Simon Price
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199572069
- eISBN:
- 9780191738739
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199572069.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
The relationship between memory and history is a productive zone in which the self-understanding of past peoples was formed. This chapter studies four contexts in which memories were constructed in ...
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The relationship between memory and history is a productive zone in which the self-understanding of past peoples was formed. This chapter studies four contexts in which memories were constructed in ancient Greece: objects and representations, places, ritual behaviour and associated myths, and textual narratives. Underlying all four is a longstanding Greek desire to link the present to the remote past. Objects, monuments, and temple decorations, for example, were of high significance for this task. Place, location, and close physical proximity to signifiers of the past established the necessary links. Thirdly, local versions of myths became a standard way of raising the profile of places small and large. Finally, textual narratives offer themselves as the framework for and articulation of memories of the past, and here genealogies in the widest sense, from Hesiod's Theogony to the Parian Chronicle, are shown to provide telling material.Less
The relationship between memory and history is a productive zone in which the self-understanding of past peoples was formed. This chapter studies four contexts in which memories were constructed in ancient Greece: objects and representations, places, ritual behaviour and associated myths, and textual narratives. Underlying all four is a longstanding Greek desire to link the present to the remote past. Objects, monuments, and temple decorations, for example, were of high significance for this task. Place, location, and close physical proximity to signifiers of the past established the necessary links. Thirdly, local versions of myths became a standard way of raising the profile of places small and large. Finally, textual narratives offer themselves as the framework for and articulation of memories of the past, and here genealogies in the widest sense, from Hesiod's Theogony to the Parian Chronicle, are shown to provide telling material.
Bonnie Thomas
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496810557
- eISBN:
- 9781496810595
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496810557.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
In order to explore the theme of connecting histories in personal narratives from the francophone Caribbean, it is important first to examine some of the scholarly debates surrounding history, memory ...
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In order to explore the theme of connecting histories in personal narratives from the francophone Caribbean, it is important first to examine some of the scholarly debates surrounding history, memory and trauma in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Many studies–including those by Caribbean writers themselves–have emphasized themes of lack, rupture and discontinuity in relation to Caribbean history. For Martinique and Guadeloupe, this loss is primarily explained as a result of slavery and its persistent psychological influences, combined with an ongoing and problematic relationship with France. In the case of Haiti, the loss relates more closely to the political and natural disasters that have plagued the country since independence and have left it in a state of crippling poverty. While it is impossible to deny the impact of these traumas, the present book aims to view the traumatic legacy through a paradigm characterized instead by connection and connectivity.Less
In order to explore the theme of connecting histories in personal narratives from the francophone Caribbean, it is important first to examine some of the scholarly debates surrounding history, memory and trauma in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Many studies–including those by Caribbean writers themselves–have emphasized themes of lack, rupture and discontinuity in relation to Caribbean history. For Martinique and Guadeloupe, this loss is primarily explained as a result of slavery and its persistent psychological influences, combined with an ongoing and problematic relationship with France. In the case of Haiti, the loss relates more closely to the political and natural disasters that have plagued the country since independence and have left it in a state of crippling poverty. While it is impossible to deny the impact of these traumas, the present book aims to view the traumatic legacy through a paradigm characterized instead by connection and connectivity.
Adrian Parr
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623419
- eISBN:
- 9780748652389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623419.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter aims to explore the connection between history and memory, and analyses the deterritorialisation of the Holocaust. It suggests that there are two kinds of memory – singular and ...
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This chapter aims to explore the connection between history and memory, and analyses the deterritorialisation of the Holocaust. It suggests that there are two kinds of memory – singular and reterritorialising – and explains that the reterritorialising function of memory is developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their A Thousand Plateaus. The analysis of different forms of Holocaust remembrance in the context of Austrian national historiography and Israeli national identity reveals how the Holocaust functions as a reactionary ground of identification.Less
This chapter aims to explore the connection between history and memory, and analyses the deterritorialisation of the Holocaust. It suggests that there are two kinds of memory – singular and reterritorialising – and explains that the reterritorialising function of memory is developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their A Thousand Plateaus. The analysis of different forms of Holocaust remembrance in the context of Austrian national historiography and Israeli national identity reveals how the Holocaust functions as a reactionary ground of identification.
Dmitri Nikulin
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199793839
- eISBN:
- 9780199345205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793839.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
In recent decades, memory has become a major concept and dominant topic in philosophy, sociology, politics, history, psychology, science, cultural studies, literary theory, and debates about trauma ...
