice of the Western World

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 261-275
Author(s):  
Karl Ivan Solibakke
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
Western World ◽  
Pride And Prejudice ◽  
Informal Practices ◽  
The One ◽  
Interpretive Communities

The article examines controversies arising from the perception of the instruments of cultural memory and the logic of their transmissibility. On the one hand we have a carefully selected, temporally and geographically orchestrated body of texts, the Great Books, which are an enduring testament to the authority of Western intellectual artifacts. On the other hand, Jacques Derrida’s Archive Fever locates a furtive transformation of collective memory in the informal practices exemplified by oral narrative and public discourse. Not only do both models rely on archives as a functional instrument of collective identity, but they also value them as institutions circumscribing social and cultural conventions. However, when synchronizing the traces embedded in oral discourse and written documents, the repositories are frequently subject to manipulation by interpretive communities. Recognizing the processes underlying archives and artifacts is essential to comprehending how canons and canonic practices impact Western cultural memory.

scholarly journals A challenge to collective memory: Yitskhok Rudashevski’s "Diary of the Vilna Ghetto"

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 99-123
Author(s):  
Mindaugas Kvietkauskas
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Memory Culture ◽  
The One ◽  
Negative Imagery

A challenge to collective memory: Yitskhok Rudashevski’s Diary of the Vilna GhettoThis article aims to analyse the diary of Yitskhok Rudashevski (1927–1943), the story of its writing and publication and the existing biographical material about the author. It attempts to answer the question of what is or could be the significance of this lieu de mémoire for the current developments in Holocaust memory culture in Lithuania. The adopted definitions of cultural and collective memory and sites of memory are based on the concepts proposed by Jan and Aleida Assmann and Pierre Nora. On the one hand, the diary written by a child in the Vilnius ghetto is of major documentary, moral and aesthetic significance and stimulates individual empathy. On the other hand, the text raises acute issues reflecting a conflict between different memory narratives and interpretations of history. Pro-Soviet sympathies of the author, negative imagery of Lithuanians and certain deheroisation of the ghetto community make the text a “problematic” memory site. These challenges of the diary are interpreted as indicators showing whether contemporary Holocaust narrative in Lithuania is already mature enough to accept the dialogical forms of cultural memory. Wyzwanie dla pamięci zbiorowej: Pamiętnik z wileńskiego getta Icchaka RudaszewskiegoTematem niniejszego artykułu jest analiza dziennika napisanego w getcie przez czternastoletniego Icchaka Rudaszewskiego (1927–1943), historia jego powstania, publikacji i zachowania dla przyszłych pokoleń, a także materiał biograficzny dotyczący postaci autora. Artykuł jest próbą odpowiedzi na pytanie, jakie jest i jakie mogłoby być znaczenie tego miejsca pamięci (lieu de mémoire) w kształtującej się obecnie na Litwie kulturze pamięci Holocaustu. Badania pamięci kulturowej i zbiorowej, a także miejsc pamięci, zostały oparte na koncepcjach badawczych Jana i Aleidy Assmanów oraz Pierre’a Nory. Z jednej strony, napisany przez dziecko w getcie wileńskim pamiętnik ma dla pamięci kulturowej Litwy ogromne znaczenie symboliczne, etyczne i estetyczne, wzmocnione przez silne uczucie empatii wobec autora. Z drugiej strony, tekst pamiętnika stawia wysokie wymagania badawcze wynikające z konfliktu różnych interpretacji historii II wojny światowej i narracji pamięci. Socjalistyczne i proradzieckie poglądy autora, negatywny obraz Litwinów i swoista deheroizacja społeczności getta przekształca ten tekst w „problematyczne” miejce pamięci. Powyższe wyzwania badawcze są interpretowane w artykule jako znaki, które mogą opisać stan współczesnej litewskiej narracji Holocaustu i odpowiedzieć na pytanie, czy jest ona na tyle dojrzała, by w drodze dialogu zintegrować różne warianty pamięci kulturowej.

scholarly journals Religious Turns: Immigration, Islam, and Christianity in 21st Century German Cultural Politics

Konturen ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Breger
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
First Century ◽  
German States ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The One

The paper analyzes recent German headscarf legislation in the context of early twenty-first-century religious turns, that is, on the one hand constructions of “Islam/ism” as the newly dominant figure of cultural difference on the political stage, and on the other hand the renewed prominence also of Christianity in public discourse. Against the background of current academic work on and in political theology, I analyze the “post-secular” concepts of collective identity developed under the sign of the headscarf by associating them with two different theoretical models. Berlin’s headscarf legislation can be compared to the French “Law on Laicity,” which has been criticized as a vehicle of hidden political theologies in Carl Schmitt’s sense: The Republic performs its sovereignty through the ways it manages religious exceptions. The openly asymmetrical headscarf bans passed in a number of other German states, however, do not just make “exceptions” for Christianity; rather, they privilege “Christian tradition” as the foundation of the “secular” German state. Critically relating this rhetoric to the ways in which Jean-Luc Nancy and Slavoj Žižek conceptualize the (presumably inescapable) destabilization of secular democracy through the forces of heteronomy and tradition, the paper pleas for replacing such uses of political theology in both politics and theory.

