The "9/11" Decade: Rethinking Reality: first call for papers, deadline 15 December 2010
Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE), University of Brighton
contact email: nc95@brighton.ac.uk
Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics (CAPPE)
University of Brighton, UK
6th Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference
The “9/11” Decade: Rethinking Reality
Wednesday 31 August – Friday 2 September 2011
Joint conference organisers:
Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics & Ethics, University of Brighton;
Centre for Ethics and Value Inquiry, University of Ghent;
Centre for Research Ethics & Ethical Deliberation, Edge Hill University;
Centre for Research in Ethics and Globalisation, University of Groningen
Invited keynote speaker: Geoffrey Robertson QC
Call for Papers
It is no exaggeration to claim that the politics of the last decade have their origin in one event: the hijacking and flying of passenger aircraft into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Since then wars, putatively justified as responses to this attack, have raged in Iraq and in Afghanistan. These wars have resulted in the growth of violent opposition to a perceived US imperial polity; have been used to justify the rewriting of long established legal frameworks protecting the people’s rights have led to neurosis about the protection of borders which the age of global capital was supposed to bring to an end; and have seen the crippling of active leftist opposition to the opportunistic furtherance of the neo-liberal revolution.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks critically to rethink this last decade and to put into question the nostrums it would have us take for granted. We call for papers that:
• challenge dominant paradigms for understanding terror, war, rights, citizenship, legitimacy, politics and the person;
• address the shifts in our cultural landscapes that the securitisation of everyday life has created;
• rethink the architecture of Empire, the literature of “9/11” and the geography of the unending “war on terror.”
Proposals are invited on any relevant topic and should be addressed to an interdisciplinary audience. Likely themes may include be the following, although the conference is by no means limited to these:
The architecture of terror: cities “at war”; designing the security society
“Just” war and asymmetrical warfare: aerial bombing; “suicide” bombing; drones
The politics of 2001-2011: the “war on terror”; rethinking empire, globalisation and sovereignty after “9/11”; the re-articulation of Capital; the “shock doctrine”
Rethinking ourselves: torture; identity; Islamophobia; immigration, asylum and refugees
Culture after “9/11”: art, literature, film and popular culture.
The politics of death after “9/11”: “remembrance” and memorialisation; counting the dead
Philosophy and its limits: the language of terror and the terror of language; sincerity and conviction
Theorising resistance: rethinking the law; rethinking the political
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be emailed to Nicola Clewer by 15 December 2010: nc95@brighton.ac.uk
Decisions will be communicated no later than 15 January 2011.
For further information please visit website here
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Argentina: "Nieto Recuperado" - Democracy Now Features Interview with "Recovered Grandchild"
We speak with Manuel Gonçalves, a "nieto recuperado," or a "recovered grandchild," in Argentina. He is one of the thousands of children born to parents who were disappeared during the dictatorship. These children were born in captivity, then kidnapped by the military and given away to government supporters or military families. Some of them have found their way back to their families. Manuel Gonçalves, son of Gaston Gonçalves, who was killed during the dictatorship. He was kidnapped as a newborn baby. His father’s alleged killer is now on trial.(From November 12, 2010)
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Conference: "The Role of Memory in the American Construct"
IAAS Postgraduate Symposium - “Re-memory” and “Disremembering”: The Role of Memory in the American Construct
Irish Association for American Studies
contact email: iaas.symposium@gmail.com
IAAS Postgraduate Symposium
Saturday 29th January 2011
Location: Clinton Institute for American Studies, UCD, Dublin, Ireland.
Call for Papers
“Re-memory” and “Disremembering”: The Role of Memory in the American Construct
Memory, (both collective and individual), and memolialisation have an international legacy of shaping identity constructs, impacting upon reactionary politics and re-conceptualising history in accordance with changing social mores. In the United States, choosing what to preserve in collective and individual memory (and perhaps more significantly, what not to preserve and/or commemorate), map a national history of conflict and heroism, despair and hope, decline and renaissance. America’s cultural memory has also been partly shaped by the idea of community. This is reflected in its diverse topography; the collective memory of the small town communities and subjective memory of the frantic, multicultural cities have each, in different ways, impacted on how America has come to define and understand itself. Remembering and choosing not to remember in the United States have, then, been instrumental in surviving trauma and in celebrating achievement, though the suggestion that the past can “infect” the present fosters a tendency to bury the darker aspects of America’s remembrances.
Postgraduate students of all disciplines within the field of American Studies (including literature, film, history, geography, philosophy, visual arts, performance arts, new media, politics, sociology, cultural studies, ecology, law, economics, and international relations) are invited to submit proposals for 20-minute papers in the area of American studies, with possible topics including but not restricted to:
- (Re)-Constructing National Identity
- Conflict resolution
- Problems within (and without) of Cultural Diversity
- Representations of Gender
- Representations of Race
- Historical interpretation and Periodisation
- (Re)-Configuring America’s Collective (Re)Memory
- American Exceptionalism
- The Hyphenated Identity
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be emailed to the IAAS Postgraduate Caucus Co-Chairs:
Louise Walsh (Clinton Institute for American Studies, UCD) and Kate Kirwan (University College Cork) at iaas.symposium@gmail.com
Please note that you must be a member of the IAAS to participate; see membership form attached.
DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF ABSTRACTS: FRIDAY 31st DECEMBER 2010
Irish Association for American Studies
contact email: iaas.symposium@gmail.com
IAAS Postgraduate Symposium
Saturday 29th January 2011
Location: Clinton Institute for American Studies, UCD, Dublin, Ireland.
Call for Papers
“Re-memory” and “Disremembering”: The Role of Memory in the American Construct
Memory, (both collective and individual), and memolialisation have an international legacy of shaping identity constructs, impacting upon reactionary politics and re-conceptualising history in accordance with changing social mores. In the United States, choosing what to preserve in collective and individual memory (and perhaps more significantly, what not to preserve and/or commemorate), map a national history of conflict and heroism, despair and hope, decline and renaissance. America’s cultural memory has also been partly shaped by the idea of community. This is reflected in its diverse topography; the collective memory of the small town communities and subjective memory of the frantic, multicultural cities have each, in different ways, impacted on how America has come to define and understand itself. Remembering and choosing not to remember in the United States have, then, been instrumental in surviving trauma and in celebrating achievement, though the suggestion that the past can “infect” the present fosters a tendency to bury the darker aspects of America’s remembrances.
Postgraduate students of all disciplines within the field of American Studies (including literature, film, history, geography, philosophy, visual arts, performance arts, new media, politics, sociology, cultural studies, ecology, law, economics, and international relations) are invited to submit proposals for 20-minute papers in the area of American studies, with possible topics including but not restricted to:
- (Re)-Constructing National Identity
- Conflict resolution
- Problems within (and without) of Cultural Diversity
- Representations of Gender
- Representations of Race
- Historical interpretation and Periodisation
- (Re)-Configuring America’s Collective (Re)Memory
- American Exceptionalism
- The Hyphenated Identity
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be emailed to the IAAS Postgraduate Caucus Co-Chairs:
Louise Walsh (Clinton Institute for American Studies, UCD) and Kate Kirwan (University College Cork) at iaas.symposium@gmail.com
Please note that you must be a member of the IAAS to participate; see membership form attached.
DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF ABSTRACTS: FRIDAY 31st DECEMBER 2010
Call for 9-11 Book Reviews
9-11 Book Reviews
Randy Robertson / Modern Language Studies
contact email:
robertson@susqu.edu
Modern Language Studies, the journal of the Northeast Modern Language Association, is seeking reviews of works related to 9-11. The reviews will appear in a special issue commemorating the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001. Relevant works include those on terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, foreign policy in the wake of 9-11, etc. The reviewed work can be fiction or nonfiction.
Please submit your review electronically (as a Word attachment) to Randy Robertson, Reviews Editor of MLS, at robertson@susqu.edu.
Randy Robertson / Modern Language Studies
contact email:
robertson@susqu.edu
Modern Language Studies, the journal of the Northeast Modern Language Association, is seeking reviews of works related to 9-11. The reviews will appear in a special issue commemorating the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001. Relevant works include those on terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, foreign policy in the wake of 9-11, etc. The reviewed work can be fiction or nonfiction.
Please submit your review electronically (as a Word attachment) to Randy Robertson, Reviews Editor of MLS, at robertson@susqu.edu.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Marianne Hirsch to speak at Washington University in St. Louis
The renowned memory scholar Marianne Hirsch will be speaking at Washington University in St. Louis on November 8 at 4 pm. The talk is free and open to the public. Marianne Hirsch's name is most often linked to her formulation of "postmemory" in the book Family Frames and in subsequent articles written individually and with her partner Leo Spitzer.
I read the news of Hirsch's visit to St. Louis with a mixture of excitement and disappointment, because just 3 years ago, I was a student at Wash U and the focus of my dissertation was postmemory in contemporary Spain. While I will be attending a conference in St. Louis next week, I will unfortunately not be able to attend this talk. During my 6 years at Washington University, I was able to hear many exciting, renowned speakers from a variety of disciplines. Anyone in the St. Louis area that researches memory should make time to attend this important lecture!!
Examining the role of memory in reconstructing family history
Marianne Hirsch to deliver Holocaust Memorial Lecture for Assembly Series Nov. 8
October 21, 2010
By Barbara Rea
For many children of Holocaust survivors — collectively known as the “second generation” — there is a longing to understand pre-war life, culture and community experienced by their parents before the trauma of expulsion, incarceration and brutalization.
Marianne Hirsch, PhD, a member of this generation and a distinguished scholar on memory and cultural history, argues that post-Holocaust generations, with their profound need to vicariously participate in this bygone world, experience “postmemory” — a term Hirsch has coined to convey the ways generations born after the Holocaust access the experiences of the witnesses through mediation and imaginative reconstruction.
Hirsch will be on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis to explore these themes for the Holocaust Memorial Lecture, an Assembly Series program at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 8, in Graham Chapel. The lecture, titled “Rites of Return: The Afterlife of the Holocaust in Jewish Memory,” is free and open to the public.
“Postmemory refers to the ways in which generations born after a traumatic event access the experiences of the witnesses,” says Erin McGlothlin, PhD, associate professor of Germanic languages and literatures in Arts & Sciences and chair of the Holocaust Lecture Committee, “not through actual remembrance and recall, but through imaginative projection and re-creation.”
Images play an especially important role in this re-creation, she says.
McGlothlin also notes that, although postmemory as a concept was created to understand the Holocaust, it can be used to mine cultural memory for any traumatic event.
