"La publicación “Memorias: 12 historias que nos deja la guerra” es una apuesta y un acercamiento a los diversos acontecimientos que se entretejen en las regiones colombianas, a las memorias que víctimas, excombatientes, comunidades indígenas, afrodescendientes, líderes sociales y el país en
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general, tienen del conficto en el país. Este ejercicio de reconstrucción de memoria es preciso para que no se pierda la historia de pueblos, regiones y comunidades, y para que sus habitantes reconozcan la necesidad de saber y recordar. Hoy en día se transita o habita lugares que tiempo atrás fueron escenario de disputa por el poder o donde se cometieron actos violentos, sucesos en su mayoría desconocidos por la sociedad e ignorados incluso por sus pobladores. De aquí la pertinencia de esta gran crónica de Colombia construida por varios autores, en diversos contextos y con diferentes protagonistas. Son relatos que nos llevan en un recorrido por diferentes aspectos, posiciones y miradas de la guerra; son narraciones minuciosas construidas con rigurosidad y que son eco de muchas voces heridas por un largo conficto armado. Desde territorios donde tuvieron lugar combates entre paramilitares y el Ejército, o regiones donde habitan comunidades indígenas hostigadas por grupos armados y capacitadas para usar las armas, incluso grandes extensiones de tierra que fueron cuna del polvo mágico de la coca, hasta relatos de reclutamiento forzado, desplazamiento y crímenes contra líderes sociales, son algunos de los hechos que miles de colombianos llevan latente en sus memorias y que decidieron compartir para que esta publicación fuese posible." (Página 7-8)
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"Die Bedeutung von Telenovelas für die „Populärkultur" ist schon seit geraumer Zeit in den Fokus der insbesondere lateinamerikanistischen Forschung gerückt, maßgeblich zunächst von dem spanisch-kolumbianischen Medien- und Kulturwissenschaftler Jesus Martin-Barbero in den 1980er Jahren. Sein A
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nsatz ist insofern interessant, als er die populärkulturellen Medien, wie Kino, Radio und Presse als zentrale Vermittlungsinstanzen für die Ausbildung von kollektiver (d. h. nationaler) Identität in Lateinamerika in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, unter dem Vorzeichen der Modernität bzw. Modernisierung, bestimmt. Dem Medium des Fernsehens, das sich seit den 1960er Jahren verbreitet, diagnostiziert er eine Tendenz zur Homogenisierung, aber auch hier sagen die verschiedenen Genres, sowie ihre konkreten Artikulationen nicht nur etwas über hegemoniale Verhältnisse und die ideologische Manipulation der Kulturindustrie aus. Insbesondere Telenovelas sind ihm zufolge als kulturelle Produkte bedeutsam, die vermitteln zwischen einem „tiempo de vida" („de una socialidad negada, econ6micamente desvalorizada y politicamente desconocida, pero culturalmente viva") und einem „tiempo del relato, que la afirma y hace posible a las clases populares reconocerse en ella" (1993: 245) . In diesem Sinne kommt er zu dem Schluss, dass "lo que hace la fuerza de la industria cultural no se hallo solo en la ideologia, sino en la cultura, en la dinamica profunda de la memoria y del imaginario (Martin-Barbero 1993: 245 f.) . Seit den 2000er Jahren sind die Produktionen vielfältiger, innovativer geworden, im Zuge auch einer US-amerikanischen Serienkultur, und die Telenovelas integrieren zunehmend auch politische und historische Themen.
