Jeffrey C. Alexander
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195160840
- eISBN:
- 9780199944156
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195160840.003.0013
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter examines the relation between cultural trauma and collective identity. It explains that cultural trauma occurs when members of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to a ...
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This chapter examines the relation between cultural trauma and collective identity. It explains that cultural trauma occurs when members of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to a horrendous event that leaves indelible marks on their group consciousness, and that the scientific concept of cultural trauma illuminates an emerging domain of social responsibility and political action. It discusses a middle-range theory of the complex causes propelling the trauma process in developed and less-developed societies. It argues that the theory of cultural trauma applies, without prejudice, to any and all instances when societies have, or have not, constructed and experienced cultural traumatic events, and to their efforts to draw, or not to draw, the moral lessons that can be said to emanate from them.Less
This chapter examines the relation between cultural trauma and collective identity. It explains that cultural trauma occurs when members of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to a horrendous event that leaves indelible marks on their group consciousness, and that the scientific concept of cultural trauma illuminates an emerging domain of social responsibility and political action. It discusses a middle-range theory of the complex causes propelling the trauma process in developed and less-developed societies. It argues that the theory of cultural trauma applies, without prejudice, to any and all instances when societies have, or have not, constructed and experienced cultural traumatic events, and to their efforts to draw, or not to draw, the moral lessons that can be said to emanate from them.
Neil J. Smelser
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520235946
- eISBN:
- 9780520936768
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520235946.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
Sigmund Freud, a neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalysis discipline, had characterized the memory of trauma as “a foreign body which long after its entry must continue to be regarded as an ...
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Sigmund Freud, a neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalysis discipline, had characterized the memory of trauma as “a foreign body which long after its entry must continue to be regarded as an agent that is still at work.” Freud started to investigate and study more about psychological trauma, and it turned out that in his preliminary formulations, the thought of trauma is not to be conceived so much as a distinct casual event as part of a process-in-system. Going back to cultural trauma, the Protestant Reformation qualifies as a cultural trauma because of the primary risk that it posed to the honor and dominance of the Catholic cultural worldview. Many believe that cultural trauma refers to a persistent and vast event which is believed to undermine or overwhelm one or several elements of a culture or the culture as a whole.Less
Sigmund Freud, a neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalysis discipline, had characterized the memory of trauma as “a foreign body which long after its entry must continue to be regarded as an agent that is still at work.” Freud started to investigate and study more about psychological trauma, and it turned out that in his preliminary formulations, the thought of trauma is not to be conceived so much as a distinct casual event as part of a process-in-system. Going back to cultural trauma, the Protestant Reformation qualifies as a cultural trauma because of the primary risk that it posed to the honor and dominance of the Catholic cultural worldview. Many believe that cultural trauma refers to a persistent and vast event which is believed to undermine or overwhelm one or several elements of a culture or the culture as a whole.
Jeffrey C. Alexander
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520235946
- eISBN:
- 9780520936768
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520235946.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
Traumas are purely happening which break a person or collective actor's sense of well-being. Cultural trauma is an experiential, scientific concept, signifying new meaningful and casual relationships ...
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Traumas are purely happening which break a person or collective actor's sense of well-being. Cultural trauma is an experiential, scientific concept, signifying new meaningful and casual relationships linking earlier dissimilar events, structures, perceptions, and actions. In contrast to this, a new scientific concept enlightens an emerging field of social responsibility and political action. Cultural trauma transpires when the components of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to an awful event that leaves ineradicable marks upon their group awareness, marking their memories forever and changing their future individuality in basic and irreversible ways. In connection to the subject, cultural trauma, people have constantly used the language of trauma to explain what happened, not only to themselves, but also to the collectivities to which they belong.Less
Traumas are purely happening which break a person or collective actor's sense of well-being. Cultural trauma is an experiential, scientific concept, signifying new meaningful and casual relationships linking earlier dissimilar events, structures, perceptions, and actions. In contrast to this, a new scientific concept enlightens an emerging field of social responsibility and political action. Cultural trauma transpires when the components of a collectivity feel they have been subjected to an awful event that leaves ineradicable marks upon their group awareness, marking their memories forever and changing their future individuality in basic and irreversible ways. In connection to the subject, cultural trauma, people have constantly used the language of trauma to explain what happened, not only to themselves, but also to the collectivities to which they belong.