“In recent years, scholars have extended the concept of postmemory far beyond the particular context of the Holocaust to refer to the generational memory of disparate historical and cultural events,” McGlothlin says.
Thanks to the Internet and to several trips back to Czernowitz, Hirsch has reconstructed the once thriving center of Jewish life in Ukraine, where her parents lived.
With her husband, Leo Spitzer, she has produced a book called Ghosts of Home: The Afterlife of Czernowitz, which explores the city that before the war was an important center of Central European Jewish intellectual life. Reviewer Monica Szurmuk, of theworld.org, writes that “Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer’s monumental book Ghosts of Home is a stunning marriage of intellectual curiosity and personal search.”
Hirsch is the William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She also teaches at Columbia’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender and co-directs its Center for the Critical Analysis of Social Difference.
In addition to the Czernowitz publication, Hirsch has written many books, including Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Postmemory; The Familial Gaze; and Time and the Literary. She has edited or co-edited a number of volumes, including the indispensable MLA guide, Teaching the Representation of the Holocaust.
She is the recipient of a host of fellowships and has served as editor of the journal PMLA. She is on the advisory boards of two journals, Memory Studies and Contemporary Women’s Writing.
Hirsch earned bachelors, master’s and doctoral degrees from Brown University.
For more information on this and upcoming Assembly Series programs, visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu or call (314) 935-4620.
I read the news of Hirsch's visit to St. Louis with a mixture of excitement and disappointment, because just 3 years ago, I was a student at Wash U and the focus of my dissertation was postmemory in contemporary Spain. While I will be attending a conference in St. Louis next week, I will unfortunately not be able to attend this talk. During my 6 years at Washington University, I was able to hear many exciting, renowned speakers from a variety of disciplines. Anyone in the St. Louis area that researches memory should make time to attend this important lecture!!
Examining the role of memory in reconstructing family history
Marianne Hirsch to deliver Holocaust Memorial Lecture for Assembly Series Nov. 8
October 21, 2010
By Barbara Rea
For many children of Holocaust survivors — collectively known as the “second generation” — there is a longing to understand pre-war life, culture and community experienced by their parents before the trauma of expulsion, incarceration and brutalization.
Marianne Hirsch, PhD, a member of this generation and a distinguished scholar on memory and cultural history, argues that post-Holocaust generations, with their profound need to vicariously participate in this bygone world, experience “postmemory” — a term Hirsch has coined to convey the ways generations born after the Holocaust access the experiences of the witnesses through mediation and imaginative reconstruction.
Hirsch will be on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis to explore these themes for the Holocaust Memorial Lecture, an Assembly Series program at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 8, in Graham Chapel. The lecture, titled “Rites of Return: The Afterlife of the Holocaust in Jewish Memory,” is free and open to the public.
“Postmemory refers to the ways in which generations born after a traumatic event access the experiences of the witnesses,” says Erin McGlothlin, PhD, associate professor of Germanic languages and literatures in Arts & Sciences and chair of the Holocaust Lecture Committee, “not through actual remembrance and recall, but through imaginative projection and re-creation.”
Images play an especially important role in this re-creation, she says.
McGlothlin also notes that, although postmemory as a concept was created to understand the Holocaust, it can be used to mine cultural memory for any traumatic event.
“In recent years, scholars have extended the concept of postmemory far beyond the particular context of the Holocaust to refer to the generational memory of disparate historical and cultural events,” McGlothlin says.
Thanks to the Internet and to several trips back to Czernowitz, Hirsch has reconstructed the once thriving center of Jewish life in Ukraine, where her parents lived.
With her husband, Leo Spitzer, she has produced a book called Ghosts of Home: The Afterlife of Czernowitz, which explores the city that before the war was an important center of Central European Jewish intellectual life. Reviewer Monica Szurmuk, of theworld.org, writes that “Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer’s monumental book Ghosts of Home is a stunning marriage of intellectual curiosity and personal search.”
Hirsch is the William Peterfield Trent Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She also teaches at Columbia’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender and co-directs its Center for the Critical Analysis of Social Difference.
In addition to the Czernowitz publication, Hirsch has written many books, including Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Postmemory; The Familial Gaze; and Time and the Literary. She has edited or co-edited a number of volumes, including the indispensable MLA guide, Teaching the Representation of the Holocaust.
She is the recipient of a host of fellowships and has served as editor of the journal PMLA. She is on the advisory boards of two journals, Memory Studies and Contemporary Women’s Writing.
Hirsch earned bachelors, master’s and doctoral degrees from Brown University.
For more information on this and upcoming Assembly Series programs, visit assemblyseries.wustl.edu or call (314) 935-4620.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
On Chile
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| the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda |
Before I went to Chile, I had only visited Mexico and Spain. Being in Chile was a little like going to California when you have only been to the east coast (or vice-versa). Stepping off the plane, there is a distinct sense that you are. . . elsewhere. Part of it has to do with the change in seasons, but it's also just the "vibe" of the country. I only saw a fraction of the country, but it made a big impression on me to go from Santiago to Viña del Mar to Valparaíso to Isla Negra to Punta Arenas. The difference in temperatures, pace, amount of people and general landscape was pretty significant.
My visit was incredible. I left the end of winter and entered the end of summer. People swarmed the beach at Viña del Mar. My friend and I started in Valparaíso, with its inclines and sea-worn buildings. Now that I've been in San Francisco, I can say Valparaíso reminds me a bit of being there. Or the other way around. I love being near "the sea" and having that smell in the air. I would love to wake with a view of water -- who wouldn't? In Neruda's house, one of his rooms -- I can't recall which at the moment -- looked right out onto the water. No one was allowed to photograph anything inside the house, but one could be photographed with the view of the sea in the background. I tried to imagine Neruda writing with that backdrop, drinking wine with friends, reading. I tried to imagine the house totally ransacked, his rows of books in ruins on the floor, after the '73 coup, just days before his death.
Recently, like many other people, I've had Chile on my mind for reasons other than Neruda. The earthquake, the bicentennial, the ongoing news about the miners, and the fact that I haven't stopped listening to this CD for the last month, have all put Chile (phonetically, she lay, as my friend would say) back in my everyday thoughts.
Driving home from work last week, I was listening to a report on the rescue of the miners. Isabel Allende was talking. Shortly after Chile's independence day (September 18), she had visited the mine site and now she was reflecting on this emotional moment for the country as a whole. She never mentioned a word about Chile's military dictatorship, never said a thing about the disappeared, but in my own mind, I could not help associating these "disappeared" miners, now being "appeared" and released from the earth, with those who were disappeared and never returned. Strangely, the rescue gave Chile back its own sons in a way that has never been possible for those who vanished under Pinochet. The fact that Isabel Allende - whose father was Socialist Salvador Allende's first cousin -- was standing beside President Sebastián Piñera, a right-wing millionaire, was also quite a symbolic moment, I thought. Perhaps it doesn't mean anything, but the image of the two together seemed to bring the past to a scene that had been concentrating very much on the present, on the extremely delicate, day-to-day, minute-by-minute operations of bringing the miners to the earth's surface.
 |
| Isabel Allende beside President Sebastián Piñera (photo from here) |
The mine rescue, and the connection of the site with a previous traumatic history, illustrate the fact that sites of memory do not just remain stable representatives of the same story, but evolve over time, depending on historical and political circumstances. Although it is quite different, I am reminded of the Valle de los Caídos site in Spain, currently back in the news again as the Spanish government debates whether or not to make it into a "center for memory."
The most striking symbol of Valle de los Caídos is the gigantic cross that marks its location. The site is visited largely by tourists, but also used to be where the ultra right gathered every November 20 (the anniversary of Franco's death), until the 2007 Law of Historical Memory made that illegal. Many people don't realize that Valle was built by slave labor under Franco in the 50s. Many also don't know that, buried on the altar (!) of the church inside are Franco himself and José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Spanish fascist party, Falange. In addition to Franco, many of the Civil War dead are also buried in the walls of what some have called Spain's largest "mass grave." What to do with this enormous structure, which still houses a Benedictine monastery, remains unclear. However, one thing is certain -- the site's identity has undergone a series of revisions over the past several years. In my view, these revisions are necessary, and transforming the site into a Center for Memory would give Spain what is still lacks almost 35 years since Franco's death.
"Revising" a site of memory like the area of the mine rescue or the Valle de los Caídos site should not mean eclipsing its past history. Ideally -- and it sounds cliché -- we could use the past struggles there to inform the present use of the site. In 1973, miners were murdered where in 2010, they were rescued. What does this mean? Is it just a coincidence? Or can the rescue ultimately allow healing of other kinds?
I'll be writing a bit more about Chile here soon. I have a post planned about the rapper Ana Tijoux. For now, I'll just say that if you haven't been to this magnificent country, I highly recommend it. One day, I hope to return for a longer visit. In some ways, I know only an "imagined Chile" informed by Neruda and the folksinger Víctor Jara. What is the everyday Chile? It still seems a bit mysterious to me. So much is informed by what lies below ground -- fault lines, the disappeared, miners descending to the earth's pit. What is it to live with the knowledge of unstable tierra, the possibility of tremors and aftershocks? Surely, this awareness comes with its own kind of memory.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Seminar: Cosmpolitan Memory and Trauma
CFP: Cosmopolitan Memory and Travelling Trauma (ACLA March 31-April 3, 2011)
Terri Tomsky, University of Alberta; Jennifer Bowering Delisle, McMaster University
contact email:
tomsky@ualberta.ca
When a collective memory of trauma transcends its directly affected community to be taken up by others, it can be said to be “cosmopolitan” (Levy and Sznaider) or “multidirectional” (Rothberg). The concept of a travelling or a genuinely “cosmopolitan” memory is compelling. Indeed, how a memory of trauma travels across cultures, and develops in time as a shared or borrowed memory is a topic that necessitates further discussion. Like Edward Said’s notion of “travelling theory,” the transition of a memory from a specific context into a new setting or across a transnational space has significant theoretical and pragmatic consequences. Questions must be asked about how traumatic experiences, especially of political violence, are mediated across space and time; how might a transported memory of trauma sharpen consciousness and shape cross-cultural communities? Equally, how might it enable selective commemoration, and risk reification or domestication?
This seminar invites scholars across the fields of trauma, postcolonial, and memory studies to critically examine the movement of traumatic memories across cultures. We are interested in proposals that address the productive transcultural circulation of trauma – what Michael Rothberg has called “multidirectional memory” – as a politically significant source for oppressed communities. Additionally, we seek proposals that engage the travel of traumatic memory in relation to audience, affect, capital, and cultural and economic imperialisms.