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In recent decades, memory has become a major concept and dominant topic in philosophy, sociology, politics, history, psychology, science, cultural studies, literary theory, and debates about trauma and the Holocaust. In contemporary considerations, the concept of memory is often used rather broadly and thus not always unambiguously. The Introduction to the volume takes memory not only as personal but also as a collective ability to retain, transmit, and reflect on important events of the past. Memory thus becomes the vehicle for collective self-understanding often prompted by a collectively shared trauma, which then serves as the basis for producing a new history. The discussion moves on to outline the topics central to the book, such as collective and cultural memory, memory and autobiography, the role of the mnemonics, the relationship between memory and history, and the role of forgetting in the constitution of memory.Less
In recent decades, memory has become a major concept and dominant topic in philosophy, sociology, politics, history, psychology, science, cultural studies, literary theory, and debates about trauma and the Holocaust. In contemporary considerations, the concept of memory is often used rather broadly and thus not always unambiguously. The Introduction to the volume takes memory not only as personal but also as a collective ability to retain, transmit, and reflect on important events of the past. Memory thus becomes the vehicle for collective self-understanding often prompted by a collectively shared trauma, which then serves as the basis for producing a new history. The discussion moves on to outline the topics central to the book, such as collective and cultural memory, memory and autobiography, the role of the mnemonics, the relationship between memory and history, and the role of forgetting in the constitution of memory.
David N. Myers
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300228939
- eISBN:
- 9780300231403
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300228939.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
Witnessing can assume many different forms including religious, literary, and legal versions. This chapter begins by focusing on examples of textual witnessing such as the sourcebooks of Tcherikower ...
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Witnessing can assume many different forms including religious, literary, and legal versions. This chapter begins by focusing on examples of textual witnessing such as the sourcebooks of Tcherikower and Dubnow mentioned in Chapter 2 in which the compilers assembled troves of documents as a form of historical proof. The focus then shifts from the first to the second half of the twentieth century by discussing instances in which historians are called upon to take the stand in legal cases. The chapter explores a range of cases related to the Holocaust in which historians played important roles as witnesses, particularly the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961 in which historian Salo W. Baron was a key witness. The chapter concludes by discussing the libel trial brought by David Irving against Deborah Lipstadt in London in 2000 in which a “dream team” of historians, including Richard Evans and Christopher Browning, served as defense witnesses. The victory of Lipstadt’s side proved to be a vindication for memory, as well as history, and, as such, an indication of the somewhat porous boundary between them.
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Witnessing can assume many different forms including religious, literary, and legal versions. This chapter begins by focusing on examples of textual witnessing such as the sourcebooks of Tcherikower and Dubnow mentioned in Chapter 2 in which the compilers assembled troves of documents as a form of historical proof. The focus then shifts from the first to the second half of the twentieth century by discussing instances in which historians are called upon to take the stand in legal cases. The chapter explores a range of cases related to the Holocaust in which historians played important roles as witnesses, particularly the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961 in which historian Salo W. Baron was a key witness. The chapter concludes by discussing the libel trial brought by David Irving against Deborah Lipstadt in London in 2000 in which a “dream team” of historians, including Richard Evans and Christopher Browning, served as defense witnesses. The victory of Lipstadt’s side proved to be a vindication for memory, as well as history, and, as such, an indication of the somewhat porous boundary between them.
Mario Carretero and Floor van Alphen
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190230814
- eISBN:
- 9780190841157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190230814.003.0013
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter analyzes differences between memory and history stemming from a theoretical distinction between romantic and idealized goals and enlightened and critical understanding goals of history ...
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This chapter analyzes differences between memory and history stemming from a theoretical distinction between romantic and idealized goals and enlightened and critical understanding goals of history education. National narratives and national identity are two key elements in the construction of both collective memories and history education. This chapter analyzes and provides examples of theoretical and empirical work involving six different dimensions of school history narratives: a homogeneous historical subject, identification processes, heroic and idealized key historical figures, a monocausal and teleological account of historical events, moral value judgments, and an essentialist conceptualization of nation and national identity. Finally, a concise analysis of school historical re-enactments as a cultural scenario, which greatly contributes to the interiorization of the previously mentioned narratives, is presented.Less
This chapter analyzes differences between memory and history stemming from a theoretical distinction between romantic and idealized goals and enlightened and critical understanding goals of history education. National narratives and national identity are two key elements in the construction of both collective memories and history education. This chapter analyzes and provides examples of theoretical and empirical work involving six different dimensions of school history narratives: a homogeneous historical subject, identification processes, heroic and idealized key historical figures, a monocausal and teleological account of historical events, moral value judgments, and an essentialist conceptualization of nation and national identity. Finally, a concise analysis of school historical re-enactments as a cultural scenario, which greatly contributes to the interiorization of the previously mentioned narratives, is presented.