Holly Gayley
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231180528
- eISBN:
- 9780231542753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231180528.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Chapter 2 examines the hagiographic portrait of Tāre Lhamo as a local heroine during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. The representation of this period in her ...
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Chapter 2 examines the hagiographic portrait of Tāre Lhamo as a local heroine during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. The representation of this period in her hagiography, Spiraling Vine of Faith, elides the specter of state and her own personal losses and instead narrates the period through a series of miracle tales that portray Tāre Lhamo as a tantric heroine, addressing the immediate needs of her local community. In this way, I argue that Spiraling Vine of Faith constructs a redemptive narrative amid the devastation of the Maoist period and provides a poignant means for restoring a sense of Tibetan agency in the wake of cultural trauma.Less
Chapter 2 examines the hagiographic portrait of Tāre Lhamo as a local heroine during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. The representation of this period in her hagiography, Spiraling Vine of Faith, elides the specter of state and her own personal losses and instead narrates the period through a series of miracle tales that portray Tāre Lhamo as a tantric heroine, addressing the immediate needs of her local community. In this way, I argue that Spiraling Vine of Faith constructs a redemptive narrative amid the devastation of the Maoist period and provides a poignant means for restoring a sense of Tibetan agency in the wake of cultural trauma.
Marta Caminero-Santangelo
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780813062594
- eISBN:
- 9780813051611
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813062594.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This chapter considers novels including The Guardians by Ana Castillo, Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande, and Highwire Moon by Susan Straight, which represent border crossing deaths and ...
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This chapter considers novels including The Guardians by Ana Castillo, Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande, and Highwire Moon by Susan Straight, which represent border crossing deaths and disappearances as a new form of cultural trauma. These novels mark a shift in U.S. border fiction by attending squarely to the traumatic effects of increased border security measures on those crossing north. The chapter follows theorists such as Jeffrey Alexander and Neil Smelser, who argue that cultural trauma is not inherent in events themselves but rather is constructed through repeated representations of particular events as fundamentalinjuries to a “people.” The chapter also argues that border fiction written in the years after Operation Gatekeeper appropriates from its Latin American context the notion of the “disappeared”—with all its connotations of state violence—to construct migrant disappearances as a cultural trauma that violently separates families and introduces profound instability into notions of individual and group identity. Such texts of border crossing, death, and “disappearance” serve as forms of testimonial fiction against U.S. immigration and border policies at home, which ignore the realities of labor needs and which have steep human costs.Less
This chapter considers novels including The Guardians by Ana Castillo, Across a Hundred Mountains by Reyna Grande, and Highwire Moon by Susan Straight, which represent border crossing deaths and disappearances as a new form of cultural trauma. These novels mark a shift in U.S. border fiction by attending squarely to the traumatic effects of increased border security measures on those crossing north. The chapter follows theorists such as Jeffrey Alexander and Neil Smelser, who argue that cultural trauma is not inherent in events themselves but rather is constructed through repeated representations of particular events as fundamentalinjuries to a “people.” The chapter also argues that border fiction written in the years after Operation Gatekeeper appropriates from its Latin American context the notion of the “disappeared”—with all its connotations of state violence—to construct migrant disappearances as a cultural trauma that violently separates families and introduces profound instability into notions of individual and group identity. Such texts of border crossing, death, and “disappearance” serve as forms of testimonial fiction against U.S. immigration and border policies at home, which ignore the realities of labor needs and which have steep human costs.
Holly Gayley
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231180528
- eISBN:
- 9780231542753
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231180528.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Love Letters from Golok chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tare Lhamo (1938–2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944–2011), and their passion for reinvigorating Buddhism in ...