The deadline for 250 word paper proposals is NOVEMBER 1, 2010. Proposals should be submitted through the ACLA website: http://www.acla.org/submit/index.php?override=xyzzy
Terri Tomsky, University of Alberta; Jennifer Bowering Delisle, McMaster University
contact email:
tomsky@ualberta.ca
When a collective memory of trauma transcends its directly affected community to be taken up by others, it can be said to be “cosmopolitan” (Levy and Sznaider) or “multidirectional” (Rothberg). The concept of a travelling or a genuinely “cosmopolitan” memory is compelling. Indeed, how a memory of trauma travels across cultures, and develops in time as a shared or borrowed memory is a topic that necessitates further discussion. Like Edward Said’s notion of “travelling theory,” the transition of a memory from a specific context into a new setting or across a transnational space has significant theoretical and pragmatic consequences. Questions must be asked about how traumatic experiences, especially of political violence, are mediated across space and time; how might a transported memory of trauma sharpen consciousness and shape cross-cultural communities? Equally, how might it enable selective commemoration, and risk reification or domestication?
This seminar invites scholars across the fields of trauma, postcolonial, and memory studies to critically examine the movement of traumatic memories across cultures. We are interested in proposals that address the productive transcultural circulation of trauma – what Michael Rothberg has called “multidirectional memory” – as a politically significant source for oppressed communities. Additionally, we seek proposals that engage the travel of traumatic memory in relation to audience, affect, capital, and cultural and economic imperialisms.
The deadline for 250 word paper proposals is NOVEMBER 1, 2010. Proposals should be submitted through the ACLA website: http://www.acla.org/submit/index.php?override=xyzzy
Memory Conference: "The Art of Public Memory"
CALL FOR PAPERS, WORKSHOPS, PERFORMANCES, LECTURE PERFORMANCES
THE ART OF PUBLIC MEMORY
An international, interdisciplinary conference exploring intersections of the arts, memory, and history
April 7th to 10th, 2011, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
The conference is, in part, inspired by the performance of Bill T. Jones's Serenade/ The Proposition, at UNCG on Friday, April 8. A contemporary dance about the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and a rumination on the nature of history, Jones’s dance suggests examination of other works involving Lincoln such as the current off Broadway play Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party Review and Suzan-Lori Park's 1994 The America Play, and portraits of Lincoln by composers such as Charles Ives and Roy Harris. It also calls for a broader examination of the arts, memory and history. Potential questions include: How and in what ways do memories acquire a public character and through what means are they preserved, archived, and negotiated in everyday life? In what ways do expressions of public memory create, sustain, and de-stabilize the work(ings) of power? How are ideas of gender, sexuality, race, class, and nation re-inscribed or contested through performances, especially performances of history? In what ways do the body, bodily action, and bodily experience enter into public memory?
We invite proposals of academic papers, panels, workshops, lecture performances, and performances from scholars and artists in the arts, education, the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The conference is sponsored by, and celebrates, the new School of Music, Theatre and Dance at UNCG, and is co-sponsored by UNCG's Program in Women's and Gender Studies.
Proposals must be received by December 1, 2010
Notification of acceptance by January 31, 2011
Send your submission through email to: womens_studies@uncg.edu.
Please include your last name and ART OF PUBLIC MEMORY in the Subject Heading of the e-mail. The text should be attached and pasted in the body of the e-mail to assure access. Please send documents in .doc or .docx formats.
Receipt of all submissions will be confirmed electronically.
REQUIREMENTS
Individual papers should not exceed 20 minutes for presentation. Submit a 500 word abstract.
Panels consisting of three individual presenters may be proposed. Submit a 250 word discussion of the ideas and issues important to the panel in addition to individual paper proposals of 500 words each for the presenters. Please send all documents together.
Performances (solo performance, staged readings, dance, music, installations): We hope to include a limited number of performances, especially performances that can be accomplished in alternate spaces, studios, classrooms, or in shared evenings of music, theatre, and dance. Submit a 500 word abstract describing the event and its organization.
Lecture-Demonstrations, Lecture-Performances, or Workshops may run from 30-45 minutes. Submit a 500 word abstract describing the topic and organization of the session.
For all proposals, include:
• name
• affiliation (if applicable),
• contact information,
• 150 word biography of presenter,
• presentation title,
• presentation format (individual paper, panel, workshop, performance, etc),
• space needs,
• technology needs.
Queries about proposals may be addressed by e-mail to Ann Dils at ahdils@uncg.edu.
THE ART OF PUBLIC MEMORY
An international, interdisciplinary conference exploring intersections of the arts, memory, and history
April 7th to 10th, 2011, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
The conference is, in part, inspired by the performance of Bill T. Jones's Serenade/ The Proposition, at UNCG on Friday, April 8. A contemporary dance about the legacy of Abraham Lincoln and a rumination on the nature of history, Jones’s dance suggests examination of other works involving Lincoln such as the current off Broadway play Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party Review and Suzan-Lori Park's 1994 The America Play, and portraits of Lincoln by composers such as Charles Ives and Roy Harris. It also calls for a broader examination of the arts, memory and history. Potential questions include: How and in what ways do memories acquire a public character and through what means are they preserved, archived, and negotiated in everyday life? In what ways do expressions of public memory create, sustain, and de-stabilize the work(ings) of power? How are ideas of gender, sexuality, race, class, and nation re-inscribed or contested through performances, especially performances of history? In what ways do the body, bodily action, and bodily experience enter into public memory?
We invite proposals of academic papers, panels, workshops, lecture performances, and performances from scholars and artists in the arts, education, the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The conference is sponsored by, and celebrates, the new School of Music, Theatre and Dance at UNCG, and is co-sponsored by UNCG's Program in Women's and Gender Studies.
Proposals must be received by December 1, 2010
Notification of acceptance by January 31, 2011
Send your submission through email to: womens_studies@uncg.edu.
Please include your last name and ART OF PUBLIC MEMORY in the Subject Heading of the e-mail. The text should be attached and pasted in the body of the e-mail to assure access. Please send documents in .doc or .docx formats.
Receipt of all submissions will be confirmed electronically.
REQUIREMENTS
Individual papers should not exceed 20 minutes for presentation. Submit a 500 word abstract.
Panels consisting of three individual presenters may be proposed. Submit a 250 word discussion of the ideas and issues important to the panel in addition to individual paper proposals of 500 words each for the presenters. Please send all documents together.
Performances (solo performance, staged readings, dance, music, installations): We hope to include a limited number of performances, especially performances that can be accomplished in alternate spaces, studios, classrooms, or in shared evenings of music, theatre, and dance. Submit a 500 word abstract describing the event and its organization.
Lecture-Demonstrations, Lecture-Performances, or Workshops may run from 30-45 minutes. Submit a 500 word abstract describing the topic and organization of the session.
For all proposals, include:
• name
• affiliation (if applicable),
• contact information,
• 150 word biography of presenter,
• presentation title,
• presentation format (individual paper, panel, workshop, performance, etc),
• space needs,
• technology needs.
Queries about proposals may be addressed by e-mail to Ann Dils at ahdils@uncg.edu.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
New book on Trauma - Haunting Legacies
About the book:
From mass murder to genocide, slavery to colonial suppression, acts of atrocity have lives that extend far beyond the horrific moment. They engender trauma that echoes for generations, in the experiences of those on both sides of the act. Gabriele Schwab reads these legacies in a number of narratives, primarily through the writing of postwar Germans and the descendents of Holocaust survivors. She connects their work to earlier histories of slavery and colonialism and to more recent events, such as South African Apartheid, the practice of torture after 9/11, and the "disappearances" that occurred during South American dictatorships.
Schwab's texts include memoirs, such as Ruth Kluger's Still Alive and Marguerite Duras's La Douleur; second-generation accounts by the children of Holocaust survivors, such as Georges Perec's W, Art Spiegelman's Maus, and Philippe Grimbert's Secret; and second-generation recollections by Germans, such as W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz, Sabine Reichel's What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, and Ursula Duba's Tales from a Child of the Enemy. She also incorporates her own reminiscences of growing up in postwar Germany, mapping interlaced memories and histories as they interact in psychic life and cultural memory.
Table of Contents:
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Writing Against Memory and Forgetting
3. Haunting Legacies: Trauma in Children of Perpetrators
4. Identity Trouble: Guilt, Shame, and Idealization
5. Replacement Children: The Transgenerational Transmission of Traumatic Loss
6. Deadly Intimacy: The Politics and Psychic Life of Torture
Bibliography
About the author: Gabriele Schwab is Chancellor's Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. Her books in English include Derrida, Deleuze, Psychoanalysis; Accelerating Possessions: Global Futures of Property and Personhood; and The Mirror and the Killer-Queen: Otherness in Literary Language.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Radio program on "False Memories"
When I used to live in St. Louis, one of my favorite listening experiences was The Diane Rehm Show. I no longer get to listen nearly enough to the program, especially since it comes on in Iowa at 9 pm, rather than 9 am. Diane Rehm is an amazing interviewer, and I have to put in my plug for her show before getting on to the following.
Tomorrow, the program is featuring a dialogue about repressed, recovered or "false memories." When I was growing up in the 80s, "false memories" were all the rage. It seemed as though people were being accused every other day of things -- always, extremely abusive things -- they had done 20 years ago. This is an extremely complex matter, and one I am unqualified to address.
My Lie is a book by journalist Meredith Maran, who falsely accused her father of molesting her. How do "false memories" develop? What does the so-called "recovered memories" movement say about particular periods of our history? And, what interests me in particular, how and why does this movement impact women? Perhaps, a slightly off-topic matter for this blog, but one that merits our attention nonetheless.
Tomorrow, the program is featuring a dialogue about repressed, recovered or "false memories." When I was growing up in the 80s, "false memories" were all the rage. It seemed as though people were being accused every other day of things -- always, extremely abusive things -- they had done 20 years ago. This is an extremely complex matter, and one I am unqualified to address.
My Lie is a book by journalist Meredith Maran, who falsely accused her father of molesting her. How do "false memories" develop? What does the so-called "recovered memories" movement say about particular periods of our history? And, what interests me in particular, how and why does this movement impact women? Perhaps, a slightly off-topic matter for this blog, but one that merits our attention nonetheless.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Argentina will investigate the crimes of Francoism
I was a bit startled to see this title in the Spanish press this morning, but I am happy to see that the matter Spain has tried to keep internal for so long now has international players involved.This is a big deal!!