Dmitri Nikulin
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199793839
- eISBN:
- 9780199345205
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793839.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
The systematic philosophical study of the concepts of memory and recollection begins in antiquity with Plato and Aristotle, followed by Greek and Roman Stoics and the later tradition of the ...
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The systematic philosophical study of the concepts of memory and recollection begins in antiquity with Plato and Aristotle, followed by Greek and Roman Stoics and the later tradition of the Platonists. Plato develops an original understanding of recollection as the process of learning that can lead to the knowledge of the unchangeable forms of things. On such an interpretation, recollection is a process similar to the discursive motion of thought through a series of steps in a philosophical argument, mathematical proof, or logical syllogism. Memory, then, complements recollection as a retention of traces of sense perception or thought. The chapter also discusses the role of memory and recollection in the art of memory, which was widely used in rhetoric, as well as the relation between history and memory, and draws on the epic catalogue tradition.Less
The systematic philosophical study of the concepts of memory and recollection begins in antiquity with Plato and Aristotle, followed by Greek and Roman Stoics and the later tradition of the Platonists. Plato develops an original understanding of recollection as the process of learning that can lead to the knowledge of the unchangeable forms of things. On such an interpretation, recollection is a process similar to the discursive motion of thought through a series of steps in a philosophical argument, mathematical proof, or logical syllogism. Memory, then, complements recollection as a retention of traces of sense perception or thought. The chapter also discusses the role of memory and recollection in the art of memory, which was widely used in rhetoric, as well as the relation between history and memory, and draws on the epic catalogue tradition.
Sebastian Veg and Sebastian Veg (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9789888390762
- eISBN:
- 9789888455614
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390762.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This introductory essay provides a theoretical and historical overview of how the notions of memory and history have been conceptualized in relation to China. In Pierre Nora’s view state-led memory ...
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This introductory essay provides a theoretical and historical overview of how the notions of memory and history have been conceptualized in relation to China. In Pierre Nora’s view state-led memory sacralizes the past, whereas history, as produced by civil society, tends to rationalize it; in authoritarian settings, an additional distinction is often drawn between “official history” and “popular memory,” construed as more “authentic.” This essay further historicizes the notion of popular memories of the Mao era by arguing that they have followed a three-tiered evolution: the first stage in the 1980s gave rise to the expression of mainly traumatic but closely controlled narratives, the second stage in the 1990s was dominated by nostalgia and social protest against marketization of the economy, while the third stage investigated in the present volume evinces a turn toward public debate and critical memory.Less
This introductory essay provides a theoretical and historical overview of how the notions of memory and history have been conceptualized in relation to China. In Pierre Nora’s view state-led memory sacralizes the past, whereas history, as produced by civil society, tends to rationalize it; in authoritarian settings, an additional distinction is often drawn between “official history” and “popular memory,” construed as more “authentic.” This essay further historicizes the notion of popular memories of the Mao era by arguing that they have followed a three-tiered evolution: the first stage in the 1980s gave rise to the expression of mainly traumatic but closely controlled narratives, the second stage in the 1990s was dominated by nostalgia and social protest against marketization of the economy, while the third stage investigated in the present volume evinces a turn toward public debate and critical memory.
Sebastian Veg (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9789888390762
- eISBN:
- 9789888455614
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390762.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Over the past 10 or 15 years in China, there has been unprecedented critical public discussion of key episodes in PRC history, in particular the Great Famine of 1959-1961, the Anti-Rightist movement ...
