Violent Memory: Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Modern information technologies have radically transfigured human experience. The extensive use of mnemonic devices, for instance, has redefined the subject by externalizing aspects of inner consciousness. These transformations involve the incorporeal but deeply felt, violent dislocations of human experience, traumas that are grounded in reality but which challenge symbolic resources because they are difficult to articulate. I am interested in how the unseen wounding of mnemonic intervention is registered in the “impossible” language of speculative fiction (SF). SF is both rooted in the “real” and “estranged” from reality, and thus able to give form to impossible injuries. This paper argues that Haruki Murakami uses the mode of SF in his novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, to explore how mnemonic substitutes interfere with the complex process of remembering World War II in Japan. I will demonstrate how, through SF, Murakami is able to give form to an unseen crisis of memory in postwar Japan, a crisis marked by the unspeakable shock of war and by the trauma that results from the intrusion of artificial memories upon one’s consciousness of history.

Narrative Aspects of Images of Spear Use in Scandinavian Rock Carvings

Researchers have long discussed whether Scandinavian rock art reflects narratives. Their interpretations have frequently been based on inspections of rock art panels combined with knowledge from ethnographic and historical sources. Here, the authors adopt a more focused narratological approach that takes the concept of (visual) narrativity into consideration and draws on studies by literary analysts, cognitive psychologists, and semioticians. Images of spear use in the provinces of Bohuslän and Östergötland in Sweden, given their diversity and indexical qualities, are well-suited to such a study. They reveal different kinds of indexical relationships, i.e. how the spears direct attention to possible targets, arguably corresponding to action scripts well-known to Bronze Age communities. Many spear images may be regarded as mini-narratives and mnemonic devices intended to represent schematized action sequences. The authors suggest that concepts such as iconicity, indexical relationships, scripts, and mini-narratives could be fruitfully employed in research on Scandinavian rock art and beyond.

Songlines: Preserving cultural heritage through architecture

<p>In indigenous Australian culture, the ‘Songlines’ represent the routes across the landscape followed by the original ‘creator-beings’ of the ‘Dreaming’. The ‘Songlines’ describe the locations of mountains, waterholes, ravines, and other landscape features that were ‘created’ by the movements and interactions of the creator-beings. Throughout Australia’s vast history, the indigenous peoples have recited the Songlines as oral narratives for the next generation, while also using the Songlines to navigate across vast tracts of wilderness. But with the departure of a disenfranchised younger generation of indigenous Australians to cities and government settlements, the Songlines are at risk of being forgotten. Songlines are not merely navigation devices. They act as mnemonics that define cultural values, indigenous laws and ancestral heritage. Stories of the ‘Dreaming’ acknowledge the past, present and future. As such, they are capable of re-engaging Indigenous Australians with a sense of place, heritage,and values, that are so menaingful to there culture and religion. The sites for this design-led investigation are located in Arkaroola Sanctuary, Vulkanatha /Gammon Ranges and Ikara-Flinders Ranges - located in South Australia. This vast expanse of land is associated with the indigenous people known as the Adnyamathanha. The principal aim of this investigation is to conceive a series of collaborative architectural shelters that are designed and positioned in ways that can help reawaken, expose, and define characteristics of ‘Songlines’ for future generations. The architecture will act as a reminder of cultural values, while serving as a framing device to reveal the dynamic landscape features that form the Adnyamathanha’s traditional Songlines. This is to safeguard knowledge, and re-awaken awareness of ‘Songlines’ for younger indigenous peoples who have left their homeland and tribal region. The architectural shelters, as points of pause along the Songlines, act as mnemonic devices that help keep alive a vibrant and fundamental sense of cultural identity and place. The architectural interventions seek to diffuse boundaries between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous cultures – given the current integrated context of Australia.</p>

