scholarly journals Prosthetic memory and post-memory: cultural encounters with the past in designing a museum

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mălina Ciocea ◽  
Alexandru Cârlan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Memory Device ◽  
Cultural Encounters ◽  
National Network ◽  
The Past ◽  
Bidirectional Relationship ◽  
Museum Experience ◽  
Conducting Research

<p>This paper1 investigates the sources of representations on the communist period and the type of engagement with the past in an experiential museum, in the context of the National Network of Romanian Museums’ project for a laboratory-museum of Romanian Communism. Our analysis of focus-groups in October-November 2012 explores the public’s expectations in terms of museum experience and engagement with objects and the potential of an experiential museum to facilitate deliberation about the past. We use the conceptual framework of recent studies on postmemory (Hirsch, 2008) and prosthetic memory (Landsberg, 2004, 2009) to focus on ways of building the experiential archive needed to produce prosthetic memory. We consider that such an analysis is relevant for two interconnected problems: the bidirectional relationship between a projected museum of communism and a prospective public, and the methodological insights available for investigating this relation. With regard to the first problem, this paper makes a case for treating museums as a memory device rather than a lieu de memoire and analyses the role of the museum in relation to cultural memory. With regard to the second problem, it offers an example of conducting research on prospective publics which departs from traditional marketing approaches, adopting theoretical insights and analytical categories from specific conceptualizations in the field of memory studies.</p>

scholarly journals Carnival Anthropocene: Myth and Cultural Memory in Monique Roffey's Archipelago // Antropoceno Carnaval: El mito y memoria cultural en Archipelago de Monique Roffey

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
C. Parker Krieg
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Natural World ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

      This essay examines the role of myth in and as cultural memory through a reading of the novel, Archipelago (2013), by the Trinidadian-British author Monique Roffey. Against conceptions of the Anthropocene as a break from the past—a break that repeats the myth of modernity—I argue that Roffey’s use of cultural memory offers a carnivalesque relation to the world in response to the narrative’s account of climate change trauma. Drawing on Bakhtin’s classic study of the carnival as an occasion for contestation and renewal, as well as Cheryl Lousely’s call for a “carnivalesque ecocriticism,” this essay expands on the recent ecocritical turn to the field of Memory Studies (Buell; Goodbody; Kennedy) to illustrate the way literature mediates between mythic and historical relations to the natural world. As literary expressions, the carnivalesque and the grotesque evoke myth and play in order to expose and transform the social myths which govern relations and administrate difference. Since literature acts as both a producer and reflector of cultural memory, this essay seeks to highlight the literary potential of myth for connecting past traumas to affirmational modes of political engagement. Resumen     Este ensayo examina el papel del mito en y como memoria cultural analizando la novela Archipelago (2013), escrita por la autora trinitense-británica Monique Roffey. Frente a la idea del Antropoceno como una ruptura con el pasado—una ruptura que repite el mito de la modernidad—este trabajo argumenta que el uso de la memoria cultural de Roffey ofrece una relación carnavalesca con el mundo en respuesta al trauma del cambio climático detallado en la novela. Basando mi argumento en la teoría clásica de Bakhtin sobre el carnaval como una ocasión para la contestación y la renovación, así como la llamada de Cheryl Lousely por una “ecocrítica carnavalesca,” este ensayo amplía el reciente giro de la ecocrítica hacia el campo de los estudios de memoria (Buell; Goodbody; Kennedy) para ilustrar cómo la literatura media entre las relaciones míticas e históricas con el mundo natural. Como expresiones literarias, lo carnavalesco y lo grotesco evocan el mito y el juego para revelar y transformar los mitos sociales que gobiernan las relaciones y gestionan la diferencia. Ya que la literatura actúa tanto como productora y como espejo de la memoria cultural, este ensayo busca destacar el potencial literario del mito para conectar traumas del pasado con modos de compromiso político más afirmativos.

scholarly journals Rola języka w uwalnianiu się z dziedzicznych traum

Politeja ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2(65)) ◽  
pp. 189-204
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Marcol
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Social Position ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Village