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Over the past 10 or 15 years in China, there has been unprecedented critical public discussion of key episodes in PRC history, in particular the Great Famine of 1959-1961, the Anti-Rightist movement of 1957, and the Cultural Revolution, with the wave of Red Guard apologies. These discussions are quite different from previous expressions of traumatic or nostalgic memories of the Mao era, respectively in the 1980s and 1990s. They reflect both growing dissatisfaction with the authoritarian control over history exercised by the Chinese state, and the new spaces provided for counter-hegemonic narratives by social media and the growing private economy in the 2000s. Unofficial or independent journals, self-published books, social media groups, independent documentary films, private museums, oral history projects, and archival research by amateur historians have all contributed to embryonic public or semi-public discussion. The present volume provides an overview of these new forms of popular memory, in particular critical memory, of the Mao era. Focusing on the processes of private production, public dissemination, and social sanctioning of narratives of the past in contemporary China, it examines the relation between popular memories and their social construction as historical knowledge. The three parts of the book are devoted to the shifting boundary between private and public in the press and media, the reconfiguration of elite and popular discourses in cultural productions (film, visual art, literature), and the emergence of new discourses of knowledge in popular history.Less
Over the past 10 or 15 years in China, there has been unprecedented critical public discussion of key episodes in PRC history, in particular the Great Famine of 1959-1961, the Anti-Rightist movement of 1957, and the Cultural Revolution, with the wave of Red Guard apologies. These discussions are quite different from previous expressions of traumatic or nostalgic memories of the Mao era, respectively in the 1980s and 1990s. They reflect both growing dissatisfaction with the authoritarian control over history exercised by the Chinese state, and the new spaces provided for counter-hegemonic narratives by social media and the growing private economy in the 2000s. Unofficial or independent journals, self-published books, social media groups, independent documentary films, private museums, oral history projects, and archival research by amateur historians have all contributed to embryonic public or semi-public discussion. The present volume provides an overview of these new forms of popular memory, in particular critical memory, of the Mao era. Focusing on the processes of private production, public dissemination, and social sanctioning of narratives of the past in contemporary China, it examines the relation between popular memories and their social construction as historical knowledge. The three parts of the book are devoted to the shifting boundary between private and public in the press and media, the reconfiguration of elite and popular discourses in cultural productions (film, visual art, literature), and the emergence of new discourses of knowledge in popular history.
Agnès Maillot
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719084898
- eISBN:
- 9781526103918
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719084898.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
In 1941 Sinn Féin President Margaret Buckley took legal action against the State in an attempt to recover the Sinn Féin funds that had been lodged in the Free State Courts two decades earlier. This ...
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In 1941 Sinn Féin President Margaret Buckley took legal action against the State in an attempt to recover the Sinn Féin funds that had been lodged in the Free State Courts two decades earlier. This episode gave an interesting insight into what Sinn Féin had contributed to Irish history, how the past was recorded by those who had played a major part in the Revolutionary period, and who could claim the legacy of the pre-Civil War party.Less
In 1941 Sinn Féin President Margaret Buckley took legal action against the State in an attempt to recover the Sinn Féin funds that had been lodged in the Free State Courts two decades earlier. This episode gave an interesting insight into what Sinn Féin had contributed to Irish history, how the past was recorded by those who had played a major part in the Revolutionary period, and who could claim the legacy of the pre-Civil War party.
Jonathan Skolnik
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804786072
- eISBN:
- 9780804790598
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804786072.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This book studies how German-Jewish writers used images from the Spanish-Jewish past to define their place in German culture and society. Building upon the work of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, it argues ...
