commbox Memory, Collective Memory

WorldCat (10)

Genocide: Truth, Memory, and Representation

Alexander Laban Hinton, Kevin Lewis O'Neill (eds.)

Durham: Duke University Press (2009), 349 pp.

"What happens to people and the societies in which they live after genocide? How are the devastating events remembered on the individual and collective levels, and how do these memories intersect and diverge as the rulers of postgenocidal states attempt to produce a monolithic "truth" about the past ... more

Das Jahrhundert der Bilder. Band: II: 1949 bis heute

Gerhard Paul (ed.)

Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) (2008), 798 pp.

Google Scholar (10)

Teaching Holocaust Literature and Film

Barry Langford, Robert Eaglestone (eds.)

New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2008), xi, 170 pp.

"The representation of the Holocaust in literature and film has confronted lecturers and students with some challenging questions. Does this unique and disturbing subject demand alternative pedagogic strategies? What is the role of ethics in the classroom encounter with the Holocaust? " (Publisher d ... more

External Link (11)

Oral history and public memories

Paula Hamilton, Linda Shopes (eds.)

Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press (2008), xvii, 302 pp.

"Oral history is inherently about memory, and when oral history interviews are used "in public," they invariably both reflect and shape public memories of the past. Oral History and Public Memories is the only book that explores this relationship, in fourteen case studies of oral history's use in a ... more

Download (0)

Learning to Listen: A Manual for Oral History Projects

London; New York: Panos;Open Society Institute (2008), 174 pp.

Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook

Astrid Erll, Sara B. Young (eds.)

Berlin; New York: De Gruyter (2008), viii, 441 pp.

"This handbook represents the interdisciplinary and international field of “cultural memory studies” for the first time in one volume. Articles by renowned international scholars offer readers a unique overview of the key concepts of cultural memory studies. The handbook not only documents curre ... more

Google Scholar (9)

Reclaiming Heritage: Alternative Imaginaries of Memory in West Africa

Ferdinand de Jong, Michael Rowlands (eds.)

Walnut Creek, Calif.: Left Coast Press (2007), 270 pp.

"Struggles over the meaning of the past are common in postcolonial states. State cultural heritage programs build monuments to reinforce in nation building efforts—often supported by international organizations and tourist dollars. These efforts often ignore the other, often more troubling memorie ... more

Google Scholar (11)

WorldCat (11)

Remembering: Oral History Performance

Della Pollock Hall (ed.)

New York: Palgrave Macmillan (2006), xii, 205 pp.

"Drawing on the work of scholars and practitioners such as Augusto Boal, Gloria Anzaldua, and Trinh Minh-ha, these essays advocate oral history and oral history-based performance as means to challenge and expand upon traditional ways of transmitting historical knowledge. The contributors' central co ... more

The Theatre of Violence: Narratives of Protagonists in the South African Conflict

Don Foster, Paul Haupt, Marésa De Beer

Capetwon; Oxford: Institute of Justice and Reconciliation;HSRC Press;James Currey (2005), xii, 364 pp.

"If the dominant media stereotype portrays perpetrators as monsters, as ‘Prime Evil’, then the dominant academic image is the opposite. It paints them as ordinary people (gender ignored, but assumed as male) diligently under sway of modern bureaucratic compartmentalisation (the banality of evil ... thesis), or as obedient to authority and conforming to social pressures (the situationist thesis). No monsters here, just ordinary people under rather extraordinary circumstances. The moral message: we co uld all potentially become perpetrators, depending on the situation. There is a competing view: the perpetrator as a willing, even eager, executioner driven by strong negative emotions against the ‘other’. The scholarly world presents us with antagonistic perspectives. What picture do we get from narrative approaches, from stories told by those actually responsible for politically-related violence? First, there are only a few narrative studies. Second, they also paint competing pictures. On the one hand, is a picture of the perpetrator as a victim – of organisational routines, hierarchies, pressures and secrecy, and of dominant ideologies, as well as brutal initiation rites which instil the practice of obedience to authority. These narrative studies support the situationist and ordinary person line of explanation. They also correct the erstwhile neglect of gender issues by placing emphasis on masculinity as an important ingredient. On the other hand, the South African storytelling studies by Marks (2001), Straker (1992) and Campbell (1992) throw up a different picture. While victims in one sense – of Bantu education, poverty and violence at the hands of both state security agents and older vigilante groups – they are also action-oriented moral crusaders in defence of their communities and in politically-minded offensive against the apartheid state and its allies. Once again, we have contrasting and competing pictures of those responsible for political violence. In these particular storytelling perspectives, differences are partly due to the different positions of protagonists across the dividing line of power: state security personnel on the one hand and resistance activists on the other. Apart from the conflicting images from varying epistemological perspectives and different theoretical angles, the very label or category of a ‘perpetrator’ is more muddied, contested and problematic than a first glance would suggest. We described seven grey areas which challenge or disrupt the dominant binaries of victim-perpetrator and the triangular view of dramatis personae: perpetrator – ‘victim’ – bystander/observer. Moreover, in Chapter 4, we raise a number of moral quandaries or dilemmas in the study of those responsible for violence, which again dislodge the simple and tidy categories. Therefore a central component of the present study aims to problematise and disrupt the complacency of the very label and category of ‘perpetrator’. What should be done? In the face of these competing images and explanations we carve out a ‘third space’ beyond, or perhaps better, between the theoretical antagonisms of situationism versus agency (willing killers); among the grey areas between category labels of victim/perpetrator/bystander. Rather than this being seen as an alternative position, it should be read as an attempt at synthesis. Instead of the oppositional pairing of ‘either-or’, it should be seen in terms of the inclusive pairing ‘both-and’ (Foster, 1999).We argue that those responsible for violence should be regarded as potentially both victim and perpetrator, as well as both subject to circumstances/influences and active initiators." (Conclusion, page 321-322) more