The Role of Language in Releasing from Inherited Traumas. Negotiations of the Social Position of the Silesian Minority in Serbian Banat The aim of the paper is to show the dependence between language, collective memory (also post-memory) and sense of identity. This issue is analysed using the example of an ethnic minority living in the village of Ostojićevo (Banat, Serbia) called ‘Toutowie.’ Their ancestors came in the 19th century from Wisła (Silesian Cieszyn, Poland); they left their homes because of great hunger and were looking for jobs in Banat. Narratives about the past contain traumatic experiences of the past generations transmitted in the Silesian dialect and constituting communicative memory. At the same time, a new Polish national identity is being constructed, supported by institutions and authorities; it carries a new image of the world and creates a new cultural memory. This new identity – shaped on the basis of national categories – leads to changes of its self-identification and gives the opportunity to raise its social position in the multi-ethnic Banat community.

scholarly journals ‘Text as condenser of cultural memory’: intertextual space of Valerii Shevchuk’s prose

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Iryna Prylipko
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Intertextual Dialogue

The paper considers the demonstrative aspects of intertext in the prose by Valerii Shevchuk and focuses on the peculiarities of the works’ interaction with the Bible, mythology, and literature, which takes place at the level of different forms and types of intertext. Particular attention is paid to revealing the specifc ‘dialogue’ of V. Shevchuk’s works with their pretexts — hagiography, autobiographical and diary’s literature of Baroque. ɒ e examples discussed testify to the depth and ramifications of the intertextual dialogue in the writer’s prose, reveal the intellectual, philosophical, and elitist nature of his texts. A dialogue with the Bible, mythology, world and Ukrainian literature in the works by V. Shevchuk unfolds in the form of open and hidden quotations, allusions, reminiscences. These details aim at deepening the representation of ideas and themes, forming the subtexts, interpreting images. The writer creates a new artistic form — metatext — mainly through the reinterpretation of the pretexts, among which the works of the Baroque period (poetic, autobiographical, diary genres) and hagiography dominate. Transforming the pretexts at the level of contents, plot, genre, time and space, narrative, V. Shevchuk expands them with monologues, dialogues, descriptions, and details. In the process of interpreting prototexts, the writer resorts to modeling original images, in the context of which he actualizes some worldview points, reveals important moral, ethical, and philosophical problems. Allowing the perception of his work as a ‘textual game’, the writer, at the same time, does not reduce the role of intertext to the level of intellectual play. Intertext becomes a peculiar way of continuing the literary discourses of the past in a dialogue with them. They become re-read, ‘supplemented’ and thus brought once again into the continuous process of forming culture.

Modern Museum and Paramuseum: Existential Alienation and Actualization

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-2) ◽  
pp. 410-425
Author(s):  
Denis Ignatyev ◽  
◽  
Anastasia Nikiforova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
The Past ◽  
Synergistic Approach ◽  
Historical Objects ◽  
First Time ◽  
Scientific Life ◽  
Northwestern Russia

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of alienation of culture in a modern museum and the processes of actualization of objects and phenomena of history in the space of the paramuseum. In the center of the author’s attention is the theme of creating the illusion of existential comfort. It explores the contradiction between the need for museification of culture in order for a modern person to be able to appeal to it when building one’s own identity, and the constant desire to place the culture of the past on a safe reservation. The issue of aestheticization of cultural objects in the museum space and the role of a museum in interpreting, preserving and distorting their meaning is raised. The museum, created as a repository of antiquities, a collection of masterpieces, today has become the most sensitive system that responds to changes in the life of culture and society. An axiological analysis of modern museums shows their growing popularity as an element of the entertainment industry, while their aesthetic, analytical, and intellectual role is becoming obscure. Respect for the museum as a keeper of cultural memory, for the focus of scientific life is disappearing. Instead, a simplified “attraction museum” and paramuseum is coming to the fore, creating endless games with historical objects, reconstructions, visitors and interpretations of the events of history and culture. The authors of the article are among the first to turn to the concept of “paramuseum” and give it a comprehensive assessment. For the first time, a scientific classification of paramuseums (on the example of paramuseums of northwestern Russia) is proposed. Their main features and characteristics are identified. A synergistic approach to the processes of actualization and alienation of cultural objects in the museum environment made it possible to include the viewer, the recipient, as the third, necessary component of this system. This made it possible to conclude that museum values are alienated or updated not by themselves, but only in relation to the “person watching.” Thus, modern museums and paramuseums are a form of value-based self-consciousness of society, demonstrating the total stratification of post-culture society, its fragmentation into value clusters that can represent culture as a whole only in the process of analytical consciousness, but not in the collection of subject series.