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This book studies how German-Jewish writers used images from the Spanish-Jewish past to define their place in German culture and society. Building upon the work of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, it argues that Jewish historical fiction was a form of cultural memory that functioned as a parallel to the modern, demythologizing project of secular history writing. What did it mean for a minority to imagine its history in the majority language in the age of modern nationalism? In the 1800s, the Sephardic past came to represent both hopes for integration and fears about assimilation (a parallel to the fashion for “Moorish” synagogue architecture in Germany). For modernist German-Jewish writers, by contrast, Sephardic stories gave shape to their concerns with anti-Semitism and Zionism. Finally, this book shows how, after Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Jewish writers and artists employed images from the Sephardic past (Inquisition, expulsion, auto-da-fé) to grapple with the nature of fascism, the predicament of exile, and the destruction of European Jewry in the Holocaust. The term used to describe this dynamic of minority memory is “dissimilation,” first coined by the Franz Rosenzweig. Jewish Pasts, German Fictions shows how both major nineteenth-century German writers like Heinrich Heine and Berthold Auerbach, and writers like Ludwig Philippson and Marcus Lehmann, who wrote in German for exclusively Jewish audiences, used the Spanish-Jewish past as a source for their modern self-understanding.Less
This book studies how German-Jewish writers used images from the Spanish-Jewish past to define their place in German culture and society. Building upon the work of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, it argues that Jewish historical fiction was a form of cultural memory that functioned as a parallel to the modern, demythologizing project of secular history writing. What did it mean for a minority to imagine its history in the majority language in the age of modern nationalism? In the 1800s, the Sephardic past came to represent both hopes for integration and fears about assimilation (a parallel to the fashion for “Moorish” synagogue architecture in Germany). For modernist German-Jewish writers, by contrast, Sephardic stories gave shape to their concerns with anti-Semitism and Zionism. Finally, this book shows how, after Hitler's rise to power in 1933, Jewish writers and artists employed images from the Sephardic past (Inquisition, expulsion, auto-da-fé) to grapple with the nature of fascism, the predicament of exile, and the destruction of European Jewry in the Holocaust. The term used to describe this dynamic of minority memory is “dissimilation,” first coined by the Franz Rosenzweig. Jewish Pasts, German Fictions shows how both major nineteenth-century German writers like Heinrich Heine and Berthold Auerbach, and writers like Ludwig Philippson and Marcus Lehmann, who wrote in German for exclusively Jewish audiences, used the Spanish-Jewish past as a source for their modern self-understanding.
Patricia Appelbaum
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469623740
- eISBN:
- 9781469624990
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469623740.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
The introduction begins by describing Francis's popularity, the many different images of him, and the ways interpretations have changed over time. It then lays out the two main arguments of the ...
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The introduction begins by describing Francis's popularity, the many different images of him, and the ways interpretations have changed over time. It then lays out the two main arguments of the book--that interpretations of Francis are historically and culturally conditioned, and that they often, paradoxically, represent alternatives to the conditions that form them. Noting that the book is not primarily about spirituality, the introduction encourages spiritually-minded readers to broaden and deepen their knowledge. It introduces the broad themes of sainthood, place, and the uses of history. After a brief description of terminology and sources, it summarizes the life and legend of Francis and outlines the chapters to come.Less
The introduction begins by describing Francis's popularity, the many different images of him, and the ways interpretations have changed over time. It then lays out the two main arguments of the book--that interpretations of Francis are historically and culturally conditioned, and that they often, paradoxically, represent alternatives to the conditions that form them. Noting that the book is not primarily about spirituality, the introduction encourages spiritually-minded readers to broaden and deepen their knowledge. It introduces the broad themes of sainthood, place, and the uses of history. After a brief description of terminology and sources, it summarizes the life and legend of Francis and outlines the chapters to come.
Karl Galinsky (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198744764
- eISBN:
- 9780191805929
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744764.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
Memory studies has been one of the fastest growing fields of research in recent decades across many disciplines, such as the humanities, social sciences, media studies, and cognitive science. ...
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Memory studies has been one of the fastest growing fields of research in recent decades across many disciplines, such as the humanities, social sciences, media studies, and cognitive science. Mirroring this interdisciplinarity, this collection, focusing on the role of memory in ancient Rome and early Christianity, brings together perspectives on literature, history, archaeology, and religion. It does so on the basis of informed engagement with important concepts and issues in memory studies instead of using terms like ‘collective’, ‘social’, and ‘cultural memory’ as standard tropes. That engagement has to be selective because of the sheer plethora of publications that comprise the ‘memory boom’, but it is also overdue. It is important for classicists to share in important scholarly conversations that are taking place in other fields and to contribute their own points of view. The aim, therefore, is to employ and test some methods and impulses from current work on memory studies over a broad spectrum of Roman and early Christian phenomena, to determine their utility, and to see what new perspectives might result. Ancient Rome provided much of the cultural framework for early Christianity and in both the role of memory was pervasive. Since the volume is on memory, it also bridges the ‘two cultures’ by including an essay by an internationally known neuroscientist on how memory actually works. Opening up different perspectives and horizons, the collection will be an important resource and starting point for further work on memory in studies of classical antiquity.Less
Memory studies has been one of the fastest growing fields of research in recent decades across many disciplines, such as the humanities, social sciences, media studies, and cognitive science. Mirroring this interdisciplinarity, this collection, focusing on the role of memory in ancient Rome and early Christianity, brings together perspectives on literature, history, archaeology, and religion. It does so on the basis of informed engagement with important concepts and issues in memory studies instead of using terms like ‘collective’, ‘social’, and ‘cultural memory’ as standard tropes. That engagement has to be selective because of the sheer plethora of publications that comprise the ‘memory boom’, but it is also overdue. It is important for classicists to share in important scholarly conversations that are taking place in other fields and to contribute their own points of view. The aim, therefore, is to employ and test some methods and impulses from current work on memory studies over a broad spectrum of Roman and early Christian phenomena, to determine their utility, and to see what new perspectives might result. Ancient Rome provided much of the cultural framework for early Christianity and in both the role of memory was pervasive. Since the volume is on memory, it also bridges the ‘two cultures’ by including an essay by an internationally known neuroscientist on how memory actually works. Opening up different perspectives and horizons, the collection will be an important resource and starting point for further work on memory in studies of classical antiquity.