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Love Letters from Golok chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tare Lhamo (1938–2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944–2011), and their passion for reinvigorating Buddhism in eastern Tibet during the post-Mao era. In fifty-six letters exchanged from 1978 to 1980, Tare Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche envisioned a shared destiny to "heal the damage" done to Buddhism during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. Holly Gayley retrieves the personal and prophetic dimensions of their courtship and its consummation in a twenty-year religious career that informs issues of gender and agency in Buddhism, cultural preservation among Tibetan communities, and alternative histories for minorities in China. The correspondence between Tare Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche is the first collection of "love letters" to come to light in Tibetan literature. Blending tantric imagery with poetic and folk song styles, their letters have a fresh vernacular tone comparable to the love songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama, but with an eastern Tibetan flavor. Gayley reads these letters against hagiographic writings about the couple, supplemented by field research, to illuminate representational strategies that serve to narrate cultural trauma in a redemptive key, quite unlike Chinese scar literature or the testimonials of exile Tibetans. With special attention to Tare Lhamo's role as a tantric heroine and her hagiographic fusion with Namtrul Rinpoche, Gayley vividly shows how Buddhist masters have adapted Tibetan literary genres to share private intimacies and address contemporary social concerns.Less
Love Letters from Golok chronicles the courtship between two Buddhist tantric masters, Tare Lhamo (1938–2002) and Namtrul Rinpoche (1944–2011), and their passion for reinvigorating Buddhism in eastern Tibet during the post-Mao era. In fifty-six letters exchanged from 1978 to 1980, Tare Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche envisioned a shared destiny to "heal the damage" done to Buddhism during the years leading up to and including the Cultural Revolution. Holly Gayley retrieves the personal and prophetic dimensions of their courtship and its consummation in a twenty-year religious career that informs issues of gender and agency in Buddhism, cultural preservation among Tibetan communities, and alternative histories for minorities in China. The correspondence between Tare Lhamo and Namtrul Rinpoche is the first collection of "love letters" to come to light in Tibetan literature. Blending tantric imagery with poetic and folk song styles, their letters have a fresh vernacular tone comparable to the love songs of the Sixth Dalai Lama, but with an eastern Tibetan flavor. Gayley reads these letters against hagiographic writings about the couple, supplemented by field research, to illuminate representational strategies that serve to narrate cultural trauma in a redemptive key, quite unlike Chinese scar literature or the testimonials of exile Tibetans. With special attention to Tare Lhamo's role as a tantric heroine and her hagiographic fusion with Namtrul Rinpoche, Gayley vividly shows how Buddhist masters have adapted Tibetan literary genres to share private intimacies and address contemporary social concerns.
David M. Smith and Margaret Greenfields
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781847428738
- eISBN:
- 9781447310969
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847428738.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
The introduction sets out the main themes to be addressed in the book and discusses the concepts of cultural trauma, collective resilience and resistance. The relevance of these concepts to ...
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The introduction sets out the main themes to be addressed in the book and discusses the concepts of cultural trauma, collective resilience and resistance. The relevance of these concepts to understanding the position of Gypsies and Travellers in contemporary society is addressed. Specifically the importance of these concepts when explaining the settlement of formerly nomadic communities in conventional housing and the adaptive strategies that community members may adopt to mitigate the more culturally corrosive aspects of large scale and fundamental changes to accustomed modes of living is discussed.Less
The introduction sets out the main themes to be addressed in the book and discusses the concepts of cultural trauma, collective resilience and resistance. The relevance of these concepts to understanding the position of Gypsies and Travellers in contemporary society is addressed. Specifically the importance of these concepts when explaining the settlement of formerly nomadic communities in conventional housing and the adaptive strategies that community members may adopt to mitigate the more culturally corrosive aspects of large scale and fundamental changes to accustomed modes of living is discussed.
David M. Smith and Margaret Greenfields
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781847428738
- eISBN:
- 9781447310969
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847428738.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Politics, Social Movements and Social Change
This groundbreaking study examines two neglected areas in studies of housing and minority groups and of social relations between different marginalized communities. First, the book examines the ...