Der Frage, inwiefern diese neuen Entwicklungen in einem ähnlichen Sinne identitätsbildend und vermittelnd wirken, wie Martin-Barbero beschreibt, versucht sich der vorliegende Schwerpunkt anzunähern. Schon in den 1980er Jahren sind lateinamerikanische (vor allem brasilianische, aber auch mexikanische und venezolanische) Telenovelas massiv in andere Weltregionen exportiert worden und haben somit zugleich ein spezifisches Lateinamerika-Bild geprägt. So war die brasilianische Produktion Die Sklavin Isaura in den 1980er Jahren die erfolgreichste Telenovela aller Zeiten; aber auch die mexikanische Betty la fea erfreute sich in den 1990er Jahre größter Beliebtheit und führte zu einer Reihe von Adaptionen in verschiedenen Ländern, darunter die USA und Deutschland. Die Verbreitung dieser Serienproduktionen hat kontinuierlich zugenommen - und in vielen Regionen (auch in Deutschland) gibt es heute eine mehr oder weniger erfolgreiche „einheimische" Produktion. Der transkulturelle Charakter von Telenovelas zeigt sich nicht nur am „Export" dieser Produktionen in verschiedene afrikanische, osteuropäische und asiatische Länder, sondern auch an verschiedenen Adaptionen, bei denen der „Stoff" verkauft und als einheimische Produktion neu geschaffen und in den nationalen Fernsehsendern ausgestrahlt wird. Andererseits werden unterdessen auch in Lateinamerika Telenovelas ins Programm aufgenommen, die aus anderen Regionen stammen; so sind z. B. in Chile seit einigen Jahren die „telenovelas turcas" ein neues Phänomen, das auf großes Interesse stößt und zunehmend populär geworden ist. Darüber hinaus sind sie auch deshalb als transkulturelle Produkte zu verstehen, weil sie auf universelle Werte (und Gefühle) zurückgreifen und bekannte Erzählstrukturen beinhalten, die ganz offensichtlich über Ländergrenzen und Kontinente hinaus attraktiv sind. Telenovelas aus den letzten Jahren zu geben - ohne dabei angesichts der unermüdlichen Produktion in Spanien und fast sämtlichen lateinamerikanischen Ländern auch nur annähernd Vollständigkeit beanspruchen zu können - oder gar auf spezifische soziologische Phänomene der Rezeption eingehen zu können. Der Fokus liegt dabei vor allem auf den neueren Entwicklungen: den „Narconovelas" und ihre Bedeutung für eine transnationale Serien- und Populärkultur, sowie den Telenovelas als Medien politischer und historischer Bildung." (Seiten 8-9)
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"Remembering the Holocaust is a central part of historical awareness and political culture in reunified Germany, Israel, and the United States. But can the same be said for other parts of the world? How have societies that were not affected by occupation and extermination measures under the Nazi reg
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ime dealt with the legacy of the Holocaust? How have minorities with their own experiences of persecution reacted to specific acts of remembrance? How does demographic change affect memory? In what ways have immigrants come to terms with the central significance of the Holocaust? From a global perspective and in different national and regional contexts, international experts analyse the worldwide transformation of Holocaust remembrance. The fourteen case studies focus on the genesis and functions of remembrance in Europe, North and South America, Israel, North Africa, South Africa and Asia. The volume identifies and discusses contradictions and challenges in a process often referred to as the ‘globalisation’ or ‘universalisation’ of Holocaust remembrance." (Publisher description)
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"Latin American comics and graphic novels have a unique history of addressing controversial political, cultural, and social issues. This volume presents new perspectives on how comics on and from Latin America both view and express memory formation on major historical events and processes. The contr
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ibutors, from a variety of disciplines including literary theory, cultural studies, and history, explore topics including national identity construction, narratives of resistance to colonialism and imperialism, the construction of revolutionary traditions, and the legacies of authoritarianism and political violence. The chapters offer a background history of comics and graphic novels in the region, and survey a range of countries and artists such as Joaquín Salvador Lavado (a.k.a Quino), Hector G. Oesterheld, and Juan Acevedo. They also highlight the unique ability of this art and literary form to succinctly render memory. In sum, this volume offers in-depth analysis of an understudied, yet key literary genre in Latin American memory studies and documents the essential role of comics during the transition from dictatorship to democracy." (Publisher description)
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"In October 1967, early in the Nigerian Civil War, government troops entered Asaba in pursuit of the retreating Biafran army, slaughtering thousands of civilians and leaving the town in ruins. News of the atrocity was suppressed by the Nigerian government, with the complicity of Britain, and its sig
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nificance in the subsequent progress of that conflict was misunderstood. Drawing on archival sources on both sides of the Atlantic and interviews with survivors of the killing, pillaging and rape, as well as with high-ranking Nigerian military and political leaders, S. Elizabeth Bird and Fraser M. Ottanelli offer an interdisciplinary reconstruction of the history of the Asaba Massacre, redefining it as a pivotal point in the history of the war. Through this, they also explore the long afterlife of trauma, the reconstruction of memory and how it intersects with justice, and the task of reconciliation in a nation where a legacy of ethnic suspicion continues to reverberate." (Publisher description)