Antoine Borrut
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- December 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190498931
- eISBN:
- 9780190498955
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190498931.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Non-Classical
Writing the history of the first centuries of Islam poses thorny methodological problems, because our knowledge rests upon narrative sources produced later in Abbasid Iraq. The creation of an ...
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Writing the history of the first centuries of Islam poses thorny methodological problems, because our knowledge rests upon narrative sources produced later in Abbasid Iraq. The creation of an “official” version of the early Islamic past (i.e., a vulgate), composed contemporarily with the consolidation of Abbasid authority in the Middle East, was not the first attempt by Muslims to write about their origins. This Abbasid-era version succeeded when previous efforts vanished, or were reshaped, in rewritings and enshrined as the “official” version of Islamic sacred history. Attempts to impose different historical orthodoxies affected the making of this version, as history was rewritten with available materials, partly determined by earlier generations of Islamic historians. This essay intends to discuss a robust culture of historical writing in eighth-century Syria and to suggest approaches to access these now-lost historiographical layers torn between memory and oblivion, through Muslim and non-Muslim sources.Less
Writing the history of the first centuries of Islam poses thorny methodological problems, because our knowledge rests upon narrative sources produced later in Abbasid Iraq. The creation of an “official” version of the early Islamic past (i.e., a vulgate), composed contemporarily with the consolidation of Abbasid authority in the Middle East, was not the first attempt by Muslims to write about their origins. This Abbasid-era version succeeded when previous efforts vanished, or were reshaped, in rewritings and enshrined as the “official” version of Islamic sacred history. Attempts to impose different historical orthodoxies affected the making of this version, as history was rewritten with available materials, partly determined by earlier generations of Islamic historians. This essay intends to discuss a robust culture of historical writing in eighth-century Syria and to suggest approaches to access these now-lost historiographical layers torn between memory and oblivion, through Muslim and non-Muslim sources.
Tony Kushner
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781786940629
- eISBN:
- 9781786945051
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781786940629.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book explores Jewish refugee movements before, during and after the Holocaust, placing them in a longer history of forced migration from the 1880s to the present. It does not deny that there ...
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This book explores Jewish refugee movements before, during and after the Holocaust, placing them in a longer history of forced migration from the 1880s to the present. It does not deny that there were particular issues facing Jews escaping from Nazism, but it emphasises that there are deeper trends that shed light on responses to and the experiences of these refugees and other forced migrants from war, poverty, genocide and ethnic cleansing. It argues that those interested in Holocaust studies and migration studies have much to learn from each other. This study focuses on three particular types of refugee movement – women, children and ‘illegal’ boat migrants. Whilst there is focus on British spheres of influence, the scope is global including Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, South Asia and Australasia. The approach is historical but incorporates many different disciplines including geography, anthropology, cultural and literary studies and politics. State as well as popular responses are integrated and the auto/biographical practice of the refugees themselves are highlighted throughout this book. Films, novels, museums, heritage sites and memorials are incorporated in this study alongside more traditional sources allowing exploration of history and memory. Many neglected refugee movements are covered and themes such as gender, childhood, place, space, legality, the politics of naming, and performance add to its richness.Less
This book explores Jewish refugee movements before, during and after the Holocaust, placing them in a longer history of forced migration from the 1880s to the present. It does not deny that there were particular issues facing Jews escaping from Nazism, but it emphasises that there are deeper trends that shed light on responses to and the experiences of these refugees and other forced migrants from war, poverty, genocide and ethnic cleansing. It argues that those interested in Holocaust studies and migration studies have much to learn from each other. This study focuses on three particular types of refugee movement – women, children and ‘illegal’ boat migrants. Whilst there is focus on British spheres of influence, the scope is global including Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, South Asia and Australasia. The approach is historical but incorporates many different disciplines including geography, anthropology, cultural and literary studies and politics. State as well as popular responses are integrated and the auto/biographical practice of the refugees themselves are highlighted throughout this book. Films, novels, museums, heritage sites and memorials are incorporated in this study alongside more traditional sources allowing exploration of history and memory. Many neglected refugee movements are covered and themes such as gender, childhood, place, space, legality, the politics of naming, and performance add to its richness.