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This groundbreaking study examines two neglected areas in studies of housing and minority groups and of social relations between different marginalized communities. First, the book examines the largely enforced settlement of the UK's Gypsy and Traveller populations into conventional housing. Despite the size of this settlement and a plethora of interest in the housing related experiences of other minority groups, this is the only in-depth study to address the settlement of Britain's formerly nomadic people. The material is presented thematically and explores routes into housing; lived experiences in ‘bricks and mortar’ social support mechanisms and adaptations to settlement. The qualitative material forms a compelling account of the gendered and generational articulations of these trends by examining community dynamics and how collective identities and community structures are constructed within housing. Second, the book examines social relations between housed Gypsies and Travellers and their (often poor and marginalized) ‘settled’ neighbours. This is the first investigation of the historical and contemporary manifestations of inter-group relations in a British context. Through comparative case studies the complex and contradictory nature of social relations on housing estates where Gypsies form an increasingly prominent population are examined. The book is an original and important sociological account of intergroup relations in low income areas. The empirical material is situated within its wider historical and policy framework, which allows fundamental questions concerning citizenship, diversity and inclusion in contemporary societies to be addressed.Less
This groundbreaking study examines two neglected areas in studies of housing and minority groups and of social relations between different marginalized communities. First, the book examines the largely enforced settlement of the UK's Gypsy and Traveller populations into conventional housing. Despite the size of this settlement and a plethora of interest in the housing related experiences of other minority groups, this is the only in-depth study to address the settlement of Britain's formerly nomadic people. The material is presented thematically and explores routes into housing; lived experiences in ‘bricks and mortar’ social support mechanisms and adaptations to settlement. The qualitative material forms a compelling account of the gendered and generational articulations of these trends by examining community dynamics and how collective identities and community structures are constructed within housing. Second, the book examines social relations between housed Gypsies and Travellers and their (often poor and marginalized) ‘settled’ neighbours. This is the first investigation of the historical and contemporary manifestations of inter-group relations in a British context. Through comparative case studies the complex and contradictory nature of social relations on housing estates where Gypsies form an increasingly prominent population are examined. The book is an original and important sociological account of intergroup relations in low income areas. The empirical material is situated within its wider historical and policy framework, which allows fundamental questions concerning citizenship, diversity and inclusion in contemporary societies to be addressed.
Jody Lyneé Madeira
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814796108
- eISBN:
- 9780814724545
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814796108.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter attempts to redefine the term “closure” as applied in the context of the Oklahoma City bombing. By disturbing, inflaming, and frustrating family members and survivors, the Oklahoma City ...
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This chapter attempts to redefine the term “closure” as applied in the context of the Oklahoma City bombing. By disturbing, inflaming, and frustrating family members and survivors, the Oklahoma City bombers' toxic presences commenced and compelled a quest for “closure.” The application of the term “closure” in the Oklahoma City context raised a host of other issues, such as the controversial assertion that Timothy McVeigh's execution would provide closure by soothing victims' troubled souls. This chapter examines how victims' family members and survivors define closure and attempt to achieve it, with particular emphasis on the link between the pursuit of closure and “memory work.” It also considers the extent to which closure is identified with capital punishment, the idea that victims' families require a death sentence or execution to heal. Finally, it discusses the interrelationships among closure, cultural trauma, and the journey from victim to survivor, along with the media and the criminal justice system as institutional sites of closure.Less
This chapter attempts to redefine the term “closure” as applied in the context of the Oklahoma City bombing. By disturbing, inflaming, and frustrating family members and survivors, the Oklahoma City bombers' toxic presences commenced and compelled a quest for “closure.” The application of the term “closure” in the Oklahoma City context raised a host of other issues, such as the controversial assertion that Timothy McVeigh's execution would provide closure by soothing victims' troubled souls. This chapter examines how victims' family members and survivors define closure and attempt to achieve it, with particular emphasis on the link between the pursuit of closure and “memory work.” It also considers the extent to which closure is identified with capital punishment, the idea that victims' families require a death sentence or execution to heal. Finally, it discusses the interrelationships among closure, cultural trauma, and the journey from victim to survivor, along with the media and the criminal justice system as institutional sites of closure.
Ellen Rutten
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780300213980
- eISBN:
- 9780300224832
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300213980.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter examines the genesis and development of a trend that interprets (post-)postmodern paradigms as vehicles for coping with cultural trauma, and how that trend plays out in contemporary ...