Songlines: Preserving cultural heritage through architecture

<p>In indigenous Australian culture, the ‘Songlines’ represent the routes across the landscape followed by the original ‘creator-beings’ of the ‘Dreaming’. The ‘Songlines’ describe the locations of mountains, waterholes, ravines, and other landscape features that were ‘created’ by the movements and interactions of the creator-beings. Throughout Australia’s vast history, the indigenous peoples have recited the Songlines as oral narratives for the next generation, while also using the Songlines to navigate across vast tracts of wilderness. But with the departure of a disenfranchised younger generation of indigenous Australians to cities and government settlements, the Songlines are at risk of being forgotten. Songlines are not merely navigation devices. They act as mnemonics that define cultural values, indigenous laws and ancestral heritage. Stories of the ‘Dreaming’ acknowledge the past, present and future. As such, they are capable of re-engaging Indigenous Australians with a sense of place, heritage,and values, that are so menaingful to there culture and religion. The sites for this design-led investigation are located in Arkaroola Sanctuary, Vulkanatha /Gammon Ranges and Ikara-Flinders Ranges - located in South Australia. This vast expanse of land is associated with the indigenous people known as the Adnyamathanha. The principal aim of this investigation is to conceive a series of collaborative architectural shelters that are designed and positioned in ways that can help reawaken, expose, and define characteristics of ‘Songlines’ for future generations. The architecture will act as a reminder of cultural values, while serving as a framing device to reveal the dynamic landscape features that form the Adnyamathanha’s traditional Songlines. This is to safeguard knowledge, and re-awaken awareness of ‘Songlines’ for younger indigenous peoples who have left their homeland and tribal region. The architectural shelters, as points of pause along the Songlines, act as mnemonic devices that help keep alive a vibrant and fundamental sense of cultural identity and place. The architectural interventions seek to diffuse boundaries between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous cultures – given the current integrated context of Australia.</p>

Mnemonic Aids in Linguodidactic Discourse

The article examines modern English memory aids as part of linguodidactic discourse in teaching English, and the patterns of mnemonic devices represented by sentence, acronym, abbreviation and verse. The empirical material of the research incorporates 54 units. The focus is made on an extensive number of mnemonics compiled as a meaningful text and the patterns of the devices in the form of a sentence, and the mnemonic acronyms homonymous to general vocabulary, i. e. homoacronyms. At that, the mnemonic aids which are not similar to other words, are not so often used as mnemonic devices. The mnemonic devices in the paper have been studied on the basis of the English and Russian sources published in the 21st century.Mnemonic devices have become part of research only in recent years. Previously mnemonics were studied within the framework of pedagogical discourse in teaching Geography, Biology, Astronomy, History, and Music. In the present research the mnemonics related to teaching English were distributed by structure. Afterwards, mnemonic sentences and the mnemonics homonymous to the existing lexemes were identified. The analysis of the structures showed the domination of the mnemonics structured as sentences and homoacronyms. 54 units of mnemonics under study were presented in the form of 22 sentences, 3 verses, 17 acronyms and 12 abbreviations. The most common structure proved to be a sentence, while the least common one was verse. The mnemonics considered contained only 13 units which were not sentences or homoacronyms: 12 abbreviations and 1 acronym of primary nomination. The examination of the structures showed the domination of the mnemonics organized as a sentence or a homoacronym. The research confirms the assumptions made earlier on the frequent use of sentence mnemonics, which, as it turned out, exceed the shares of the other mnemonic patterns. In their turn, homoacronyms made up a larger share compared to acronyms and abbreviations with no reference to general English words or verse. Thus, we can consider these structures (sentences and homoacronyms) within English teaching as part of pedagogical discourse. To sum it up, while compiling mnemonic aids, preference should be given to sentences or homoforms based on the vocabulary, while verses and abbreviations might be used economically. The article has also revealed additional features of mnemonics, in particular applying asyndeton in acronyms and abbreviations, the average number of 3 or 4 components in a mnemonic aid. Studying such structures will contribute to examining shortened forms and functioning of mnemonics in linguodidactic discourse.