From: BBC News
4 September 2010 Last updated at 15:06 ET
Argentine court reopens Franco probe
The appeals court overturned a previous ruling that blocked a suit brought by Argentine relatives of two Spaniards killed under Franco.
It said they had a right to know if the case was being investigated.
Crimes committed under Franco and during the 1936-39 civil war are covered by an amnesty law in Spain.
The Argentine appeals court said a diplomatic request should be sent to Spain to ask what action it was taking to investigate crimes against humanity between 1936 and 1977.
'Systematic terror'
It said Spain should be asked if it was investigating the existence of "a systematic and deliberate plan to terrorise Spaniards who supported representative government by their physical elimination."
Human rights groups have welcomed the decision.
The lawsuit was opened in Argentina in April after the high-profile Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon was forced to drop an investigation into killings during the civil war and under Franco's rule.
Judge Garzon was suspended after Spain's supreme court found that he had exceeded his authority by ignoring the 1977 amnesty law.
The Argentine lawsuit is based on the principal of universal justice.
Judge Garzon has previously invoked the same principle to investigate crimes against humanity committed during 1976-83 military rule in Argentina, as well as to seek the extradition of the late Chilean military ruler, Augusto Pinochet.
Spain's 1977 amnesty law, which pardoned political crimes by both sides in the civil war, was seen as vital to ensure a successful transition to democracy after Franco died in 1975.
Tens of thousands of people were killed and buried in unmarked graves during the Spanish civil war and under Gen Franco's subsequent rule, but no-one has ever been prosecuted for the killings.
From: BBC News
4 September 2010 Last updated at 15:06 ET
Argentine court reopens Franco probe
An Argentine court has reopened an investigation into crimes against humanity in Spain during the rule of Gen. Francisco Franco.
The appeals court overturned a previous ruling that blocked a suit brought by Argentine relatives of two Spaniards killed under Franco.
It said they had a right to know if the case was being investigated.
Crimes committed under Franco and during the 1936-39 civil war are covered by an amnesty law in Spain.
The Argentine appeals court said a diplomatic request should be sent to Spain to ask what action it was taking to investigate crimes against humanity between 1936 and 1977.
'Systematic terror'
It said Spain should be asked if it was investigating the existence of "a systematic and deliberate plan to terrorise Spaniards who supported representative government by their physical elimination."
Human rights groups have welcomed the decision.
The lawsuit was opened in Argentina in April after the high-profile Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon was forced to drop an investigation into killings during the civil war and under Franco's rule.
Judge Garzon was suspended after Spain's supreme court found that he had exceeded his authority by ignoring the 1977 amnesty law.
The Argentine lawsuit is based on the principal of universal justice.
Judge Garzon has previously invoked the same principle to investigate crimes against humanity committed during 1976-83 military rule in Argentina, as well as to seek the extradition of the late Chilean military ruler, Augusto Pinochet.
Spain's 1977 amnesty law, which pardoned political crimes by both sides in the civil war, was seen as vital to ensure a successful transition to democracy after Franco died in 1975.
Tens of thousands of people were killed and buried in unmarked graves during the Spanish civil war and under Gen Franco's subsequent rule, but no-one has ever been prosecuted for the killings.
Upcoming publications on the 10-year anniversary of 9-11
From UPenn CFP:
"9/11/2011" Abstract deadline: November 30, 2010 Paper Submission deadline: May 2011
Other Modernities, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy
contact email:
amonline@unimi.it
9/11/2011
Guest Editors Emanuele Monegato and Cinzia Scarpino
If the risk of turning the forthcoming ten-year 9/11 anniversary into a commemorative rhetorical triumph is very high, for us, Altre Modernità (http://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/index), a journal of Literary and Cultural studies, that date may otherwise invite reflections that encompass the one event – or, better, “the mother of all events” – which has marked a watershed in late-modern history. Hence the idea of a special issue, “9/11/2011”, which welcomes proposals for papers that explore how the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers have re-drawn both the political boundaries and the world’s imagination of our time on the basis of the “war on terror” ideology endorsed by George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11. Beside considering the effects posited by such rhetorical strategy – what U.S. scholar Donald Pease has called “the New American Exceptionalism” – another issue we are interested in investigating is the “collateral language” which has been imposed upon American and world citizens as a weapon of “mass distraction”, a doublespeak aimed at containing political dissent and cement national as well as international consent. Fuelled by a renewed East/West clash of civilizations, Washington “war on terror” ideological tenets have been responsible for restrictive immigration policies not only against Arabs but also against other peoples, for example Mexicans.
We also welcome theoretical-philosophical analyses of the epistemological changes associated with a post-9/11 paradigm as well as aesthetics insights into the literary and artistic output which has been shaped after the very “futurable” event long anticipated by mass culture (cinema, TV, comics, etc.).
A further area of consideration will include, accordingly, a study of 9/11 as a turning point in the writing of American and world literature and literary criticism.
Possible topics of relevance include:
• 9/11/2001 – 9/11/2011
• 9/11 East-West
• 9/11 and the contemporary philosophical paradigm
• Aesthetics of 9/11
• “Language is power”: collateral language
• “War on terror” rhetoric
• New 9/11 in contemporary arts
• Theories and acts of violence in post-9/11 cultural representations
• 9/11 and (new) mass culture(s): cinema, documentaries, TV series, comics, music
Proposal Submission deadline: November 30, 2010 at amonline@unimi.it
Paper Submission deadline: May 2011 at amonline@unimi.it
All essays will undergo a double-blind peer review.
Online: September 11, 2011
Languages of contributions: Italian, English, Spanish, French.
We also welcome book reviews (fiction, criticism, poetry, etc.) and reviews for art events (exhibitions, installations, etc.) addressing the above-mentioned themes. Please write to amonline@unimi.it
2. “Field Notes on the 9/11 Moment: Transformations in Community and Country”
Leslie Shortlidge/Kirwan institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
contact email:
shortlidge.2@osu.edu
Call for papers
Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts
Volume 4 Number 3
Spring 2011 (June 2011)
Submission Deadline: October 15, 2010
“Field Notes on the 9/11 Moment: Transformations in Community and Country”
The ten-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on American soil encourages us to consider how the events of that day have framed how we address race, religion and national origin in the policy and public realms. The 9/11 moment has shaped American domestic and foreign policy, and has transformed individuals and communities both in the United States and abroad. Here in the United States, Arab Americans, South Asians, Muslims, and Sikhs have endured backlash, targeted law enforcement, and various forms of racial, religious and national origin profiling at the hands of the general public, the media, and the U.S. government in the name of national security. Nor were the repercussions of 9-11 felt only within the United States; Muslim communities around the world have experienced unprecedented backlash since 9/11.
Guest Editor Deepa Iyer, Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), and the editorial staff of Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts invite submissions for the third issue of its fourth volume, entitled “Field Notes on the 9/11 Moment: Transformations in Community and Country .”
We especially welcome analysis, critiques, reflections, and documentation by activists, community-based organizations, and others who responded to the crisis that enveloped the South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, and Arab American communities in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
Topics of inquiry can include but are not limited to:
• How has 9/11 changed the way that we think about race, religion, national origin, and immigration status in the United States and abroad?
• What tools and strategies have been used by community activists to sustain and build community during and after the 9/11 moment?
• What impacts does being targeted as “suspect” by the United States government have on an individual? A family? A community?
• What are some of the success stories around coalition-building and race relations that have occurred since 9/11?
• What lasting impacts, if any, have the events of 9-11 and their aftermath had on relationships between racial and ethnic minority communities in the United States or abroad?
• What lasting impacts, if any, have 9-11 and the subsequent decade-long, global War on Terror had on the political consciousness of Arab American, South Asian, Muslim and/or Sikh communities inside or outside the United States?
See our suggested Style Guidelines (www.raceethnicity.org/styleguide.html) and please feel free to contact our managing editor, Leslie Shortlidge (shortlidge.2@osu.edu), with any questions or concerns about submitting your work.
Submission of artwork for the cover that relates to the theme of the issue is welcome. See website at http://www.raceethnicity.org/coverart.html for submission guidelines.
"9/11/2011" Abstract deadline: November 30, 2010 Paper Submission deadline: May 2011
Other Modernities, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy
contact email:
amonline@unimi.it
9/11/2011
Guest Editors Emanuele Monegato and Cinzia Scarpino
If the risk of turning the forthcoming ten-year 9/11 anniversary into a commemorative rhetorical triumph is very high, for us, Altre Modernità (http://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/index), a journal of Literary and Cultural studies, that date may otherwise invite reflections that encompass the one event – or, better, “the mother of all events” – which has marked a watershed in late-modern history. Hence the idea of a special issue, “9/11/2011”, which welcomes proposals for papers that explore how the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers have re-drawn both the political boundaries and the world’s imagination of our time on the basis of the “war on terror” ideology endorsed by George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11. Beside considering the effects posited by such rhetorical strategy – what U.S. scholar Donald Pease has called “the New American Exceptionalism” – another issue we are interested in investigating is the “collateral language” which has been imposed upon American and world citizens as a weapon of “mass distraction”, a doublespeak aimed at containing political dissent and cement national as well as international consent. Fuelled by a renewed East/West clash of civilizations, Washington “war on terror” ideological tenets have been responsible for restrictive immigration policies not only against Arabs but also against other peoples, for example Mexicans.
We also welcome theoretical-philosophical analyses of the epistemological changes associated with a post-9/11 paradigm as well as aesthetics insights into the literary and artistic output which has been shaped after the very “futurable” event long anticipated by mass culture (cinema, TV, comics, etc.).
A further area of consideration will include, accordingly, a study of 9/11 as a turning point in the writing of American and world literature and literary criticism.
Possible topics of relevance include:
• 9/11/2001 – 9/11/2011
• 9/11 East-West
• 9/11 and the contemporary philosophical paradigm
• Aesthetics of 9/11
• “Language is power”: collateral language
• “War on terror” rhetoric
• New 9/11 in contemporary arts
• Theories and acts of violence in post-9/11 cultural representations
• 9/11 and (new) mass culture(s): cinema, documentaries, TV series, comics, music
Proposal Submission deadline: November 30, 2010 at amonline@unimi.it
Paper Submission deadline: May 2011 at amonline@unimi.it
All essays will undergo a double-blind peer review.
Online: September 11, 2011
Languages of contributions: Italian, English, Spanish, French.