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This chapter examines the genesis and development of a trend that interprets (post-)postmodern paradigms as vehicles for coping with cultural trauma, and how that trend plays out in contemporary sincerity rhetoric. It first considers the simultaneous emergence of North American and Russian new-sincerity discourses in the 1980s before discussing the trauma thread that permeates its Russian pendant from the very beginning. Central to the chapter's argument is poet-cum-performer and undisputed classic of recent Russian literature Dmitrii Prigov, and his personal creative story is interwoven into a wider narrative of sincerity and collective remembering. The story of Prigov and his contemporaries challenges the view, proposed by Mieke Bal and others, that sincerity rhetoric flourishes specifically in times of intercultural conflict. The chapter also explores existing notions of post-Soviet memory and post-Soviet Russia's insistence not on remembering but on a collective forgetting of the gloomier pages of Soviet history.Less
This chapter examines the genesis and development of a trend that interprets (post-)postmodern paradigms as vehicles for coping with cultural trauma, and how that trend plays out in contemporary sincerity rhetoric. It first considers the simultaneous emergence of North American and Russian new-sincerity discourses in the 1980s before discussing the trauma thread that permeates its Russian pendant from the very beginning. Central to the chapter's argument is poet-cum-performer and undisputed classic of recent Russian literature Dmitrii Prigov, and his personal creative story is interwoven into a wider narrative of sincerity and collective remembering. The story of Prigov and his contemporaries challenges the view, proposed by Mieke Bal and others, that sincerity rhetoric flourishes specifically in times of intercultural conflict. The chapter also explores existing notions of post-Soviet memory and post-Soviet Russia's insistence not on remembering but on a collective forgetting of the gloomier pages of Soviet history.
Jody Lyneé Madeira
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814796108
- eISBN:
- 9780814724545
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814796108.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter attempts to redefine the term “closure” as applied in the context of the Oklahoma City bombing. By disturbing, inflaming, and frustrating family members and survivors, the Oklahoma City ...
More
This chapter attempts to redefine the term “closure” as applied in the context of the Oklahoma City bombing. By disturbing, inflaming, and frustrating family members and survivors, the Oklahoma City bombers' toxic presences commenced and compelled a quest for “closure.” The application of the term “closure” in the Oklahoma City context raised a host of other issues, such as the controversial assertion that Timothy McVeigh's execution would provide closure by soothing victims' troubled souls. This chapter examines how victims' family members and survivors define closure and attempt to achieve it, with particular emphasis on the link between the pursuit of closure and “memory work.” It also considers the extent to which closure is identified with capital punishment, the idea that victims' families require a death sentence or execution to heal. Finally, it discusses the interrelationships among closure, cultural trauma, and the journey from victim to survivor, along with the media and the criminal justice system as institutional sites of closure.
Less
This chapter attempts to redefine the term “closure” as applied in the context of the Oklahoma City bombing. By disturbing, inflaming, and frustrating family members and survivors, the Oklahoma City bombers' toxic presences commenced and compelled a quest for “closure.” The application of the term “closure” in the Oklahoma City context raised a host of other issues, such as the controversial assertion that Timothy McVeigh's execution would provide closure by soothing victims' troubled souls. This chapter examines how victims' family members and survivors define closure and attempt to achieve it, with particular emphasis on the link between the pursuit of closure and “memory work.” It also considers the extent to which closure is identified with capital punishment, the idea that victims' families require a death sentence or execution to heal. Finally, it discusses the interrelationships among closure, cultural trauma, and the journey from victim to survivor, along with the media and the criminal justice system as institutional sites of closure.
Akiko Hashimoto
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190239152
- eISBN:
- 9780190239190
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190239152.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture, Comparative and Historical Sociology
How do memories of national trauma remain relevant to culture and society long after the event? Why do the memories of difficult experiences endure, and even intensify, despite people’s impulse to ...
