Suchergebnisse

This article focuses on the adaptation of the Red Classics - a collection of literary and cinematic works depicting the Communist armed struggle produced in the PRC between 1949 and 1966 - for contemporary Chinese television. Using the controversy over the remake of Tracks in the Snowy Forest (Linhai xueyuan 林海雪原) as a case study, it explores the complexity of restaging the Communist revolution in the post-Mao reform era. Competition in the media industry compels TV producers to re-package Communist history for fragmented contemporary audiences - those who are familiar with the original Red Classics as well as those who grew up in the reform era and who are far removed from the revolutionary legacy. Adaptation of the Red Classics is a sensitive issue. By focusing on the sexual desires and individual interests muted in the original Red Classics in order to cater for the tastes of younger viewers, the remakes offer alternative readings of history and have incurred government censorship. Opposition to the adaptations has also come from a distinct mnemonic community, the Red memory group, whose members came of age in either the 1960s or during the Cultural Revolution and who absorbed the Red Classics in their formative years. The interplay of state politics, collective memory and commercial imperatives ultimately makes the repackaging of the revolution for contemporary mass entertainment a multifaceted and highly contentious issue. (China Q/GIGA)

"Memory in Culture is an introduction to one of the most exciting new interdisciplinary fields of research: cultural memory studies. Who was Maurice Halbwachs, and what are the "social frameworks of memory"? What can Aby Warburg's work tell us about the "memory of art"? How do Pierre Nora's lieux de mémoire connect history and memory? Where does the ancient art of memory meet the neurosciences? How do media shape our most personal memories? And can remembrance become globalized? Memory in Culture addresses these and many other questions about the socio-cultural dimensions of remembering, offeringa unique overview of the history and theory of memory studies. With the concise presentation of key concepts from history, sociology, political sciences, anthropology, psychology, literary, art and media studies, it documents current international and interdisciplinary memory research in an unprecedented way."--Pub. desc.

This is an introduction to one of the most exciting new interdisciplinary fields of research: cultural memory studies. Who was Maurice Halbwachs, and what are the 'social frameworks of memory'? What can Aby Warburg's work tell us about the 'memory of art'? How do Pierre Nora's lieux de mémoire connect history and memory? Where does the ancient art of memory meet the neurosciences? How do media shape our most personal memories? And can remembrance become globalized? Memory in Culture addresses these and many other questions about the socio-cultural dimensions of remembering, o

This chapter considers the definitional and disciplinary politics surrounding the study of memory, exploring the various sites of memory study that have emerged within the field of communication. Specifically, this chapter reviews sites of memory and commemoration, ranging from places such as museums, monuments, and memorials, to textual forms, including journalism and consumer culture. Within each context, this chapter examines the ways in which these sites have interpreted and reinterpreted traumatic pasts bearing great consequence for national identity. It concludes with a discussion of the challenges set forth by new media for scholars engaging in studies of the politics of memory and identifies areas worthy of future research.

Concept and history of memory -- The evolutionary origins of human cultural memory / Merlin Donald -- From memory as archive to remembering as conversation / Jens Brockmeier -- Discerning the history inscribed within : significant sites of the narrative unconscious / Mark Freeman -- Cultural contexts of remembering -- The landscape of family memory / Bradd Shore and Sara Kauko -- Materiality of memory : the case of the remembrance poppy / Kyoko Murakami -- Approaches to testimony : two current views and beyond / Kotaro Takagi and Naohisa Mori -- Rethinking function, self and culture, in "difficult" autobiographical memories / Steve D. Brown and Paula Reavey -- Memory through the life course -- The cultural construction of memory in early childhood / Katherine Nelson -- Memory in life transitions / Constance de Saint Laurent and Tania Zittoun -- Memory in old age : a life-span perspective / Dieter Ferring -- Memory, history and identity -- National memory and where to find it / James Wertsch -- History, collective memories or national memories? how the representation of the past is framed by master narratives / Mario Carretero and Floor van Alphen -- Media and the dynamics of memory : from cultural paradigms to transcultural mediation / Astrid Erll

A critique of Shelby Steele's essay, "The Memory of Enemies" (Dissent, 1990, summer, 326-332) in which he argues that African Americans are saddled with memories of enemies who are no longer the formidable & baleful adversaries of the past, & that these memories prey detrimentally on black consciousness. Steele's exhortation to shuck off memories of past enemies is contrasted with the writing of Holocaust survivors, eg, Primo Levi & Jean Amery, who engaged in a painful quest to find in their personal suffering some higher philosophical & moral truth; however, both men committed suicide. Are we then left with a choice between despair & banality? Can victims confront their rage without being consumed by it? In Notes of a Native Son (Boston: Beacon Press, 1955), James Baldwin strikes the right balance when he enjoins us to hold in mind two ideas that seem in opposition: we must accept the world as it is, totally without rancor; yet we must never become complacent & must fight injustices with all our strength. AA

In the generic description of Indian society, the question of memory is about passive recollection of past. But in the caste-system based Indian experience, memory is also an active source of transforming one's condition in the present and reshaping the understanding of past. Based on the fieldwork conducted on the sites of important Dalit monuments in Uttar Pradesh with a focus on the process of memory consolidation in individual and collective entities, the role of memory in mobilization of political narratives and inter-group inequality is examined. The core argument is that Dalits are unequally placed as an entity in the caste-based memory structure of collective memory; this unequal placement of Dalits is carefully constructed and mobilized by the dominant castes. In the anti-caste struggle of Dalits, collective memory consolidation has played a vital role in ideologically creating counter-memories to challenge the Hindutva meta-narratives. Yet, there continues shaping of collective memory of Dalits by dominant castes by appropriating Dalit icons. Thus, the collective memory of creating an integrated Hindu identity as the only source of identifying with the past recently has led to the marginalization of Dalits' collective memory. Overall, this article highlights the role of collective memory for a meaningful understanding of the caste politics.

Memory politics, or the politics of memory, is about "who wants whom to remember what, and why" (Confino 1997: 1393). This struggle over memory is, besides directly writing and teaching history in publications and educational institutions, fought by way of (repetitive) performative acts at the site ofstatues, monuments, and memorials taking the form of rituals — such as holding commemorative speeches, worshipping, and mourning. Of course, "[the] remaking of the past is not the monopoly of modernity" (Kim 2010: 578), and thus political remembrance does not exhaust itself in those macropolitical commemorations referring to Korea's contemporary history alone. It can also be found in activities maintaining traditions, in practices of historiography, and in everyday culture — which extends much further into the past. Against this backdrop, this special issue draws together fivepapers that explore multiple different forms of political remembrance in Korea over the centuries, at diverse memory sites, and regarding various ways of performing them.