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"Die Fallanalyse hat gezeigt, dass eine Erzählung vom Krieg 1992-93 propagiert wird, die einer abchasischen Version des Narrationsschemas 'Die Vertreibung von fremden Feinden' entspricht. Ein zentrales Element der Erzählung ist zudem, so ergab die Interpretation, eine betont positive Darstellung d
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es Kriegsalltags. Durch sie wird einerseits das bereits existierende Bild der heldenhaften Soldaten gestützt. Andererseits wird der Nachkriegsgeneration 20 Jahre nach Kriegsende eine gewissermaßen harmlose Version des Kriegsgeschehens angeboten, mittels Film und Konzerten werden begleitend affektive Erlebnisse ermöglicht. So soll die Identifikation der Nachgeborenen mit diesem Teil des abchasischen Gründungsmythos, den sie selbst nicht erlebt haben, angeregt werden." (Seite 37)
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"The chapter examines the complex relations of communication processes, generations and cultural memory in the socio-cultural setting of North Vietnam. It critically reviews present scholarly work in the flourishing, but scattered, field of memory research in communication and media studies, and dis
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cusses links to Mannheim’s sociological concept of generations. The theoretical concepts of generation and cultural memory demonstrate several commonalities along the lines of time and space, experiences, perceptions and mediation processes as determining dimensions. The chapter presents an exemplary case study of a family in Hanoi and probes a respondent-centred empirical approach to describe these relations in terms of memory-related communication repertoires. The repertoire-oriented analytical framework proved to be an efficient tool to elicit and merge perspectives on memory and communication practices from the research material." (Abstract)
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"The paper presents: A discussion of the methods used in memory studies, explaining how attention to questions of methodology has been limited in memory studies because much research has been more concerned with theoretical issues. The paper reflects on the methods from oral history, as well as othe
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r methods such as discourse analysis, which has been used in processes of remembering, showing how people co-construct the past in their joint production of the social worlds they inhabit through speech and language; Some thoughts about how memory studies and media studies intersect, particularly given that the mass media plays a key role in the constitution of memory – and the politics of remembering is intrinsically connected to power; A brief discussion of the critiques of memory studies, mainly that the field has not paid attention to the problem of reception (in terms of methods and sources) and thus cannot illuminate the sociological basis of historical representations." (Executive summary)
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"This book offers an in-depth account of social media, journalism and collective memory through a five-year analysis of Weibo, a leading Chinese micro-blogging platform, and prism of transitional China in a globalizing world. How does society remember public events in the rapidly changing age of soc
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ial media? Eileen Le Han examines how various kinds of public events are shared, debated, and their historical significance and worthiness of remembrance highlighted on Weibo. Journalism plays a significant part in mobilizing collective remembering of these events, in a society with rapidly changing topics on the platform, the tightening state control, and nationalism on the rise. The first five years of Weibo reflect a dramatic change in Chinese society, where journalists, media professionals, and opinion leaders in other fields of expertise, together with ordinary citizens directly affected by these changes in everyday life collaborate to witness the rapid social transition." (Palgrave Macmillan website)
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"The world wars, genocides and extremist ideologies of the 20th century are remembered very differently across Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, resulting sometimes in fierce memory disputes. This book investigates the complexity and contention of the layers of memory of the troubled 20th ce
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ntury in the region. Written by an international group of scholars from a diversity of disciplines, the chapters approach memory disputes in methodologically innovative ways, studying representations and negotiations of disputed pasts in different media, including monuments, museum exhibitions, individual and political discourse and electronic social media. Analyzing memory disputes in various local, national and transnational contexts, the chapters demonstrate the political power and social impact of painful and disputed memories." (Publisher description)
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"In hard-hitting accounts of Auschwitz, Bosnia, Palestine, and Hiroshima's Ground Zero, comics display a stunning capacity to bear witness to trauma. Investigating how hand-drawn comics has come of age as a serious medium for engaging history, Disaster Drawn explores the ways graphic narratives by d