scholarly journals Beyond trauma? Memories of Joi/y and memory play in Blade Runner 2049

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silke Arnold-de Simine
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Trauma Theory ◽  
Cultural Experience ◽  
The Past ◽  
Blade Runner ◽  
Dominant Paradigm

Cultural memory studies finds itself at an impasse: whereas ‘cultural memory’ is conceptualized as mediated, dynamic, imaginative and shaped by the present, the dominant paradigm of ‘trauma’ illuminates the hold the past has on us, casting the shadow of a melancholic subjectivity that threatens to obscure our agency as (political) subjects. This article asks what lies in store for memory studies beyond the focus on (classic) trauma (theory). Using the movie Blade Runner 2049 (US 2017; dir: Denis Villeneuve) as an illustrative example, it explores how creative and joyful forms of meaning-making through play and acts of memory inform each other in what the psychoanalyst DW Winnicott described as ‘cultural experience’.

Colonial memories and transnational mobilizations: Asia’s colonial veterans and their struggle for British citizenship, c. 1980–2015

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1129-1143
Author(s):  
Barbara Laubenthal ◽  
Daniel Schumacher
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Political System ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
British Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Framing

This article focuses on campaigns by former colonial soldiers from Nepal and Hong Kong and their struggles for British citizenship over the last three decades. When analysing these mobilizations, we combine approaches from social movement research with insights from cultural memory studies. We use the concept of ‘relational fields’ to determine how these former colonial soldiers systematically utilized the past as a political framing device and thus revealed themselves to be not outsiders to the political system but equal players therein. We argue that their actions are best understood as a series of connected postcolonial civil rights campaigns that often reinforce rather than reverse romanticized and positivist representations of Britain’s imperial past. While in some instances colonial veterans were able to mount meaningful political interventions, our analysis shows that the veterans’ eventual acceptance into British society could only come at the price of their continued stereotyped depiction as colonial subjects.

N.F.S. Grundtvig, Niels Bukh and Other 'Japanese' Heroes. The Educators Obara Kuniyoshi and Matsumae Shigeyoshi and Their Lessons from the Past of a Foreign Country

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Mehl
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Stereotypical Image ◽  
Cultural Borrowing ◽  
New Education

AbstractObara Kuniyoshi (1887–1977), the founder of Tamagawa Gakuen, and Matsumae Shigeyoshi (1901–1991), the founder of Tôkai Educational System (TES), were both inspired by Denmark and Danish education, although in different ways. Obara, a representative of the New Education Movement in Japan, became interested in Denmark when he heard about Danish gymnastics, which seemed to be ideally suited to his vision of rigorous but non-competitive physical education. In 1931, two years after founding his own school, he succeeded in inviting the Danish gymnast Niels Bukh and a group of his students to Japan. The interest in gymnastics sparked off a wider interest in Denmark. Matsumae Shigeyoshi's attention was drawn to Denmark and to the Danish folk high schools as a result of his encounter with Uchimura Kanzô. Although not an educator by training, he decided to devote his life to education. This article explores the role of cultural borrowing in the thought and educational praxis of Obara and Matsumae. Although they uncritically accepted a Danish cultural memory (Denmark's recovery from military defeat in the nineteenth century through spiritual strength and education) and cultivated a stereotypical image, the adaptation of this image to suit their own needs represents a highly creative process which resulted in two successful private schools.

scholarly journals The important role of private wildlife organisations in facilitating scientific research: A case study of the Australian Dingo Foundation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley P. Smith ◽  
Shennai G. Palermo ◽  
Lyn Watson
Keyword(s):  
Captive Breeding ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lethal Management ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
Private Organisation