We also welcome book reviews (fiction, criticism, poetry, etc.) and reviews for art events (exhibitions, installations, etc.) addressing the above-mentioned themes. Please write to amonline@unimi.it
2. “Field Notes on the 9/11 Moment: Transformations in Community and Country”
Leslie Shortlidge/Kirwan institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
contact email:
shortlidge.2@osu.edu
Call for papers
Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts
Volume 4 Number 3
Spring 2011 (June 2011)
Submission Deadline: October 15, 2010
“Field Notes on the 9/11 Moment: Transformations in Community and Country”
The ten-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on American soil encourages us to consider how the events of that day have framed how we address race, religion and national origin in the policy and public realms. The 9/11 moment has shaped American domestic and foreign policy, and has transformed individuals and communities both in the United States and abroad. Here in the United States, Arab Americans, South Asians, Muslims, and Sikhs have endured backlash, targeted law enforcement, and various forms of racial, religious and national origin profiling at the hands of the general public, the media, and the U.S. government in the name of national security. Nor were the repercussions of 9-11 felt only within the United States; Muslim communities around the world have experienced unprecedented backlash since 9/11.
Guest Editor Deepa Iyer, Executive Director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), and the editorial staff of Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts invite submissions for the third issue of its fourth volume, entitled “Field Notes on the 9/11 Moment: Transformations in Community and Country .”
We especially welcome analysis, critiques, reflections, and documentation by activists, community-based organizations, and others who responded to the crisis that enveloped the South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, and Arab American communities in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
Topics of inquiry can include but are not limited to:
• How has 9/11 changed the way that we think about race, religion, national origin, and immigration status in the United States and abroad?
• What tools and strategies have been used by community activists to sustain and build community during and after the 9/11 moment?
• What impacts does being targeted as “suspect” by the United States government have on an individual? A family? A community?
• What are some of the success stories around coalition-building and race relations that have occurred since 9/11?
• What lasting impacts, if any, have the events of 9-11 and their aftermath had on relationships between racial and ethnic minority communities in the United States or abroad?
• What lasting impacts, if any, have 9-11 and the subsequent decade-long, global War on Terror had on the political consciousness of Arab American, South Asian, Muslim and/or Sikh communities inside or outside the United States?
See our suggested Style Guidelines (www.raceethnicity.org/styleguide.html) and please feel free to contact our managing editor, Leslie Shortlidge (shortlidge.2@osu.edu), with any questions or concerns about submitting your work.
Submission of artwork for the cover that relates to the theme of the issue is welcome. See website at http://www.raceethnicity.org/coverart.html for submission guidelines.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
An August 28 of 47 Years Ago
All day I have been contemplating a post on this despicable appropriation of what might be called a U.S. Civil Rights "site of memory." However, I think that posting on it, especially now, will only end up attracting unwelcome visitors and their comments. Also, posting on "it," even in this minuscule, unknown corner of internet space, is offering a gift to those people whose "ideas" I wish to deflect. Instead, for now, I will post this reminder of August 28, 1963. We need to contemplate why persons such as those mentioned in the NYT article have decided to descend on the Lincoln Memorial on precisely this day. Post-racial society? I think not.
Read full text of speech here
Read full text of speech here
Thursday, August 19, 2010
"Destroy this Memory" - Hurricane Katrina and Grafitti
 |
| "Destroy this Memory," photo by Richard Misrach |
Richard Misrach's Destroy This Memory is an affecting reminder of the physical and psychological impact of Hurricane Katrina. Rather than simply surveying the damage, Misrach—who has photographed the region regularly since the 1970s, most notably for his ongoing Cancer Alley project—found himself drawn to the hurricane-inspired graffiti: messages scrawled in spray paint, crayons, chalk, or whatever materials happened to be on hand. At turns threatening, desperate, clinical, and even darkly humorous, the phrases he captured—the only text that appears in the book—offer unique and revealing human perspectives on the devastation and shock left in the wake of this disaster.
Destroy This Memory presents previously unpublished and starkly compelling material, all of which Misrach shot with his 4 MP pocket camera. Created between October and December 2005, this haunting series of images serves as a potent, unalloyed document of the raw experiences of those left to fend for themselves in the aftermath of Katrina.
Artist's royalties for this project are being donated to the Make It Right Foundation, which is currently rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans.
Richard Misrach (born in Los Angeles, 1949) is credited with helping pioneer the renaissance of color photography and large-scale presentation in the 1970s. He has exhibited extensively, and his work is held in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship. Misrach is represented by Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco; Pace-MacGill Gallery, New York; and Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles. He lives in Berkeley, California.
Click here to see more photos from the book
New Publication: "Memorial Mania"
Memorial Mania. Public Feeling in America
488 pages © 2010
In the past few decades, thousands of new memorials to executed witches, victims of terrorism, and dead astronauts, along with those that pay tribute to civil rights, organ donors, and the end of Communism have dotted the American landscape. Equally ubiquitous, though until now less the subject of serious inquiry, are temporary memorials: spontaneous offerings of flowers and candles that materialize at sites of tragic and traumatic death. In Memorial Mania, Erika Doss argues that these memorials underscore our obsession with issues of memory and history, and the urgent desire to express—and claim—those issues in visibly public contexts.
Doss shows how this desire to memorialize the past disposes itself to individual anniversaries and personal grievances, to stories of tragedy and trauma, and to the social and political agendas of diverse numbers of Americans. By offering a framework for understanding these sites, Doss engages the larger issues behind our culture of commemoration. Driven by heated struggles over identity and the politics of representation, Memorial Mania is a testament to the fevered pitch of public feelings in America today.
Seen on: University of Chicago Press
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Call for Papers: Memory and Collective Identity in Comparative Literature
From UPenn CFP
Memory and Collective Identity in Comparative Literature and Others
full name / name of organization:
452ºF Journal of Comparative Literature
contact email:
redaccion@452f.com
On July 31st 2010, we start the CFP for the fourth issue of 452ºF Journal
of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature.This CFP is open and
addressed to anyone that wishes to and that holds at least a BA degree.
The bidding terms, which are exposed below and that regulate the reception
and publication of the different articles are subject to the content of
the Peer review System, the Style-sheet and the Legal Notice. These can be
consulted in the Procedures area of the web page.
- The deadline is on September 30th 2010, all articles received after this
date will be rejected.
- The number of articles corresponding to this fourth issue will be
between 12 and 16. 40% of these will be reserved to researchers without
PhDs, and the Editorial board can only represent 20% of the total.
- The articles will be placed, according to their field of interest, in
the corresponding section of the journal (monographic or miscellaneous).
- The monographic part will be restricted to 6 to 8 articles and, in this
fourth issue, will approach the relations between Memory and Collective
Identity in Comparative Literature, with the following possible research
approaches:
a. –Relations between cultural production, memory discourses and the
construction of collective identities.
b. –Studies on testimonial literature. Relations between individual and
collective memory.
c. –The fluctuant nature of identity: transformation of the perspective of
memory according to the social-historical context.
d. –Relations between narrative strategies and the ideological load of
memory.
e. –Analysis of the politic capitalization of cultural productions around
memory.
The journal commits itself to organize a thematic bibliography of the
available studies on the topic, following the perspective proposed in the
Monographic section of the web page.
- All other articles will constitute the miscellaneous section and, placed
within the margins of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, the
choice of the theme and approach is free.
- The articles must be sent to redaccion@452f.com . The “subject” of the
email should state what section the article belongs to (“monographic” or
“miscellaneous”), the name of the author and the title of the article.
Memory and Collective Identity in Comparative Literature
Memory has lately become a central concern in contemporary culture and
politics of all societies in a global scale. This “memory boom”,
originated in socio-historical, political, cultural, technological and
market-oriented reasons, is articulated around a certain “memory
industry”, which in turn generates identity discourses. Cultural products
play a fundamental role in the formation and consolidation of these
discourses.
On the one hand, the rehabilitation of the memory of wars, dictatorships,
killings and genocides tries to rescue from oblivion a traumatic past.
There is also a willingness of discursive democratization (represented by
the promotion of testimonial literature), looking to break through that
version of history written by the winning side. Also, the need to look
towards the past as a means of understanding the present is often
emphasized, to increase the new generations’ awareness of the need to
avoid the repetition of the same atrocities. Therefore, new
historiographic methodologies have vindicated the incorporation of new and
different perspectives that had traditionally been excluded from the
construction of discourses.
Nevertheless, the notion of discursive elaboration of memories, together
with the fact that discourses about the past are always filtered by the
interests and beliefs of the present, make it necessary for this new
historiography to be constantly under scrutiny by a critical analysis.
This would reveal possible “abuses of memory” (term coined by Todorov in
the text with the same title) denounced by many authors, politicians,
journalists and human rights activists. It is particularly interesting as
well as complex to work on the relationship that can be established
between the constant re-writing of the past and the construction of
collective identities. As Halbwachs explains, collective memory puts
together the past and the present, as well as the individual and the
social group. It is in this sense that we are also interested in the
different discursive strategies that several authors have developed to
reconstruct their memories from a subjective vision of the present. This
also allows us to establish a link between certain forms of narration and
the different underlying ideological intentions. One of the
characteristics that make memory studies difficult is the specificity of
each political vindication, and also their fluctuating character in
relation to present-day socio-political factors. However, at the same
time, in a global world of linked identities and politics, “different
discourses on historical memory are intertwined and overlap each other all
throughout the world, trespassing frontiers and bouncing against each
other, sometimes hiding and forgetting their own historical memory,
sometimes reinforcing it", as claimed by Huyssen in an interview for
Metropolis magazine.
Taking as starting point, then, the fact that the restoration of the past
is subject to the ideologies of the present; and also that memory studies
are not only a tool for analysis, but also for the transformation of
contemporary contexts, we want to vindicate a critical role that can
distinguish between the "obligation of memory” (which introduces an
ethical evaluation of its own look towards the past, as pointed out by
Lozano Aguilar inDecir, contar, pensar la guerra), and the possible
political abuses that derivate from these vindications. We also believe
that a fundamental role of criticism is to suggest, as long as it is
possible, new strategies to go beyond militaristic discourses. We propose
therefore the following lines of research for this monographic issue:
a. –Relations between cultural production, memory discourses and the
construction of collective identities.
b. –Studies on testimonial literature. Relations between individual and
collective memory.
c. –The fluctuant nature of identity: transformation of the perspective of
memory according to the social-historical context.
d. –Relations between narrative strategies and the ideology of memories.
e. –Analysis of the political capitalization of cultural productions on
memory.
f. –Strategies to overcome memory discourses.
g. –Memory discourses as trans-border political discourses. Analysis,
through cultural products, of the influence of different discourses on
different geographical areas.