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iverse artists, including Jacques Callot, Francisco Goya, Keiji Nakazawa, Art Spiegelman, and Joe Sacco, document the disasters of war. Hillary L. Chute traces how comics inherited graphic print traditions and innovations from the seventeenth century and later, pointing out that at every turn new forms of visual-verbal representation have arisen in response to the turmoil of war. Modern nonfiction comics emerged from the shattering experience of World War II, developing in the 1970s with Art Spiegelman's first 'Maus' story about his immigrant family's survival of Nazi death camps and with Hiroshima survivor Keiji Nakazawa's inaugural work of 'atomic bomb manga,' the comic book Ore Wa Mita (I Saw It), a title that alludes to Goya's famous Disasters of War etchings. Chute explains how the form of comics - its collection of frames - lends itself to historical narrative. By interlacing multiple temporalities over the space of the page or panel, comics can place pressure on conventional notions of causality. Aggregating and accumulating frames of information, comics calls attention to itself as evidence. Disaster Drawn demonstrates why, even in the era of photography and film, people understand hand-drawn images to be among the most powerful forms of historical witness." (Publisher description)
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"The Routledge International Handbook of Memory Studies offers students and researchers original contributions that comprise the debates, intersections, and future courses of the field. It is divided in six themed sections: Theories and Perspectives; Cultural artefacts, Symbols and Social practices;
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Public, Transnational, and Transitional Memories; Technologies of Memory; Terror, Violence and Disasters; and Body and Ecosystems. A strong emphasis is placed on the interdisciplinary breadth of Memory Studies with contributions from leading international scholars in sociology, anthropology, philosophy, biology, film studies, media studies, archive studies, literature, and history. The Handbook addresses the core concerns and foundations of the field while indicating new directions in Memory Studies." (Publisher description)
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"El presente volumen recoge diferentes enfoques teóricos y metodológicos sobre las memorias, transiciones políticas e identidades en Alemania, Argentina y España, buscando establecer comparaciones y puntos de convergencia en sociedades signadas durante el siglo XX por regímenes políticos autor
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itarios y procesos de democratización paradigmáticos. Privilegia la reflexión a partir de fuentes orales, indagación en archivos, sitios de memoria y otros documentos como representaciones literarias y cinematográficas." (Descripción de la casa editorial)
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"Oral history is increasingly acknowledged as a key tool for anyone studying the history of the recent past. This book is the first to provide a comprehensive and systematic overview of oral history theory in an accessible format. The book is structured around key themes, including the peculiarities
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of oral history, the study of the self, subjectivity and intersubjectivity, memory, narrative, performance and power. Each chapter provides a clear and user-friendly explanation of the various theoretical approaches, illustrates them with examples from the rich field of published oral history, and makes suggestions for the practicing oral historian. There is also a glossary of key terms and concepts. Combining the study of theoreticians with the observations of practitioners, and including extensive examples of oral history work from around the world, this book constitutes the first integrated explanation of oral history theory. It will be invaluable to experienced and novice oral historians, professionals, and students who are new to the discipline." (Publisher description)
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"The central thesis of Crtl+Z is that a digital right to be forgotten is an innovative idea with a lot of possibilities and potential. The idea simply needs to be opened up, reframed, and restructured. The extreme options currently on the table limit the many ways to think about digital redemption a
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nd polarize regions. By utilizing new theories of privacy, breaking down the concept to organize its many meanings, and reframing the problem as one of information stewardship instead of information permanence, a host of choices become available for consideration. In order to make these difficult choices once they are on the table, the issues must be configured to fit within a digital discourse, existing legal cultures, and the international community. My approach to analyzing digital redemption is inherently comparative. The right to be forgotten is indisputably a European creation, but there is a great deal to be gained from studying digital redemption beyond European borders. The right to be forgotten sits at the intersection of change: change in national and transnational policy and change in everyday information technology practices, demands, and expectations. Situated in this unique position, the right to be forgotten encompasses many of the big questions surrounding information technologies and offers a particularly valuable site and moment for comparison of democratic information societies. Comparison among regional treatments of information technology should help us make sense of legal particularities and assumptions that otherwise go unnoticed." (Introduction, page 21)
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"Considering both retrospective memories and the prospective employment of memories, Memory in a Mediated World examines troubled times that demand resolution, recovery and restoration. Its contributions provide empirically grounded analyses of how media are employed by individuals and social groups
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to connect the past, the present and the future." (Publisher description)
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