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How do memories of national trauma remain relevant to culture and society long after the event? Why do the memories of difficult experiences endure, and even intensify, despite people’s impulse to avoid remembering a dreadful past and to move on? This book explores these questions by examining Japan’s culture of defeat up to the present day. It surveys the stakes of war memory in Japan after its defeat in World War II and shows how and why defeat has become an indelible part of national collective life, especially in recent decades. Drawing on ethnographic observations and personal interviews as well as testimonials and other popular memory data since the 1980s, it probes into the heart of the divisive war memories that lie at the root of current disputes over revising Japan’s pacifist constitution, remilitarization, and the escalating frictions in East Asia that have come to be known collectively as Japan’s “history problem.” This book examines this divisive national project, drawing on the sociological insights of cultural trauma theory and collective memory theory. Contrary to the Western stereotype that describes Japan as suffering from “collective amnesia,” Japan’s war memories are deeply encoded in the everyday culture and much more varied than the caricatured image suggests. The book identifies three conflicting trauma narratives in Japan’s war memories—narratives of victims, perpetrators, and fallen heroes—that are motivated by the desire to heal the wounds, redress the wrongs, and restore a positive moral and national identity.Less
How do memories of national trauma remain relevant to culture and society long after the event? Why do the memories of difficult experiences endure, and even intensify, despite people’s impulse to avoid remembering a dreadful past and to move on? This book explores these questions by examining Japan’s culture of defeat up to the present day. It surveys the stakes of war memory in Japan after its defeat in World War II and shows how and why defeat has become an indelible part of national collective life, especially in recent decades. Drawing on ethnographic observations and personal interviews as well as testimonials and other popular memory data since the 1980s, it probes into the heart of the divisive war memories that lie at the root of current disputes over revising Japan’s pacifist constitution, remilitarization, and the escalating frictions in East Asia that have come to be known collectively as Japan’s “history problem.” This book examines this divisive national project, drawing on the sociological insights of cultural trauma theory and collective memory theory. Contrary to the Western stereotype that describes Japan as suffering from “collective amnesia,” Japan’s war memories are deeply encoded in the everyday culture and much more varied than the caricatured image suggests. The book identifies three conflicting trauma narratives in Japan’s war memories—narratives of victims, perpetrators, and fallen heroes—that are motivated by the desire to heal the wounds, redress the wrongs, and restore a positive moral and national identity.
Terence McSweeney
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748693092
- eISBN:
- 9781474408547
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748693092.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
American film in the first decade of the 21st century became a cultural battleground on which a war of representation was waged, but did these films endorse the 'War on Terror' or challenge it? More ...
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American film in the first decade of the 21st century became a cultural battleground on which a war of representation was waged, but did these films endorse the 'War on Terror' or challenge it? More than just reproducing these fears and fantasies, The 'War on Terror' and American Film argues that American cinema has played a significant role in shaping them, restructuring how audiences have viewed this most tumultuous of decades in particularly influential ways. This compelling and theoretically informed exploration of contemporary American cinema charts the evolution of the impact of 9/11 on Hollywood film through a range of genres-war films, superhero movies, historical dramas, horror and even alien invasion films - each revealing a cinema not of escapism but one that engages profoundly with the turbulent era in which their films were made. Through a vibrant analysis of films as diverse as War of the Worlds (2005), United 93 (2006), 300 (2007), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Marvel Avengers Assemble (2012) and many others, The 'War on Terror' and American Film explores the influence of the cultural trauma of 9/11 and the subsequent 'War on Terror' on American cinema in the first decade of the new millennium and beyond.Less
American film in the first decade of the 21st century became a cultural battleground on which a war of representation was waged, but did these films endorse the 'War on Terror' or challenge it? More than just reproducing these fears and fantasies, The 'War on Terror' and American Film argues that American cinema has played a significant role in shaping them, restructuring how audiences have viewed this most tumultuous of decades in particularly influential ways. This compelling and theoretically informed exploration of contemporary American cinema charts the evolution of the impact of 9/11 on Hollywood film through a range of genres-war films, superhero movies, historical dramas, horror and even alien invasion films - each revealing a cinema not of escapism but one that engages profoundly with the turbulent era in which their films were made. Through a vibrant analysis of films as diverse as War of the Worlds (2005), United 93 (2006), 300 (2007), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Marvel Avengers Assemble (2012) and many others, The 'War on Terror' and American Film explores the influence of the cultural trauma of 9/11 and the subsequent 'War on Terror' on American cinema in the first decade of the new millennium and beyond.
Alaniz José
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781628461176
- eISBN:
- 9781626740655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628461176.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter addresses the superheroes' experience of the “death”/resurrection cycle in serial narratives. This cycle shows that the Silver Age superhero is not only a disability disavower and ...