As we enter an era of global mass extinctions, it is important to tackle wildlife research and conservation from multiple fronts, including those made available by wildlife organisations, zoos and sanctuaries. Captive studies are particularly useful when studying free-ranging populations is difficult, and/or when controlled conditions are required. Yet, despite the significant role that they play in supporting research and conservation of species and ecosystems, they are rarely recognised in the scientific literature. Here we present a case study of the Australian Dingo Foundation (ADF), a private organisation and captive breeding facility that actively supports research and conservation efforts relating to the dingo ( Canis dingo). Over the past decade (2010 to 2020), the ADF has facilitated research across eight research disciplines that include archaeology, behaviour, biology, cognition, evolutionary psychology, non-lethal management, reproduction and parental behaviour, and vocalisations. This has resulted in at least 21 published scientific studies which are summarised in this paper. As this case study demonstrates, captive facilities have the potential to contribute to the understanding and conservation of dingoes by providing practical alternatives to, and/or supplement studies of free-ranging populations. We conclude by outlining some of the implications and limitations of conducting research using captive dingo populations.

ROLE OF EMOTIONAL LAYER IN MUSEUM EXPERIENCE. NARRATION ON THE HOLOCAUST IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORICAL MUSEUM

2012 ◽  
Vol 165 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-185
Author(s):  
Elżbieta NIEROBA
Keyword(s):  
State Of The Art ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Conditions ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Museum Experience ◽  
Mechanisms Of Memory

The starting point for the discussion are the concepts of Pierre Nora and Alison Landsberg. According to P. Nora, the passing away of eyewitnesses to history transfers the obligation to store the traces of the past onto archiving institutions (including museums). A. Landsberg, in turn, reveals the process in which the mechanisms of memory shaping in the contemporary society become dependent on the state-of-the-art technologies and pop-culture products. Museums of the Holocaust are searching for an appropriate language to talk about the Holocaust in a situation where, like other museum institutions, they have to adjust to the new expectations of the audience, and tailor their space and ways of exhibition to the current cultural conditions and new means of learning. Empirical investigations have proven that nowadays receivers do not merely expect to approach the past intellectually, but also to cross the passive boundary of observation, and desire to have sensual experience of history. From this perspective, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum as a physical trace of the past, in accordance with Aleida Assmann’s concept of “a memory of place”, provides the visitors with sensual and emotional experience. In its further part, the article presents strategies for using the products of popular culture for processing and describing historical events, the ways of organizing museum space which affects the emotions and the imagination of receivers and invites them to discover history for themselves. Also, it discusses the resulting concerns about the potential trivialization of the communicated message.

Memory between Locality and Mobility: Diaspora, Holocaust and Exile as Reflected in Contemporary German-Jewish Literature

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Jessica Ortner
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
German Jewish ◽  
Migratory Movements

Memory is not only a biological capability but also a social practice of constructing the past, which is carried out by social communities (e.g., the nation state, the family, and the church). Since the 1980s, memory studies has intertwined the concept of cultural memory with national narratives of the past that are to legitimize the connection between state, territory, and people. In the present time of growing migratory movements, memory studies has abandoned this “methodological nationalism” and turned its attention towards dynamic constructions of cultural memory. Indeed, memories cross national and cultural borderlines in various ways. The cultural memory of the Jewish people, ever since its beginning, has been defined by mobility. As the exile and forty years of wandering in the wilderness preceded the Conquest of Canaan and the building of the temple, the cultural memory of the Jewish people has always been based on the principle of extraterritoriality. The caesura of the Holocaust altered this ancient form of mobility into a superimposed rediasporization of the assimilated Jews that turned the eternal longing for Jerusalem into a secularized longing for the fatherland. This article presents examples of German-Jewish literature that is concerned with the intersection between the original diaspora memory, rediasporization and longing for a return to the fatherland. I will analyze literary writings by Barbara Honigmann and Vladimir Verlib that in a paradigmatic manner navigate between memory of the Holocaust, exile and the mythological past of Judaism, and negotiate the question of belonging to diverse territorial and mobile mnemonic communities.

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