scholarly journals Problematyka pamięci w twórczości Brunona Schulza z perspektywy niemieckiej refleksji pamięcioznawczej

Schulz/Forum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Lukas
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Depth Psychology ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Visual Memory ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
The Common ◽  
The One ◽  
Bruno Schulz ◽  
Aby Warburg

The author attempts at reconstructing the concept of cultural memory found in Bruno Schulz’ oeuvre. The aim is to show that Schulz, not unlike Thomas Mann, anticipated some theoretical aspects of postmodern memory studies as pursued in Germany since the 1980s. On the one hand, there are striking affinities between Schulz and the art historian Aby Warburg whose ideas of “collective visual memory” and “pathos formulas”, developed until the 1920s, have only recently been rediscovered and acclaimed in the present-day cultural research. On the other hand, Schulz draws on Jung’s depth psychology by referring to the theory of archetypes and the common unconscious. Unlike Warburg’s, Jung’s ideas have been rejected in contemporary German memory studies because of their alleged biologistic flaw. Due to his affinities to both Warburg and Jung, Schulz suggests his own vision of individual and collective memory, which allows for reconciling the “biological” and the “culture-oriented” reflection on collective memory and may be a source of inspiration in today’s research.

The role of cultural memory in construction of collective identity

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
L.I. Sedova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Social Identification ◽  
Imagined Communities ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Traumatic Memory ◽  
The Past

Analyzed are collective identification processes that occur in conjunction with complicated, contradictory processes of glocalization, cultural exchange, emancipation of minorities, national liberation movements, etc. The paper aims to study the collective identity construction in the modern society, using the framework of cultural memory. Links between collective memory and collective identity are theoretically considered; the methodology of “imagined communities” is proposed to explore the collective memory as a resource of social integration. The article argues that the nation state is no longer the dominant basis for identity. Nowadays collectives require a shared memory of the past as the basis for social identity. The paper focuses on a high symbolic value of a remembering history, especially of a cultural trauma. The culturally constructed trauma can appear on the level of groups, and provide integration of community, based on victimization of the past. Thus, the collective traumatic memory can develop a negative collective identity, based on common traumatic experiences. Viewed from “imagined communities” perspective, social trauma is a part of politics of memory that becomes the politics of identity. Using results of sociological research, we distinguish three different versions of memorial paradigm, i.e. oblivion, displacement, and evocation. Such differentiation allows to argue that communities could manage their collective memory as a resource of social identification, and consequently integration.

scholarly journals The Spaces of Citizenship: Mapping Personal and Colonial Histories in Contemporary Italy in Igiaba Scego’s La Mia Casa È Dove Sono (My Home is Where I Am)

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 135-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor Paynter
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
The Self ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Somali Immigrants ◽  
Colonial Histories ◽  
Changing Demographics

As Italy has changed from emigration country to immigration destination, the growing body of literature by migrant and second generation writers plays an important role in connecting discourses on race and national identity with the country’s increasing diversity and its colonial past. This essay investigates the 2010 memoir La Mia Casa È Dove Sono (My Home is Where I Am) by Igiaba Scego, the daughter of Somali immigrants, as life writing that responds to these changing demographics and, more broadly, to the migration trends affecting contemporary Europe. The self Scego constructs through her narration integrates her Roman identity and Somali background as the narrative returns colonial history to Italian public discourse and public space. I argue that by narrating the personal and historical in the context of Roman monuments and neighborhoods, Scego’s memoir challenges and redefines who can be “Italian,” modeling a more inclusive Italianità. I discuss the memoir in terms of its use of collective memory and its development of a narrative “I” that claims a position within a collective identity while challenging the exclusionary tendencies of that very group. This article was submitted to the European Journal of Life Writing on June 8th, 2016, and published on July 17th, 2017.

Indonesian Literature’s Position in World Literature

TEKNOSASTIK ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Dina Amelia
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
The Other ◽  
National Literature ◽  
Western World ◽  
The World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Voice

There are two most inevitable issues on national literature, in this case Indonesian literature. First is the translation and the second is the standard of world literature. Can one speak for the other as a representative? Why is this representation matter? Does translation embody the voice of the represented? Without translation Indonesian literature cannot gain its recognition in world literature, yet, translation conveys the voice of other. In the case of production, publication, or distribution of Indonesian Literature to the world, translation works can be very beneficial. The position of Indonesian literature is as a part of world literature. The concept that the Western world should be the one who represent the subaltern can be overcome as long as the subaltern performs as the active speaker. If the subaltern remains silent then it means it allows the “representation” by the Western.