Post Trauma: Memory as a Catalyst

<p><b>In literary fictional readings, underlying allegorical ideas arise for todays architectural landscapes, both literally and figuratively. This design-led research thesis emerges from Andreas Huyssen’s allegorical theories of ruins as factual indicators that records ruins as palimpsests of historical events as an ongoing process (Huyssen, 2010, p. 17). The layering of graphic information is such that the past happenings merge with the present explorations to create a distinct narrative in itself. This represents a provocative and enigmatic allegorical response to the loss of forgotten landscapes in architecture today: Post Trauma. This investigation thus seeks to interrogate architectural ruins scattered at Perano Whaling Station as repositories for collective memory through enacting allegorical interpretations — challenging the conventions of historical fragments through [re]presentational techniques, weaving them into an experiential narrative. This narrative builds upon these forgotten scars as palimpsests — interpreting and [re]interpreting their [re]purpose — rather than removal from existence all together. Huyssen’s theories of enigmatic experiential ruins acts as an allegorical provocateur, the initial point of immersion — an evocative starting point to engage in the [re]presentation of Perano’s context. The PeranoStation, much like all ruins, possesses a liminal characteristic on its remaining spaces. An eerie threshold to a brutal past, aggressively carved into the landscape and its inhabitation.</b></p> <p>These scars act as a literal portal to evocative experiences — an act of trying to understand a traumatised landscape. The need for distinctive architectural elements that can translatethe essence and experiences of this liminal and transitional space, between both sides of a threshold; past and present, presence and absence, living and dissolving.</p> <p>Tim Edensor intrinsically positions ruins as a ‘fragile and ephemeral place’ (DeSilvey and Edensor, 2012, p. 472). Alice Mah also shows in her study ‘Industrial Ruination, Community, and Place’, ruin[ation] may be ‘a lived process’ in which memory is rooted in the experience of decline. “The present has not moved far from the past, and the future is at best uncertain” (DeSilvey and Edensor, 2012, p. 410). This can be understood as a response to the views of architectural ruins as monuments left behind by collapsed destruction and unfulfilled dreams; existing outside therealms of productive structure. The problem this thesis aims to address is not the visual problem of sight, but the visceral problem of drawing — using different mediums to read traces of past happenings. It is through this act of drawing that engagement with Virgil Abloh’s ‘Purist’ and ‘Tourist’ mentalities that this thesis began “Playing with mediums and materials to make an expression” as Abloh notes (HighMuseum, 2020).</p> <p>Including drawing as a medium of speculative inquiry to [re]interpret Perano Whaling Station’s contextual scarring; layering and juxtaposing information built upon the architectural narrative and proposition. This questions drawings role in architectural interrogation and how it can erase preconceived notions. This is motivated by a personal journey of engagement with such erasure, it took moments of critical reflection upon these scars, to try imagine them as mnemonic devices. Triggering a conversation within ourselves — reflecting on these transformations — toggling between the ‘Purist’ and ‘Tourist’ mindsets that Virgil Abloh poses for excavating and expressing modern design to an audience.</p>

Post Trauma: Memory as a Catalyst

<p><b>In literary fictional readings, underlying allegorical ideas arise for todays architectural landscapes, both literally and figuratively. This design-led research thesis emerges from Andreas Huyssen’s allegorical theories of ruins as factual indicators that records ruins as palimpsests of historical events as an ongoing process (Huyssen, 2010, p. 17). The layering of graphic information is such that the past happenings merge with the present explorations to create a distinct narrative in itself. This represents a provocative and enigmatic allegorical response to the loss of forgotten landscapes in architecture today: Post Trauma. This investigation thus seeks to interrogate architectural ruins scattered at Perano Whaling Station as repositories for collective memory through enacting allegorical interpretations — challenging the conventions of historical fragments through [re]presentational techniques, weaving them into an experiential narrative. This narrative builds upon these forgotten scars as palimpsests — interpreting and [re]interpreting their [re]purpose — rather than removal from existence all together. Huyssen’s theories of enigmatic experiential ruins acts as an allegorical provocateur, the initial point of immersion — an evocative starting point to engage in the [re]presentation of Perano’s context. The PeranoStation, much like all ruins, possesses a liminal characteristic on its remaining spaces. An eerie threshold to a brutal past, aggressively carved into the landscape and its inhabitation.</b></p> <p>These scars act as a literal portal to evocative experiences — an act of trying to understand a traumatised landscape. The need for distinctive architectural elements that can translatethe essence and experiences of this liminal and transitional space, between both sides of a threshold; past and present, presence and absence, living and dissolving.</p> <p>Tim Edensor intrinsically positions ruins as a ‘fragile and ephemeral place’ (DeSilvey and Edensor, 2012, p. 472). Alice Mah also shows in her study ‘Industrial Ruination, Community, and Place’, ruin[ation] may be ‘a lived process’ in which memory is rooted in the experience of decline. “The present has not moved far from the past, and the future is at best uncertain” (DeSilvey and Edensor, 2012, p. 410). This can be understood as a response to the views of architectural ruins as monuments left behind by collapsed destruction and unfulfilled dreams; existing outside therealms of productive structure. The problem this thesis aims to address is not the visual problem of sight, but the visceral problem of drawing — using different mediums to read traces of past happenings. It is through this act of drawing that engagement with Virgil Abloh’s ‘Purist’ and ‘Tourist’ mentalities that this thesis began “Playing with mediums and materials to make an expression” as Abloh notes (HighMuseum, 2020).</p> <p>Including drawing as a medium of speculative inquiry to [re]interpret Perano Whaling Station’s contextual scarring; layering and juxtaposing information built upon the architectural narrative and proposition. This questions drawings role in architectural interrogation and how it can erase preconceived notions. This is motivated by a personal journey of engagement with such erasure, it took moments of critical reflection upon these scars, to try imagine them as mnemonic devices. Triggering a conversation within ourselves — reflecting on these transformations — toggling between the ‘Purist’ and ‘Tourist’ mindsets that Virgil Abloh poses for excavating and expressing modern design to an audience.</p>