Adrian Parr
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748627547
- eISBN:
- 9780748652433
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748627547.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter attempts to extract the sense of trauma by engaging the same synthesis in its legitimate form in the case of the Amish shootings in Pennsylvania. It suggests that the shootings of ten ...
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This chapter attempts to extract the sense of trauma by engaging the same synthesis in its legitimate form in the case of the Amish shootings in Pennsylvania. It suggests that the shootings of ten Amish schoolgirls and the community's response to this event provide us with an important shift in focus away from either being an unrepresentable trauma figured as lack (void of content), or an uncompromising repetition of memory that refuses to forget a traumatic experience. The chapter argues that the Amish response to the incident extracted the sense of trauma that emerges between appearances and copies, memory and history, all the while encouraging us to pose our question of traumatic memory in slightly different terms.Less
This chapter attempts to extract the sense of trauma by engaging the same synthesis in its legitimate form in the case of the Amish shootings in Pennsylvania. It suggests that the shootings of ten Amish schoolgirls and the community's response to this event provide us with an important shift in focus away from either being an unrepresentable trauma figured as lack (void of content), or an uncompromising repetition of memory that refuses to forget a traumatic experience. The chapter argues that the Amish response to the incident extracted the sense of trauma that emerges between appearances and copies, memory and history, all the while encouraging us to pose our question of traumatic memory in slightly different terms.
Michel Bonnin and Sebastian Veg (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9789888390762
- eISBN:
- 9789888455614
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390762.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines an example of how minjian memories and minjian historiography transform our knowledge of the history of the Cultural Revolution. In the case of the end of the Rustication ...
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This chapter examines an example of how minjian memories and minjian historiography transform our knowledge of the history of the Cultural Revolution. In the case of the end of the Rustication movement, many unofficial sources contradict the official version, represented by the press of the time or by the recent TV series Deng Xiaoping. In February 1979, while the People’s Daily published a speech criticizing the Yunnan educated youth who had come to Beijing to demand the right to return to their native cities, on the ground in Yunnan, the educated youths were in fact packing up and going back home by the thousands, after a victorious petitioning movement. This movement of historical importance was never officially acknowledged. In the TV series, the sudden end of the rustication movement is attributed to the wisdom of Deng Xiaoping and the petitioning movement (including strikes, hunger strikes and the sending of delegations) is replaced by the individual petition of a female educated youth wanting to go back home to take care of her gravely ill father who succeeds in touching the heart of a good cadre. The contribution of unofficial sources is thus particularly obvious in this case.Less
This chapter examines an example of how minjian memories and minjian historiography transform our knowledge of the history of the Cultural Revolution. In the case of the end of the Rustication movement, many unofficial sources contradict the official version, represented by the press of the time or by the recent TV series Deng Xiaoping. In February 1979, while the People’s Daily published a speech criticizing the Yunnan educated youth who had come to Beijing to demand the right to return to their native cities, on the ground in Yunnan, the educated youths were in fact packing up and going back home by the thousands, after a victorious petitioning movement. This movement of historical importance was never officially acknowledged. In the TV series, the sudden end of the rustication movement is attributed to the wisdom of Deng Xiaoping and the petitioning movement (including strikes, hunger strikes and the sending of delegations) is replaced by the individual petition of a female educated youth wanting to go back home to take care of her gravely ill father who succeeds in touching the heart of a good cadre. The contribution of unofficial sources is thus particularly obvious in this case.
Mitch Kachun
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- July 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199731619
- eISBN:
- 9780190693510
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199731619.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History, Cultural History
The introduction outlines Crispus Attucks’s story and the book’s approach, using the concepts of history and memory to explore how Attucks has been remembered and forgotten, lionized and vilified, ...