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This chapter addresses the superheroes' experience of the “death”/resurrection cycle in serial narratives. This cycle shows that the Silver Age superhero is not only a disability disavower and overcompensator, but is also a death denier. Through their deaths, superheroes ritualize, render meaningful, and exorcise cultural trauma. Their resurrections likewise help generate a sense of hope and new beginnings into storylines, at the same time implicitly reassuring readers of the durability and continuity of the values they embody. Superheroes also seem to communicate an underlying fear and motivation amounting to the genre's structuring disavowal. For writer Ernest Becker, fictional death may remind people of the mortality that their culture represses, but it deprives the reader/viewer of a real, direct appreciation of death—the only thing that would make life “meaningful.”Less
This chapter addresses the superheroes' experience of the “death”/resurrection cycle in serial narratives. This cycle shows that the Silver Age superhero is not only a disability disavower and overcompensator, but is also a death denier. Through their deaths, superheroes ritualize, render meaningful, and exorcise cultural trauma. Their resurrections likewise help generate a sense of hope and new beginnings into storylines, at the same time implicitly reassuring readers of the durability and continuity of the values they embody. Superheroes also seem to communicate an underlying fear and motivation amounting to the genre's structuring disavowal. For writer Ernest Becker, fictional death may remind people of the mortality that their culture represses, but it deprives the reader/viewer of a real, direct appreciation of death—the only thing that would make life “meaningful.”
Christina Simko
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199381784
- eISBN:
- 9780199381814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199381784.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology, Culture
Chapter 7 examines public debates over the future of the World Trade Center site, commonly known as ground zero. Focusing on three controversial matters—the debate over the International Freedom ...
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Chapter 7 examines public debates over the future of the World Trade Center site, commonly known as ground zero. Focusing on three controversial matters—the debate over the International Freedom Center originally slated for the rebuilt site; the debate over Park51, the Islamic community center located two blocks from the World Trade Center; and the debate over the cross-shaped steel beam known as the “World Trade Center Cross” and included in the permanent collection at the National September 11 Memorial Museum—this chapter identifies deep disagreements concerning the meaning of September 11. Beneath this dissensus are more fundamental disagreements concerning the meaning of archetypal American ideals—freedom and liberty, tolerance and pluralism, equality and justice. These debates reveal that—despite official efforts to place September 11 within familiar national narratives—the event remains an unresolved cultural trauma.Less
Chapter 7 examines public debates over the future of the World Trade Center site, commonly known as ground zero. Focusing on three controversial matters—the debate over the International Freedom Center originally slated for the rebuilt site; the debate over Park51, the Islamic community center located two blocks from the World Trade Center; and the debate over the cross-shaped steel beam known as the “World Trade Center Cross” and included in the permanent collection at the National September 11 Memorial Museum—this chapter identifies deep disagreements concerning the meaning of September 11. Beneath this dissensus are more fundamental disagreements concerning the meaning of archetypal American ideals—freedom and liberty, tolerance and pluralism, equality and justice. These debates reveal that—despite official efforts to place September 11 within familiar national narratives—the event remains an unresolved cultural trauma.
Holly Thorpe
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038938
- eISBN:
- 9780252096891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038938.003.0009
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sport and Leisure
This chapter discusses the cultural production of memory in the digital era through Facebook memorial pages and virtual memorial websites dedicated to deceased sporting heroes. Increasingly, fans, ...
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This chapter discusses the cultural production of memory in the digital era through Facebook memorial pages and virtual memorial websites dedicated to deceased sporting heroes. Increasingly, fans, family, friends, and journalists are turning to the Internet to express their condolences, communicate with other mourners, and memorialize the deceased in “highly creative, interactive, and dynamic ways.” Constituting a “record of the multiple, contested, and changing emotional responses,” these websites become “valuable archives of the public affective responses to cultural trauma.” The chapter then focuses on surfer Andy Irons and skier Sarah Burke, who died in 2010 and 2012, respectively, and who have been memorialized extensively online.Less
This chapter discusses the cultural production of memory in the digital era through Facebook memorial pages and virtual memorial websites dedicated to deceased sporting heroes. Increasingly, fans, family, friends, and journalists are turning to the Internet to express their condolences, communicate with other mourners, and memorialize the deceased in “highly creative, interactive, and dynamic ways.” Constituting a “record of the multiple, contested, and changing emotional responses,” these websites become “valuable archives of the public affective responses to cultural trauma.” The chapter then focuses on surfer Andy Irons and skier Sarah Burke, who died in 2010 and 2012, respectively, and who have been memorialized extensively online.
Guy Westwell
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474413817
- eISBN:
- 9781474430456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474413817.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
In Chapter Three "Acts of Redemption and ‘The Falling Man’ Photograph in Post-9/11 US Cinema", Guy Westwell, who has written his own monograph on the impact of the 'War on Terror' on American film, ...