Memory and Collective Identity in Comparative Literature and Others
full name / name of organization:
452ºF Journal of Comparative Literature
contact email:
redaccion@452f.com
On July 31st 2010, we start the CFP for the fourth issue of 452ºF Journal
of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature.This CFP is open and
addressed to anyone that wishes to and that holds at least a BA degree.
The bidding terms, which are exposed below and that regulate the reception
and publication of the different articles are subject to the content of
the Peer review System, the Style-sheet and the Legal Notice. These can be
consulted in the Procedures area of the web page.
- The deadline is on September 30th 2010, all articles received after this
date will be rejected.
- The number of articles corresponding to this fourth issue will be
between 12 and 16. 40% of these will be reserved to researchers without
PhDs, and the Editorial board can only represent 20% of the total.
- The articles will be placed, according to their field of interest, in
the corresponding section of the journal (monographic or miscellaneous).
- The monographic part will be restricted to 6 to 8 articles and, in this
fourth issue, will approach the relations between Memory and Collective
Identity in Comparative Literature, with the following possible research
approaches:
a. –Relations between cultural production, memory discourses and the
construction of collective identities.
b. –Studies on testimonial literature. Relations between individual and
collective memory.
c. –The fluctuant nature of identity: transformation of the perspective of
memory according to the social-historical context.
d. –Relations between narrative strategies and the ideological load of
memory.
e. –Analysis of the politic capitalization of cultural productions around
memory.
The journal commits itself to organize a thematic bibliography of the
available studies on the topic, following the perspective proposed in the
Monographic section of the web page.
- All other articles will constitute the miscellaneous section and, placed
within the margins of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, the
choice of the theme and approach is free.
- The articles must be sent to redaccion@452f.com . The “subject” of the
email should state what section the article belongs to (“monographic” or
“miscellaneous”), the name of the author and the title of the article.
Memory and Collective Identity in Comparative Literature
Memory has lately become a central concern in contemporary culture and
politics of all societies in a global scale. This “memory boom”,
originated in socio-historical, political, cultural, technological and
market-oriented reasons, is articulated around a certain “memory
industry”, which in turn generates identity discourses. Cultural products
play a fundamental role in the formation and consolidation of these
discourses.
On the one hand, the rehabilitation of the memory of wars, dictatorships,
killings and genocides tries to rescue from oblivion a traumatic past.
There is also a willingness of discursive democratization (represented by
the promotion of testimonial literature), looking to break through that
version of history written by the winning side. Also, the need to look
towards the past as a means of understanding the present is often
emphasized, to increase the new generations’ awareness of the need to
avoid the repetition of the same atrocities. Therefore, new
historiographic methodologies have vindicated the incorporation of new and
different perspectives that had traditionally been excluded from the
construction of discourses.
Nevertheless, the notion of discursive elaboration of memories, together
with the fact that discourses about the past are always filtered by the
interests and beliefs of the present, make it necessary for this new
historiography to be constantly under scrutiny by a critical analysis.
This would reveal possible “abuses of memory” (term coined by Todorov in
the text with the same title) denounced by many authors, politicians,
journalists and human rights activists. It is particularly interesting as
well as complex to work on the relationship that can be established
between the constant re-writing of the past and the construction of
collective identities. As Halbwachs explains, collective memory puts
together the past and the present, as well as the individual and the
social group. It is in this sense that we are also interested in the
different discursive strategies that several authors have developed to
reconstruct their memories from a subjective vision of the present. This
also allows us to establish a link between certain forms of narration and
the different underlying ideological intentions. One of the
characteristics that make memory studies difficult is the specificity of
each political vindication, and also their fluctuating character in
relation to present-day socio-political factors. However, at the same
time, in a global world of linked identities and politics, “different
discourses on historical memory are intertwined and overlap each other all
throughout the world, trespassing frontiers and bouncing against each
other, sometimes hiding and forgetting their own historical memory,
sometimes reinforcing it", as claimed by Huyssen in an interview for
Metropolis magazine.
Taking as starting point, then, the fact that the restoration of the past
is subject to the ideologies of the present; and also that memory studies
are not only a tool for analysis, but also for the transformation of
contemporary contexts, we want to vindicate a critical role that can
distinguish between the "obligation of memory” (which introduces an
ethical evaluation of its own look towards the past, as pointed out by
Lozano Aguilar inDecir, contar, pensar la guerra), and the possible
political abuses that derivate from these vindications. We also believe
that a fundamental role of criticism is to suggest, as long as it is
possible, new strategies to go beyond militaristic discourses. We propose
therefore the following lines of research for this monographic issue:
a. –Relations between cultural production, memory discourses and the
construction of collective identities.
b. –Studies on testimonial literature. Relations between individual and
collective memory.
c. –The fluctuant nature of identity: transformation of the perspective of
memory according to the social-historical context.
d. –Relations between narrative strategies and the ideology of memories.
e. –Analysis of the political capitalization of cultural productions on
memory.
f. –Strategies to overcome memory discourses.
g. –Memory discourses as trans-border political discourses. Analysis,
through cultural products, of the influence of different discourses on
different geographical areas.
Call for Papers: Representing the Holocaust in an Age of Globalization
From UPenn CFP:
Representing the Holocaust in an Age of Globalization (abstract deadline 9/1/2010)
Rick Crownshaw (Department of English and Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London)
contact email:
r.crownshaw@gold.ac.uk
The Memory and Narrative series, currently published by Transaction (based at Rutgers University), emerged from the highly acclaimed International Yearbook for Oral History and Life Stories. To date, the series comprises 14 volumes, constituting an interdisciplinary forum that stimulates debate on a wide range of theoretical and methodological issues relating to memory and narrative.
The series editors invite proposals for a forthcoming volume entitled Representing the Holocaust in an Age of Globalization
Representing the Holocaust in an Age of Globalization
In academic study the Holocaust has been wrested from arguments as to its incomparability. For example, recent groundbreaking work in historiography has sought to remove the ‘conceptual blockages’ (Moses, Stone) in comparing modern atrocities, moving beyond conceptualizations of the Holocaust’s uniqueness that might inscribe a hierarchy of suffering across modernity. Such a comparative approach elicits the structural continuities and discontinuities between atrocious events – between, for example, genocide and colonial atrocity. In memory studies, related, current work has focused on the ‘cosmopolitan’ nature of Holocaust memory, arguing the ways that national, collective memory registers the transnational flux of remembrance, and how the global shapes the local and vice versa (Levy and Sznaider). However, in such models does the nation, no matter how ‘glocalised’, remain too coherent a structure for modeling the centrifugal dynamics of memory? Is the deterritorialization and reterritorialization of Holocaust memory still too centripetal a dynamic? And in such models, does the Holocaust eclipse other events with which it is compared or contiguous? So, a spatial approach to modernity’s extremes and the correspondent ideas of race, nation and empire that allowed them to happen, together with the increasing difficulty of discretely locating history and memory, suggests a necessary reorientation of Holocaust Studies. More recently, Holocaust memory has been theorised as ‘multidirectional’ and its proximity with the memories of other traumas, no matter how competitive and screening, rethought as the means by which Holocaust memory, protean by nature, can, in an age of decolonization, be adapted, appropriated and entered into dialogue with memories of modernity’s other atrocities (Rothberg). This proposed volume asks, among other things, how might we extend the archive of ‘multidirectional’ memory that Rothberg has so fruitfully begun to explore. What are the implications of ‘multidirectionality’ for the writing of Holocaust history as well as for the study of Holocaust memory? How might memory practitioners and activists use the ‘multidirectional’ archive, and the concept itself, in politically and juridically transformative ways to effect transnational justice? Put another way, how can we move from an ethics of history and memory to material, political and juridical effects? And what of the very definition of memory itself in an age of globalization? As media technologies facilitate the ways that Holocaust memories become unmoored from groups and individuals that lay claim to them, to be shared and inflected by others on a global stage, do definitions of memory (secondary, shared, post, prosthetic) become even more attenuated? Do the itineraries of representations of the Holocaust call for a rethinking of the relationship between history and memory, their definitions and disciplinary boundaries?
The editors invite submissions from across the disciplines, at both a meta-level, exploring the state of Holocaust Studies, and as well as at the level of individual case studies of the transculturation, transnationalisation and globalization of Holocaust memory.
Submissions might address but are not limited to the following themes:
• The changing nature of the archive in a digital age as resource for Holocaust history and memory;
• Global memory and history as a basis for transnational justice and reparations claims, and what serves as legitimate and authoritative evidence, what satisfies claims for recognition and restitution;
• The limits of concepts of transcultural, transnational and global memory and history;
• Globalization and methodological change in historiography, oral historiography, and literary and testimony studies; new comparative methodologies;
• Global inflections in Holocaust museum, memorial and monument practice; commemorative forms used to remember the Holocaust and how they might shape memories of other atrocities around the world;
• Postmodern philosophies of Holocaust representation;
• Theories of ‘secondary witnessing’ (Apel), ‘postmemory’ (Hirsch), ‘prosthetic memory’ (Landsberg), and ‘fantasies’ of witnessing (Weissman) in an age of global memory;
• Citizenship, migration and the uses of Holocaust history and memory.
• ‘Screen’ and political memory;
• Comparative approaches to the Holocaust, slavery and colonialism
Please send a 500-word abstract, along with a short C.V., to the editors of this proposed volume, Rick Crownshaw (r.crownshaw@gold.ac.uk) and Albert Lichtblau (Albert.Lichtblau@sbg.ac.at), by September 1, 2010. Contributors chosen on the basis of their abstracts will be asked to submit essays (approximately 6,000 words), for further consideration, by March 1, 2010.
Memory and Narrative Series Editors:
Prof. S. Leydesdorff (S.Leijdesdorff@uva.nl)
Prof. A. Lichtblau (Albert.Lichtblau@sbg.ac.at)
Dr. R. Crownshaw (R.Crownshaw@gold.ac.uk)
Dr. N. Adler (N.Adler@Niod.knaw.nl)
Dr. Adam Brown (adb2004@med.cornell.edu)
Yifat Gutman (gutmy472@newschool.edu)
Representing the Holocaust in an Age of Globalization (abstract deadline 9/1/2010)
Rick Crownshaw (Department of English and Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London)
contact email:
r.crownshaw@gold.ac.uk
The Memory and Narrative series, currently published by Transaction (based at Rutgers University), emerged from the highly acclaimed International Yearbook for Oral History and Life Stories. To date, the series comprises 14 volumes, constituting an interdisciplinary forum that stimulates debate on a wide range of theoretical and methodological issues relating to memory and narrative.
