Transnational Memory: Circulation, Articulation, Scales

384 Pages·2016·6.06 MB·English

by  de Cesari

TransnationalMemory
Media and Cultural Memory/
Medien und kulturelle
Erinnerung
|
Edited by
Astrid Erll ⋅ Ansgar Nünning
EditorialBoard
AleidaAssmann ⋅ MiekeBal ⋅ VitaFortunati ⋅ RichardGrusin ⋅ UdoHebel
AndrewHoskins ⋅ WulfKansteiner ⋅ AlisonLandsberg ⋅ ClausLeggewie
JeffreyOlick ⋅ SusannahRadstone ⋅ AnnRigney ⋅ MichaelRothberg
WernerSollors ⋅ FrederikTygstrup ⋅ HaraldWelzer
Volume 19
Transnational
Memory
|
Circulation, Articulation, Scales
Edited by
Chiara De Cesari and Ann Rigney
ISBN978-3-11-035902-2
e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-035910-7
e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-038673-8
ISSN1613-8961
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ACIPcatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenappliedforattheLibraryofCongress.
BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek
TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie;
detailedbibliographicdataareavailableontheInternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de.
©2014WalterdeGruyterGmbH,Berlin/Boston
Coverimage:AdrianPaci,TheColumn,2013productionshot.Courtesyoftheartistand
KaufmannRepetto,Milan.
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Acknowledgements
Thiscollectionwasmadepossiblebytheinputandsupportofmanyindividuals
andinstitutions.Inthefirstplace,wearehappytoacknowledgethesupportofthe
NetherlandsOrganisationforScientificResearch(NWO)throughtheirfundingof
theNetworkinTransnationalMemoryStudies(NITMES).Theideaofputtingto-
getheracollectiononthistopicoriginatedintheTransnationalMemoryinitiative
ofUtrechtUniversity’sResearchAreaCulturesandIdentities,forwhosegenerous
financialandlogisticalsupportwearegrateful.WewouldalsoliketothankAm-
sterdamUniversity’sInstituteofCultureandHistory,whichprovidedsupportin
theinitialeditingstage.AnnRigneyisalsogratefulforthehospitalityoftheUni-
versityofTorontointheSpringof2014,whichcertainlycontributedbothtothe
pleasureandthepaceofthefinalediting.
AnearlierversionofChiaraDeCesari’schapterappearedintheJournalofSo-
cialArchaeology10.3(2010),andanearlierversionofAnnRigney’schapterinNew
LiteraryHistory43.4(2012).Wewouldliketothanktheeditorsofthesejournals
forpermissiontore-usethesematerials.
ToAstridErllandAnsgarNünningweowethehonourofpublishingthisvol-
umeintheirMediaandCulturalMemoryseries,butalsomanywiseeditorialsug-
gestionsalongtheway.StellaDiedrich,ManuelaGerlof,andAngelikaHermann
atDeGruyterweremodelsofpatience;wethanktheminparticularfortheirend-
lessreadinesstoanswerourquestionsandtheirwillingnesstocopewithshifting
deadlines.WearealsogratefultoLoriAllenforhergenerousadviceandsugges-
tions.AspecialwordofthanksisowedtoTessaSuperwhohelpedusintheinitial
stagesofthiseditorialprocessand,especially,toSophievandenElzen,whose
quietandefficienteditorialsupportintheprolongedfinalphaseswasinvaluable.
Finally,wewouldliketoexpressourgratitudetoAdrianPaciandtheKaufmann
Repettogallery,Milanfortheirgenerouscooperationandthepermissiontouse
twostillsfromPaci’svideosforourcoverphotoandourenvoi.
ChiaraDeCesariandAnnRigney