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The introduction outlines Crispus Attucks’s story and the book’s approach, using the concepts of history and memory to explore how Attucks has been remembered and forgotten, lionized and vilified, from the eighteenth through the twenty-first centuries, including a brief description of each chapter. Key themes introduced include the role of Attucks and other black heroes in the centuries-long debate over African American citizenship, patriotism, and inclusion; the meanings both black and white Americans have attached to Attucks’s name, image, and story; different conceptions of who belongs in the nation’s history and who does not; and the process through which national heroes and myths are constructed.Less
The introduction outlines Crispus Attucks’s story and the book’s approach, using the concepts of history and memory to explore how Attucks has been remembered and forgotten, lionized and vilified, from the eighteenth through the twenty-first centuries, including a brief description of each chapter. Key themes introduced include the role of Attucks and other black heroes in the centuries-long debate over African American citizenship, patriotism, and inclusion; the meanings both black and white Americans have attached to Attucks’s name, image, and story; different conceptions of who belongs in the nation’s history and who does not; and the process through which national heroes and myths are constructed.
Marco Duranti
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199811380
- eISBN:
- 9780190638689
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199811380.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This study radically reinterprets the origins of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), arguing that conservatives conceived of the treaty not only as a means of containing communism and ...
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This study radically reinterprets the origins of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), arguing that conservatives conceived of the treaty not only as a means of containing communism and fascism in continental Europe, but also as a vehicle for pursuing a controversial domestic political agenda on either side of the Channel. A European Court of Human Rights was meant to constrain the ability of democratically elected governments to implement left-wing policies that British and French conservatives believed violated their basic liberties. Conservative human rights rhetoric evoked a romantic Christian vision of Europe. Rather than follow the model of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, conservatives such as Winston Churchill grounded their appeals for new human rights safeguards in the values of a bygone European civilization. All told, these efforts served as a basis for reconciliation between Germans and the “West,” the exclusion of communists from the European project, and the denial of equal protection to colonized peoples. The book highlights the role that culture, ethics, and memory played in the genesis of international law and organization from 1899 to 1959. It elucidates Churchill’s Europeanism and his critical contribution to the genesis of the ECHR, as well as that of a number of free-market conservatives and social Catholics in the movements for European unity. Revisiting the ethical foundations of European integration, it offers a new perspective on the crisis in which the European Union finds itself today.Less
This study radically reinterprets the origins of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), arguing that conservatives conceived of the treaty not only as a means of containing communism and fascism in continental Europe, but also as a vehicle for pursuing a controversial domestic political agenda on either side of the Channel. A European Court of Human Rights was meant to constrain the ability of democratically elected governments to implement left-wing policies that British and French conservatives believed violated their basic liberties. Conservative human rights rhetoric evoked a romantic Christian vision of Europe. Rather than follow the model of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, conservatives such as Winston Churchill grounded their appeals for new human rights safeguards in the values of a bygone European civilization. All told, these efforts served as a basis for reconciliation between Germans and the “West,” the exclusion of communists from the European project, and the denial of equal protection to colonized peoples. The book highlights the role that culture, ethics, and memory played in the genesis of international law and organization from 1899 to 1959. It elucidates Churchill’s Europeanism and his critical contribution to the genesis of the ECHR, as well as that of a number of free-market conservatives and social Catholics in the movements for European unity. Revisiting the ethical foundations of European integration, it offers a new perspective on the crisis in which the European Union finds itself today.
Marco Duranti
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199811380
- eISBN:
- 9780190638689
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199811380.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter compares the technocratic and romantic dimensions of the postwar European project. At the end of the Second World War, the ceding of sovereignty to a new European organization of states ...
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This chapter compares the technocratic and romantic dimensions of the postwar European project. At the end of the Second World War, the ceding of sovereignty to a new European organization of states did not have broad appeal. For this reason, Winston Churchill conceived of European integration as a cultural and ethical project as much as an economic and political one. The ascendancy of supranationalism was to be a function of conservative memory culture, not just technical innovations, for overcoming the grim realities of the present required the elaboration of a grand civilizational narrative oriented toward an idealized past.Less
This chapter compares the technocratic and romantic dimensions of the postwar European project. At the end of the Second World War, the ceding of sovereignty to a new European organization of states did not have broad appeal. For this reason, Winston Churchill conceived of European integration as a cultural and ethical project as much as an economic and political one. The ascendancy of supranationalism was to be a function of conservative memory culture, not just technical innovations, for overcoming the grim realities of the present required the elaboration of a grand civilizational narrative oriented toward an idealized past.