The series editors invite proposals for a forthcoming volume entitled Representing the Holocaust in an Age of Globalization
Representing the Holocaust in an Age of Globalization
In academic study the Holocaust has been wrested from arguments as to its incomparability. For example, recent groundbreaking work in historiography has sought to remove the ‘conceptual blockages’ (Moses, Stone) in comparing modern atrocities, moving beyond conceptualizations of the Holocaust’s uniqueness that might inscribe a hierarchy of suffering across modernity. Such a comparative approach elicits the structural continuities and discontinuities between atrocious events – between, for example, genocide and colonial atrocity. In memory studies, related, current work has focused on the ‘cosmopolitan’ nature of Holocaust memory, arguing the ways that national, collective memory registers the transnational flux of remembrance, and how the global shapes the local and vice versa (Levy and Sznaider). However, in such models does the nation, no matter how ‘glocalised’, remain too coherent a structure for modeling the centrifugal dynamics of memory? Is the deterritorialization and reterritorialization of Holocaust memory still too centripetal a dynamic? And in such models, does the Holocaust eclipse other events with which it is compared or contiguous? So, a spatial approach to modernity’s extremes and the correspondent ideas of race, nation and empire that allowed them to happen, together with the increasing difficulty of discretely locating history and memory, suggests a necessary reorientation of Holocaust Studies. More recently, Holocaust memory has been theorised as ‘multidirectional’ and its proximity with the memories of other traumas, no matter how competitive and screening, rethought as the means by which Holocaust memory, protean by nature, can, in an age of decolonization, be adapted, appropriated and entered into dialogue with memories of modernity’s other atrocities (Rothberg). This proposed volume asks, among other things, how might we extend the archive of ‘multidirectional’ memory that Rothberg has so fruitfully begun to explore. What are the implications of ‘multidirectionality’ for the writing of Holocaust history as well as for the study of Holocaust memory? How might memory practitioners and activists use the ‘multidirectional’ archive, and the concept itself, in politically and juridically transformative ways to effect transnational justice? Put another way, how can we move from an ethics of history and memory to material, political and juridical effects? And what of the very definition of memory itself in an age of globalization? As media technologies facilitate the ways that Holocaust memories become unmoored from groups and individuals that lay claim to them, to be shared and inflected by others on a global stage, do definitions of memory (secondary, shared, post, prosthetic) become even more attenuated? Do the itineraries of representations of the Holocaust call for a rethinking of the relationship between history and memory, their definitions and disciplinary boundaries?
The editors invite submissions from across the disciplines, at both a meta-level, exploring the state of Holocaust Studies, and as well as at the level of individual case studies of the transculturation, transnationalisation and globalization of Holocaust memory.
Submissions might address but are not limited to the following themes:
• The changing nature of the archive in a digital age as resource for Holocaust history and memory;
• Global memory and history as a basis for transnational justice and reparations claims, and what serves as legitimate and authoritative evidence, what satisfies claims for recognition and restitution;
• The limits of concepts of transcultural, transnational and global memory and history;
• Globalization and methodological change in historiography, oral historiography, and literary and testimony studies; new comparative methodologies;
• Global inflections in Holocaust museum, memorial and monument practice; commemorative forms used to remember the Holocaust and how they might shape memories of other atrocities around the world;
• Postmodern philosophies of Holocaust representation;
• Theories of ‘secondary witnessing’ (Apel), ‘postmemory’ (Hirsch), ‘prosthetic memory’ (Landsberg), and ‘fantasies’ of witnessing (Weissman) in an age of global memory;
• Citizenship, migration and the uses of Holocaust history and memory.
• ‘Screen’ and political memory;
• Comparative approaches to the Holocaust, slavery and colonialism
Please send a 500-word abstract, along with a short C.V., to the editors of this proposed volume, Rick Crownshaw (r.crownshaw@gold.ac.uk) and Albert Lichtblau (Albert.Lichtblau@sbg.ac.at), by September 1, 2010. Contributors chosen on the basis of their abstracts will be asked to submit essays (approximately 6,000 words), for further consideration, by March 1, 2010.
Memory and Narrative Series Editors:
Prof. S. Leydesdorff (S.Leijdesdorff@uva.nl)
Prof. A. Lichtblau (Albert.Lichtblau@sbg.ac.at)
Dr. R. Crownshaw (R.Crownshaw@gold.ac.uk)
Dr. N. Adler (N.Adler@Niod.knaw.nl)
Dr. Adam Brown (adb2004@med.cornell.edu)
Yifat Gutman (gutmy472@newschool.edu)
Monday, August 9, 2010
My Visit to Ground Zero
In May 2000, I made my first trip to New York City. I was attending a wedding between a Japanese woman and an American man, and the couple had arranged a tour of the city for some of their guests. It was an ideal first time experience, and I was lucky to be a part of it, essentially for free. We did many of the typical tourist excursions -- the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Little Italy and Chinatown, a boat tour along the skyline. And, we also stopped outside the Twin Towers, just long enough to get out of our shuttle and shoot several photographs. I really had no understanding of what occurred inside those buildings or in the surrounding area. But I did recall the 1993 bombing and knew that the towers had been, at one time, the tallest buildings in the world. Mainly, my recollection of the towers is limited to the one or two images left behind by my point-and-shoot camera: massive, institutional gray structures that blocked the sun and sky, making it seem like night on the street below. Because it was impossible to capture the buildings in their entirety, most of us tried to catch the top of the towers in our lens (see my photo below, from May 9, 2000). Maybe I am wrong, but I also recall sitting or kneeling on the sidewalk out in front in order to get the best view. And then it was time to board the shuttle again with the remainder of the gawkers, most of whom had never been in the city before.
Since 2000, I've returned to NYC three times; however, because I usually spend time in other areas of the city, I had never gone to Ground Zero until a week or so ago. There were several factors that motivated me to visit the area this time around. First, after the memory course I taught last semester, I thought it was essential that I be able to talk about my direct impressions of the site, particularly since several of my students had already visited Ground Zero and the visitors' center. There is no substitute for being there. Waiting until now has also allowed me to have a more informed encounter with the site; I benefited from studying memory and traumatic events for many years prior to my visit, because I was able to observe and evaluate the scene differently than had I gone with say, only the TV images of planes crashing into the buildings. Finally, the fact that the site is under construction also compelled me to see it now, before the new tower goes up. The traumatic landscape is unstable and in the process of being transformed (though perhaps "transformed" is too strong a word because it signals something final, and I mean to indicate more of an evolution).
I made the trip to Ground Zero with a person who grew up just outside the city. At one time, he had worked briefly in Manhattan. He had last visited the site in December 2001, when the area was heavily protected by chain link fences still peppered with photographs of loved ones, letters, poems and other personal items. He experienced 9-11 while living in the Midwest -- actually, in what some call the "buckle of the Bible Belt," a phrase that to me, has always encompassed multiple points on the U.S. map -- and he had felt, early on, that New York's 9-11 had been "co-opted" by the rest of the country. Yes, of couse 9-11 was a national, collective event. But to him, it was as if suddenly, New York mattered in the Midwest. More than just the stereotypical image of rude people, insane taxi drivers and crime, New York suddenly became "ours," with the flood of "United We Stand" and "God Bless America" bumper stickers soon to come, followed by the yellow ribbon car magnets ("Support the Troops"). In other words, where he lived, the experience of 9-11 seemed to become political quicker than elsewhere. Revolting expressions of nationalism had not only (re-)surfaced, but taken over the entire landscape. Everyone's patriotism was questionable. If you didn't have an American flag in your yard, you were probably "the enemy." This was the logical mindset spawned by the "you are either with us or against us" mentality of the post 9-11 world. In his own words, he writes:
We took the subway to Ground Zero, and even though my companion thought the stop for the WTC had been eliminated, we later discovered it still exists, but on a different train than the one we were on. Even if we hadn't known which direction to head when getting off the subway, it would have become quickly apparent by the long line of tourists on the sidewalk and an enormous construction site at the end of the street. We bypassed the tourist line, which was gazing at a bronze-colored wall sculpture commemorating "first responders," and stood at the edge of the sidewalk across the street from the construction area.
The first thing I noticed was the amount of people with cameras out. I told my companion, "I feel guilty taking photographs," but at the same time, it seemed a necessary, important thing to do, as long as it was done in a respectful, unobtrusive way. This is the first photo I took:
I am not positive, but I believe that what we are looking at in the center of the photo is the beginning of the new building, "One World Trade Center," which is scheduled to open in 2013. While looking at this site, I was struck by the emptiness of the landscape, and the fact that the sky is visible. When I stood in front of the Twin Towers in 2000, what I recall is the shadow they produced, and the sliver of sky between them. What's interesting is that the view of this traumatic site of memory is also now obstructed by fences and gates and screens of all kinds. I don't know how much of this has to do with security, and how much is just a regular part of safety on any construction job site, but it certainly adds a sense of secrecy to the whole operation, despite the large banners designed to help viewers understand what the site will look like upon completion (see photos 3 and 4).