Between Global and Local Contexts: The Seoul Linguistic Landscape

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kapitolina Fedorova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Urban Contexts ◽  
Historical Sites ◽  
The One ◽  
Global And Local

Multilingualism in urban spaces is mainly studied as an oral practice. Nevertheless, linguistic landscape studies can serve as a good explorative method for studying multilingualism in written practices. Moreover, resent research on linguistic landscapes (Blommaert 2013; Shohamy et. al. 2010; Backhaus 2006) have shed some light on the power relations between different ethnic groups in urban public space. Multilingual practices exist in a certain ideological context, and not only official language policy but speaker linguistic stereotypes and attitudes can influence and modify those practices. Historically, South Korea tended to be oriented towards monolingualism; one nation-one people-one language ideology was domineering public discourse. However, globalization and recent increase in migration resulted in gradual changes in attitudes towards multilingualism (Lo and Kim 2012). The linguistic landscapes of Seoul, on the one hand, reflect these changes, and However, they demonstrates pragmatic inequality of languages other than South Korean in public use. This inequality, though, is represented differently in certain spatial urban contexts. The proposed paper aims at analyzing data on linguistic landscapes of Seoul, South Korea ,with the focus on different contexts of language use and different sets of norms and ideological constructs underlying particular linguistic choices. In my presentation I will examine data from three urban contexts: ‘general’ (typical for most public spaces); ‘foreign-oriented’ (seen in tourist oriented locations such as airport, expensive hotels, or popular historical sites, which dominates the Itaewon district); and ‘ethnic-oriented’ (specific for spaces created by and for ethnic minority groups, such as Mongolian / Central Asian / Russian districts near the Dongdaemun History and Culture Park station). I will show that foreign languages used in public written communication are embedded into different frameworks in these three urban contexts, and that the patterns of their use vary from pragmatically oriented ones to predominately symbolic ones, with English functioning as a substitution for other foreign languages, as an emblem of ‘foreignness.’

What Kind of Ireland?

2021 ◽  
pp. xviii-20
Author(s):  
Niamh Hardiman ◽  
David M. Farrell ◽  
Eoin Carolan ◽  
John Coakley ◽  
Aidan Regan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
Electoral Mobilization ◽  
The One ◽  
The Eu

Modern Ireland is a relatively wealthy and politically stable democracy, but it bears the deep marks of its route to this point. This introductory chapter draws together some key themes that run through this volume and profiles the core contributions of each of its chapters. The overall story is one of contradictory influences. The political institutions of the state, notwithstanding much innovation over time, retain a bias toward a remarkably strong executive. The long-standing weaknesses of social democratic electoral mobilization both reflect and reinforce a conservative and market-oriented tilt in policy priorities. The ideas that animate public discourse show a creative but sometimes problematic tension between republican and communitarian ideals on the one hand, and liberal ideas and values on the other. Ireland has assumed a confident role on the world stage and especially within the European Union (EU), but relations with its nearest neighbour, the United Kingdom, can often be problematic, not least because of the complexity of the politics of Northern Ireland. And while on many measures Ireland is among the wealthiest of the EU member states, this is not the lived reality for a great many of its citizens, and the nuances of why this is so need to be carefully assessed. Overall, this introductory chapter offers an overview of the whole Handbook while also making an original contribution in its own right.

Little Dorrit

2018 ◽  
pp. 244-259
Author(s):  
Francesca Orestano
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Visual Studies ◽  
Critical Reception ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Critical Enquiry ◽  
Narrative Function

By dwelling first on the ‘faults’, then on the ‘excellencies’ remarked by reviewers and critics of Little Dorrit, this chapter also traces the history of that novel’s critical reception as it evolved from a close focus on contemporary politics and economics toward a study of the writer’s Hogarthian skill at building a visual satire. Subsequently the characters’ psychology as well as Dickens’s became the object of critical enquiry. When visual studies brought to the fore the import of perception and its narrative function, another area of investigation opened, in this chapter specifically connected with, and culturally encoded in, the technique of the stereoscope and the scientific notion of the binocularity of vision. Implemented by Dickens in the construction of Little Dorrit, this notion allows for a further critical reading of the novel as lieu de mémoire where real and imagined imprisonments, inscribed in history, also conjure the scene where cultural memory rewrites individual and collective identity in the present.

scholarly journals Reception of Natalie's Ramonda, Armistice Day Symbol in Serbia

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Senka Kovač
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
First Year ◽  
World War ◽  
World War One ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
The Past

Nataliе’s Ramonda, a symbol of Armistice Day – November 11 in Serbia, is a new memorial symbol constructed and promoted by politicians in 2012. The Armistice Day was celebrated then as a national holiday in Serbia. The reception of this symbol has been explored over a five-year period, both in a public discourse and on a representative sample of first year students at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. In public discourse, as well as among students of the Faculty of Philosophy, Natalie’s Ramonda is perceived as an emblem, a badge, and most often as a symbol. It was seen as an emblem on the lapel of public and media figures, inaccessible to broad commercial promotion and sales. In public discourse and among students at the Faculty of Philosophy, Natalie’s Ramonda was perceived in several answers as a medal, and is also recognized as a flower that symbolizes the suffering of the Serbian people in World War One; symbol of the nation’s rebirth – the flower phoenix, as a mark of peace and freedom. As a newly constructed symbol of the Armistice Day in Serbia, for the past seven years, Natalie’s Ramonda has been a mediator in the public culture of remembrance and in the ongoing process, by becoming a part of cultural memory.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document