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In Chapter Three "Acts of Redemption and ‘The Falling Man’ Photograph in Post-9/11 US Cinema", Guy Westwell, who has written his own monograph on the impact of the 'War on Terror' on American film, Parallel Lines: Post-9/11 Cinema (2014), takes as a starting point one of the quintessential images of the 'War on Terror' era, the photograph of the unidentified 'falling man' taken on 11 September 2001 by Richard Drew. Such has been the impact of the picture, which Mark D. Thompson described as 'perhaps the most powerful image of despair at the beginning of the twenty-first century' (63), it has been returned to in a variety of forms over the years: in art, literature, television and film. Westwell considers how the image (and the World Trade Center itself) has been co-opted by a variety of authors to function as a prism through which prevailing attitudes towards 9/11 have been projected. In a detailed analysis of two such examples, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) and The Walk (2015), Westwell engages with questions of representation and identity, memory and trauma (both on a personal and cultural level) and argues that, as Mark Lacey suggested, American cinema in the first decades of the new millennium became "a space where 'commonsense' ideas about global politics and history are (re)-produced and where stories about what is acceptable behaviour from states and individuals are naturalised and legitimated" (614).Less
In Chapter Three "Acts of Redemption and ‘The Falling Man’ Photograph in Post-9/11 US Cinema", Guy Westwell, who has written his own monograph on the impact of the 'War on Terror' on American film, Parallel Lines: Post-9/11 Cinema (2014), takes as a starting point one of the quintessential images of the 'War on Terror' era, the photograph of the unidentified 'falling man' taken on 11 September 2001 by Richard Drew. Such has been the impact of the picture, which Mark D. Thompson described as 'perhaps the most powerful image of despair at the beginning of the twenty-first century' (63), it has been returned to in a variety of forms over the years: in art, literature, television and film. Westwell considers how the image (and the World Trade Center itself) has been co-opted by a variety of authors to function as a prism through which prevailing attitudes towards 9/11 have been projected. In a detailed analysis of two such examples, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) and The Walk (2015), Westwell engages with questions of representation and identity, memory and trauma (both on a personal and cultural level) and argues that, as Mark Lacey suggested, American cinema in the first decades of the new millennium became "a space where 'commonsense' ideas about global politics and history are (re)-produced and where stories about what is acceptable behaviour from states and individuals are naturalised and legitimated" (614).
Terence McSweeney (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781474413817
- eISBN:
- 9781474430456
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474413817.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11 is a ground-breaking collection of essays by some of the foremost scholars writing in the field of contemporary American film. Through a dynamic critical ...
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American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11 is a ground-breaking collection of essays by some of the foremost scholars writing in the field of contemporary American film. Through a dynamic critical analysis of the defining films of the turbulent post-9/11 decade, the volume explores and interrogates the impact of 9/11 and the 'War on Terror' on American cinema and culture. In a vibrant discussion of films like American Sniper (2014), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Spectre (2015), The Hateful Eight (2015), Lincoln (2012), The Mist (2007), Children of Men (2006), Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron> (2015), noted authors Geoff King, Guy Westwell, John Shelton Lawrence, Ian Scott, Andrew Schopp, James Kendrick, Sean Redmond, Steffen Hantke and many others consider the power of popular film to function as a potent cultural artefact, able to both reflect the defining fears and anxieties of the tumultuous era, but also shape them in compelling and resonant ways.Less
American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11 is a ground-breaking collection of essays by some of the foremost scholars writing in the field of contemporary American film. Through a dynamic critical analysis of the defining films of the turbulent post-9/11 decade, the volume explores and interrogates the impact of 9/11 and the 'War on Terror' on American cinema and culture. In a vibrant discussion of films like American Sniper (2014), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Spectre (2015), The Hateful Eight (2015), Lincoln (2012), The Mist (2007), Children of Men (2006), Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and Avengers: Age of Ultron> (2015), noted authors Geoff King, Guy Westwell, John Shelton Lawrence, Ian Scott, Andrew Schopp, James Kendrick, Sean Redmond, Steffen Hantke and many others consider the power of popular film to function as a potent cultural artefact, able to both reflect the defining fears and anxieties of the tumultuous era, but also shape them in compelling and resonant ways.