Contents
Acknowledgements|v
ChiaraDeCesariandAnnRigney
Introduction|1
PartI Circulation
AstridErll
From‘DistrictSix’toDistrict9andBack:ThePlurimedialProductionof
TravellingSchemata|29
RosanneKennedy
MovingTestimony:HumanRights,PalestinianMemory,andtheTransnational
PublicSphere|51
Marie-AudeBaronian
Archive,Memory,andLoss:ConstructingImagesintheArmenian
Diaspora|79
SusanneKüchler
RelationalMapsintheCookIslandsTransnationalCommunities|99
PartII Articulation
MichaelRothberg
MultidirectionalMemoryinMigratorySettings:TheCaseofPost-Holocaust
Germany|123
PaullaA.Ebron
SlaveryandTransnationalMemory:TheMakingofNewPublics|147
ElizabethEdwards
BetweentheLocal,National,andTransnational:PhotographicRecordingand
MemorializingDesire|169
SlawomirKapralski
Memory,Identity,andRomaTransnationalNationalism|195
viii | Contents
ChristinaSchwenkel
ImagingHumanity:SocialistFilmandTransnationalMemoriesoftheWarin
Vietnam|219
PartIII Scales
ChiaraDeCesari
WorldHeritageandtheNation-State:AViewfromPalestine|247
StephanFeuchtwang
HauntingMemory:TheExtensionofKinshipBeyondtheNation|271
SusanLegêneandMartijnEickhoff
PostwarEuropeandtheColonialPastinPhotographs|287
GalKirn
TransnationalisminReverse:FromYugoslavtoPost-YugoslavMemorial
Sites|313
AnnRigney
Ongoing:ChangingMemoryandtheEuropeanProject|339
AdrianPaci
Envoi:Centrodipermanenzatemporanea|361
NotesonContributors|363
ListofIllustrations|367
IndexofNames|370
ChiaraDeCesariandAnnRigney
Introduction
Beyond methodological nationalism
By now there is a vast literature demonstrating how collective memory is cru-
cialforidentityformationandhow,particularlyinthemodernperiod,theself-
reflexivecultivationofthepasthasplayedintotheformationofimaginedcommu-
nities(Anderson1991;Assmann1995).Alargeproportionofthisscholarshiphas
beengoverned,however,likesomuchsocialscienceandhumanitiesresearch,by
amethodologicalnationalismthatpositsthenationas“thenaturalsocialandpo-
liticalformofthemodernworld”(WimmerandGlickSchiller2002;seealsoBeck
2000).Inthecaseofmemorystudies,thishasmeantassumingthatthenation-
stateisthenaturalcontainer,curator,andtelosofcollectivememory.Thisbook
offersanalternativeapproach.
Theprimacyofthenationalframeisnotinitselfsurprising,ofcourse,given
theco-emergenceofnationalismandhistoricisminthenineteenthcentury,and
thesubsequentimportanceofheritage,canonicity,narrativesofliberation,and
commemorative rituals to the very working and legitimization of the modern
nation-state(Gillis1994),whichinturnprovidedtheblueprintforemergingre-
searchtaxonomies.Memoryinstitutionsandthecultivationofthepasthavebeen
cornerstones of ethnic nationalism in line with the principle that nations are
“grandsolidarities”basedbothonacommitmenttoasharedfutureandidentifi-
cationwithasharedpast(Renan1882).Theintensificationofinterestinmemory
andtheemergenceofmemorystudiesinthelastdecadeshavemostoftenbeen
explainedbyacrisisofremembranceoccasionedbythehorrorsofWWII,decol-
onization,andthegrowthofidentitypolitics(seeOlicketal.2012).Itshouldalso
betied,however,toanincreasingawarenessofnationalismasaspecificallyhis-
toricalformationbasedonaquestionablecongruencebetweencultural,political,
and territorial borders that was articulated through the cultivation of the past.
Theimaginedcommunityconstitutiveofmodern‘nationalized’France,forexam-
ple,asPierreNora’sinfluentialLieuxdemémoire(1984–1992)argued,wasshaped
aroundthesharedknowledgeofalimitednumberofhighlyinvestedandhighly
mediated memory sites that served as common points of reference across the
nationalterritory.Aquarterofacenturyafteritsfirstpublication,Nora’sproject
andthecomparableworkitinspiredinothercountriesnowappearsinadouble
2 | ChiaraDeCesariandAnnRigney
light:ontheonehand,astheproductionofanewcanonasawayofbulwarking
(ethnocentricandracialized)nationaltraditionsinfaceofpostcolonialdiversity
(seeRothberg2010;Stoler2011);ontheotherhand,asasymptomofanemerging
‘post-national’awarenessofthecontingencyofnationalism.Inretrospect,itcan
be seen that Hobsbawm and Ranger’s Invention of Tradition (1983) and Ander-
son’sImaginedCommunities(1983),appearingjustayearearlier,weredancingto
thesameintellectualtune.
Thirtyyearson,thetimeisripetomovememorystudiesitselfbeyondmethod-
ological nationalism. Globalized communication and time-space compression,
post-coloniality,transnationalcapitalism,large-scalemigration,andregionalin-
tegration: allof these meanthat nationalframesarenolonger the self-evident
onestheyusedtobeindailylifeandidentityformation.Asaresult,thenational
hasalsoceasedtobetheinevitableorpreeminentscaleforthestudyofcollec-
tive remembrance. By now, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, it
hasbecomeamatterofurgencyforscholarsinthefieldofmemorystudiestode-
velopnewtheoreticalframeworks,inventnewmethodologicaltools,andidentify
newsitesandarchivalresourcesforstudyingcollectiveremembrancebeyondthe
nation-state.Buildingonemergingdiscussions,thepresentvolumeaimstocon-
tributetothislong-termgoal.
Withoutclaimingtobeexhaustive,wenevertheless hopetohaveidentified
some of the key issues at stake in the further development of memory studies
and provided a pathway to their further exploration. What new frames of col-
lectiveremembrancehavebeenemergingasalternativestothenation?Andhow
donewmediatechnologiesaffectpracticesofremembrancebothinlocalandin
transnationalarenas?Whatarethemechanismsofinclusionandexclusionthat
govern even seemingly all-inclusivetransnationalmemory cultures in the digi-
talage? Looking back,doesthe historicalformationof nationalmemoriespro-
videablueprintforunderstandingthelarger-scaleprocessesofintegrationcur-
rentlytakingplaceacrosstheworld,includingEurope?Dothememorycultures
amongmigrantcommunitiesreplicatethoseofnationalism,orworkinadifferent
way?Howdomemorynarrativesinteracttransnationally,specificallyalongthe
faultlinescreatedbycolonialism?Doestheweakeningofnationalizedmemory
markthebeginningsoftheendofhistoricalidentity(and‘roots’)astheprincipal
markerofcitizenshipandbelonging?