External Link (7)

Medien des kollektiven Gedächtnisses: Konstruktivität - Historizität - Kulturspezifität

Astrid Erll, Ansgar Nünning (eds.)

Berlin; New York: De Gruyter (2004), viii, 310 pp.

WorldCat (9)

Télévision, mémoire et identités nationales

Paris: L'Harmattan;Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA) (2003), 198 pp.

"Dans quelle mesure la télévision a-t-elle contribué, et contribue-t-elle encore, à forger la mémoire nationale et l'identité nationale dans chaque pays ? Y a-t-il eu une politique volontariste en ce domaine ? Quels sont les effets du statut des chaînes de télévision, privées ou publiques ... more

External Link (6)

Voices of Collective Remembering

James V. Wertsch

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2002), v, 202 pp.

"There is currently a great deal of discussion in the humanities and social sciences about collective memory, but there is very little agreement on what it is. The first goal of this volume is to review various understandings of this term to bring some coherence to the discussion. Drawing on this re ... more

Download (0)

Recreando el pasado: Guía metodológica para la memoria y la historia local

Mario Garcés Durán

Santiago de Chile: Educación y Comunicaciones (ECO) (2002), 33 pp.

WorldCat (9)

African Words, African Voices: Critical Practices in Oral History

Luise White, Stephan Miescher, David William Cohen (eds.)

Bloomington: Indiana University Press (2002), vi, 322 pp.

"Until the advent of African independence, Africans were not considered fitting subjects for historical research and their words, voices, and experiences were largely absent from the continent's history. In 13 lively and provocative essays focusing on all areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, oral sources ar ... more

WorldCat (7)

Gedächtnis und Erinnerung: Ein interdisziplinäres Lexikon

Nicolas Pethes, Jens Ruchatz (eds.)

Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag (2001), 700 pp.

"Um die Ansätze und Erkenntnisse der unterschiedlichen Forschungsrichtungen zusammenzuführen, präsentiert dieses interdisziplinäre Lexikon das weite Feld der Gedächtnicforschung in seiner historischen und theoretischen Vielfalt. Mit über 450 Artikeln deckt es die Disziplinen ab, in denen die P ... more

War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century

Emmanuel Sivan, Jay Winter (eds.)

Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press (1999), vii, 260 pp.

"No scholarly consensus exists about how the terms 'memory' and 'collective memory' may most fruitfully inform historical study. Hence there is still much room for reflection and clarification in this branch of cultural history. How war has been remembered collectively is the central question in thi ... more

Erinnerungsarbeit: Der Nationalsozialismus in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur von 1945 bis heute. Katalog zur Ausstellung

Wilma Aden-Grossmann (ed.)

Kassel: Universität Gesamthochschule Kassel (1998), 116 pp.

External Link (7)

Video, War, and the Diasporic Imagination

Dona Kolar-Panov

London; New York: Routledge (1997), xvi, 252 pp.

"Video, War and the Diasporic Imagination is an incisive study of the loss and (re) construction of collective and personal identities in ethnic migrant communities. Focusing on the Croatian and Macedonian communities in Western Australia, Dona Kolar-Panov documents the social and cultural changes t ... more

External Link (6)

Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Lateinamerika

Detlef Nolte (ed.)

Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert (1996), 226 pp.