Welsh Writing Before 1500

Welsh writing before 1500 consists of a rich tradition of writing in Latin and the vernacular, in a range of genres including literary prose, poetry, chronicles, law, medicine, grammar, wisdom literature, genealogy, and religious writing. The earliest extant Welsh-language writing is epigraphy (on, for example, the Tywyn Stone) and Old Welsh glosses and marginal texts in 9th-century Latin manuscripts. Use of Latin in early medieval Wales, continuous from the Roman period, is attested in works of history, poetry, and record keeping. Early medieval writing is poorly served by the manuscript record, with only twenty pre-12th-century manuscripts extant, and only eleven before c. 1100. The early books that do survive display technical skills of manuscript production and handwriting on par with elsewhere in Europe, and studies of surviving Latin texts, Old Welsh glosses, and later copies of Old Welsh texts reveal a rich, varied written practice grounded in careful study of Latin classics. Wales is also the birthplace of three significant 12th-century Latin authors, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Gerald of Wales, and Walter Map. The use of Latin for recording Welsh law is also very well attested. A group of vernacular codices survive from the 13th century onward, preserving a proliferation of prose literature, poetry, dozens of texts translated or adapted from Latin and French, and a cache of technical prose writing—law, medicine, and grammar—characterized by a vast technical vocabulary and mnemonic devices indicative of oral transmission. Orality is an important dimension of Welsh writing, with several genres displaying interplay between oral and written transmission. The oral medium of knowledge transmission, often referred to as cyfarwyddyd (oral lore), is attested in the prose style that frequently uses mnemonic devices and oral formulae. This oral literature was composed and transmitted by a professional class, and then written down and rewritten in successive phases. Another major area of Welsh writing is bardic poetry, which represents a longstanding tradition of professional poets composing mostly panegyric, eulogy, and elegy for royal patrons from the early medieval period until the Edwardian conquest of Wales in 1282, at which point patronage shifted to a new gentry class. Alongside this native practice, Welsh writing was also influenced by imported Latin and French texts, including romance, geography, history, apocrypha, and devotional literature. Historically, scholarship has prioritized vernacular compositions over Latin, and original texts over translations, but this has shifted in recent decades.

Mnemonics as the technique of lexico-grammatical skills formation in foreign language lessons

Currently the school is acutely concerned with the use of mnemonic instruction to help remember linguistic phenomena in a foreign language. The article discusses in detail mnemonics and the ways of using them at lessons on English and German at the stage of teaching lexical and grammatical phenomena, ranges mnemonic strategies that assist to remember unfamiliar vocabulary and grammar of the English and German languages more effectively, efficiently and easily, describes algorithms for working with various mnemonic devices, and gives a reference on the possibilities of their modification. The results obtained prove mnemonic techniques are an effective study tool which can be utilized by Russian-speaking students in learning English and German.

Remembering Materiality: A Material–Relational Approach to Organizational Memory

In this paper, we develop a material–relational approach to understanding organizational memory. We focus on the inherent materiality of mnemonic devices—material artifacts that anchor shared memories of the past. Mnemonic devices work to constitute social groups of organizational stakeholders bound together by mutual affinities to these devices, known as mnemonic communities. While we know that the materiality of mnemonic devices represents information about the past that is interpreted by members of the mnemonic community as a narrative that is important in the present, our approach focuses on how engagement with the material aspects of mnemonic devices can create relationships of affinity among people remembering together. To develop our conceptualization, we first apply insights from the literature on materiality and its emphasis on how materiality is the basis for non-verbal and relational communication. From this, we theorize four material attributes that affect how mnemonic devices constitute relational connections that create embodied, cartographic, and temporal boundaries for organizational mnemonic communities. We then conceptualize how these distinct material attributes accumulate, intersect, and interact with each other and with the narrative representations of mnemonic devices and how in turn these interactions may bind stakeholders together. By emphasizing the material–relational aspect of mnemonic devices, our paper theorizes a broader and potentially more powerful set of affinities between stakeholders and organizations and, on this basis, enhances extant research by articulating different paths to the emergence of mnemonic communities.