Although it was important to contemplate the construction site, to take in the cramped quarters of the nearby streets and to imagine what the devastation must have been like, I found it more interesting to turn my gaze to the sidewalk area. I think I may have been anticipating a larger, public memorial on the street. But all that was there was this makeshift memorial:
This memorial, to NYC firefighters lost on 9-11 (see large poster), is also a place for people to leave fire and police uniform insignia from all over the world. The fluorescent uniform item in the lower right-hand corner is that of a police officer from Móstoles, just outside Madrid. If one looks carefully, above this memorial is a handwritten sign taped to a building window:
Just around the corner from the sign above, one finds the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, open 10-6 on most days, with a $10 admission fee. We did not go in. For some reason, to do so felt wrong. I had learned enough on the street outside. Nonetheless, I did pick up a pamphlet, and am intrigued by this description of the center:
 |
| personal photo, taken May 9, 2000 |
I made the trip to Ground Zero with a person who grew up just outside the city. At one time, he had worked briefly in Manhattan. He had last visited the site in December 2001, when the area was heavily protected by chain link fences still peppered with photographs of loved ones, letters, poems and other personal items. He experienced 9-11 while living in the Midwest -- actually, in what some call the "buckle of the Bible Belt," a phrase that to me, has always encompassed multiple points on the U.S. map -- and he had felt, early on, that New York's 9-11 had been "co-opted" by the rest of the country. Yes, of couse 9-11 was a national, collective event. But to him, it was as if suddenly, New York mattered in the Midwest. More than just the stereotypical image of rude people, insane taxi drivers and crime, New York suddenly became "ours," with the flood of "United We Stand" and "God Bless America" bumper stickers soon to come, followed by the yellow ribbon car magnets ("Support the Troops"). In other words, where he lived, the experience of 9-11 seemed to become political quicker than elsewhere. Revolting expressions of nationalism had not only (re-)surfaced, but taken over the entire landscape. Everyone's patriotism was questionable. If you didn't have an American flag in your yard, you were probably "the enemy." This was the logical mindset spawned by the "you are either with us or against us" mentality of the post 9-11 world. In his own words, he writes:
it was odd for New York, or at least certain very specific aspects of New York being embraced suddenly as "our America." New York has always been regarded, especially in the rural midwest, as essentially "foreign" --- in ethnicity, values, politics, etc. It felt manipulative and disingenuous the way very specific New Yorkers (Cops, Firemen, First Responders, Rudy Giuliani) were suddenly---it seemed---granted temporary status as exemplary Americans. It was always and without fail these New Yorkers who were celebrated, not the ordinary citizens---not the Hasidic Jews and the Somali cab drivers and the Puerto Rican restaurant workers, etc.It is difficult to be at Ground Zero and concentrate on the terror of 9-11 without also reflecting on the way 9-11 was used -- and continues to be used -- politically (a perfect recent example is the debate over whether a mosque should be permitted near the site). While the Ground Zero landscape is about the catastrophic loss of human lives, it is subsequently about other wars (Iraq, Afghanistan); about imperialism and capitalism; about religious freedom and (in)tolerance; about memorialization and urban landscapes. My visit to the site was relatively brief -- maybe 15 minutes -- because, truthfully, there is not that much to see, but a lot upon which we can reflect later on.
Then came the 2004 GOP Convention in New York, which took this manipulation to new heights. 911 memories and Ground Zero was a kind of conquered "Red State territory" in the heart of the enemy.
We took the subway to Ground Zero, and even though my companion thought the stop for the WTC had been eliminated, we later discovered it still exists, but on a different train than the one we were on. Even if we hadn't known which direction to head when getting off the subway, it would have become quickly apparent by the long line of tourists on the sidewalk and an enormous construction site at the end of the street. We bypassed the tourist line, which was gazing at a bronze-colored wall sculpture commemorating "first responders," and stood at the edge of the sidewalk across the street from the construction area.
The first thing I noticed was the amount of people with cameras out. I told my companion, "I feel guilty taking photographs," but at the same time, it seemed a necessary, important thing to do, as long as it was done in a respectful, unobtrusive way. This is the first photo I took:
 |
| Photo 1 |
 |
| Photo 2 |
 | |
| Photo 3 |
 | |||||
| Photo 4 |
 |
| "Vendors are not allowed to sell near or around firehouse (photos/pamphlets/booklets/etc. Please do not purchase in these areas and report them to police. Thanks." |
Tribute Center Tour Guides are intimately connected to the events of September 11, 2001 as survivors, family members who lost loved ones, rescue workers, civilian volunteers, police, firefighters and Lower Manhattan residents and workers. Guides share their personal experience of loss, healing and survival with a factual description of the events, providing the visitor with an unparalleled opportunity to connect with history firsthand.I am glad I made this visit to Ground Zero, though I must admit I am in opposition to the construction of a new building at this site. I can understand and respect the argument that sees construction as proof of strength and perseverance in the face of tragedy, as well as what comes "natural" to New York. However, the entire reconstruction process has already been marred by design polemics, and to me, there is something very American about the need to rebuild bigger and better and not just let it be. I do like the plans for the actual memorial, but I am resistant to that new memorial being located alongside more commerce and power. Perhaps, when I view the site in coming years, my impressions will change. Also, I should recognize that my Midwestern upbringing also probably colors my perspective on this site and what ought to be done with it.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Documentary Film: "La isla," directed by Uli Stelzner
La isla is a documentary film on the Guatemalan Civil War, directed by Uli Stelzner. I first read about this film yesterday, in a very personal review on the blog CineSobreTodo.
The film's description on SilverDocs reads:
The film's description on SilverDocs reads:
In this artfully rendered film, Guatemala’s violent history of repression at the hands of extremist political regimes is laid bare following the discovery of a vast archive of secret police documents. Found near the site of La Isla—a notorious extrajudicial prison—the cache details with chilling specificity the surveillance, torture and killing of thousands of civilians targeted by the country’s succession of fanatical right-wing governments. As a team of dedicated forensic specialists undertakes the arduous task of sorting through the files, the voices of the disappeared rise again to challenge the culture of impunity that has plagued this troubled nation.
Friday, August 6, 2010
New Book of Short Stories - "Memory Wall"
Books made of linked stories, like recent award-winning favorites Olive Kitteridge and Let the Great World Spin, are usually connected by shared places and people. The tender and lyrical stories in Anthony Doerr's Memory Wall are linked no less strongly, but, as if Oliver Sacks had turned to fiction, by a neurological theme. Set as far apart as South Africa and the Korean DMZ, Doerr's stories circle around the central pull of memory, both the struggle against memory's loss and the weight of memories that remain. In the long and brilliantly intricate title story, as memories fade from an aging white woman in suburban Cape Town, they are stored for her (and for anyone else with compatible ports installed in their head) in replayable cartridges. In the final story, "Afterworld," girls from a Jewish orphanage who were murdered by Nazis survive decades later as ghosts in the visionary epileptic seizures of the one girl who survived them. If memories in these tales are like the Yangtze River town in "Village 113," threatened with the forced forgetfulness of a man-made flood, they are also like the legendary sturgeon in "The River Nemunas," which surfaces with an ancient, armor-covered dignity years after it was thought to have vanished. --Tom NissleyRead review here
Read article here in Books of the Times
Read book excerpt here
Uruguayan Documentary: "Las manos en la tierra"
One of the blogs I read regularly is Memoriando, a documentary film blog based in Colombia. The blogger, who goes only by "Vica," has an unbelievable ability to track down documentaries -- mostly contemporary, but not always -- from all over the world. I am addicted to reading Memoriando, because I always discover films I've never heard of. Today's post is on an Uruguayan documentary, "Las manos en la tierra" ("Hands in the Earth"), directed by Virginia Martínez.
Martínez's documentary focuses on the disappeared of Uruguay's military dictatorship (1973-85), and, in the words of the synopsis on the official website, sees itself as "an arqueological thriller" that "marks a before and after in the history of the country." I cannot think of any other documentary on the case of the Uruguay, which tends to get overlooked when we speak of the Southern Cone dictatorships of the 70s and 80s.
Reading about this film reminds me of a conversation I once had with an Uruguayan friend who told me, almost as if she were embarrassed, "I mean, what happened in Uruguay is nothing like Chile or Argentina, but it was still bad."
I look forward to reading more about this film.
Martínez's documentary focuses on the disappeared of Uruguay's military dictatorship (1973-85), and, in the words of the synopsis on the official website, sees itself as "an arqueological thriller" that "marks a before and after in the history of the country." I cannot think of any other documentary on the case of the Uruguay, which tends to get overlooked when we speak of the Southern Cone dictatorships of the 70s and 80s.
Reading about this film reminds me of a conversation I once had with an Uruguayan friend who told me, almost as if she were embarrassed, "I mean, what happened in Uruguay is nothing like Chile or Argentina, but it was still bad."
I look forward to reading more about this film.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Bolívar Exhumation Continues to Cause Stir
In a post last month I wrote briefly about Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's decision to exhume Simón Bolívar's remains. This bizarre action continues to draw the attention of international press. Late last night, the New York Times featured the story on the front page of the online edition, and cited several possible reasons for the exhumation:
This ongoing controversy reminds me of the book Death of the Father: an anthropology of the end of political authority, edited by John Borneman. The book looks at Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and East European Communism, and offers a compelling discussion on the death of political leaders and how that death is represented (think of the embalming of Lenin, for example, or the execution of Mussolini and his lover).
I am sure we will continue to hear a lot about Colombian-Venezuelan relations, as well as Hugo Chávez, especially with the release of "South of the Border," the new Oliver Stone documentary on leftist Latin American leaders.
The exhumation could serve multiple purposes. If Mr. Chávez can say Bolívar was murdered in Colombia, he could try to use that against Colombia’s current government, with which Venezuela’s relations are cold, while reinforcing his longstanding claims that Colombians and others are plotting to assassinate him.Like the above quote, the following cartoon, published on July 24, 2010 in the Spanish paper El País, also references Chávez's increasing obsession with Colombia:
It would also allow Mr. Chávez to rewrite a major aspect of Venezuela’s history. The president already closely identifies himself and his political movement with Bolívar, renaming the country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, his espionage agency the Bolivarian Intelligence Service and so on. Portraits of Bolívar hang alongside Mr. Chávez’s in federal government offices.
This country’s intelligentsia fixates on Bolívar’s legacy and the use of Bolívar not just by Mr. Chávez but by rulers stretching back to the 19th century. (go to original article here)
The cartoon description reads: "After breaking ties with Colombia, Hugo Chávez seeks advice from his mentor Fidel Castro:"Of course, the cartoon Castro is referring to José Martí, one of Cuba's national heroes. It appears the cartoonist believes Chávez's move may backfire -- if it hasn't already.
Hugo Chávez (left): "Hey Fidel, how have you managed to stay in power so long?"
Fidel Castro (right): "I didn't unbury Martí."
Cartoon Artist: Erlich
This ongoing controversy reminds me of the book Death of the Father: an anthropology of the end of political authority, edited by John Borneman. The book looks at Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and East European Communism, and offers a compelling discussion on the death of political leaders and how that death is represented (think of the embalming of Lenin, for example, or the execution of Mussolini and his lover).
I am sure we will continue to hear a lot about Colombian-Venezuelan relations, as well as Hugo Chávez, especially with the release of "South of the Border," the new Oliver Stone documentary on leftist Latin American leaders.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Ceausescu and Wife Exhumed at Family's Request
Seen on: NPR
Ex-Romanian Dictator Ceausescu, Wife Are Exhumed
by The Associated Press
Taking the country by surprise, forensic scientists on Wednesday exhumed what are believed to be the bodies of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena at the request of their children.
Ceausescu ruled Romania for 25 years with an iron fist before being ousted and executed during the 1989 anti-communist revolt in which more than 1,000 people were killed.
Some Romanians doubt that the Ceausescus were really buried in the Ghencea military cemetery in west Bucharest. There is also some nostalgia for the communist period and regrets that the couple was executed on Christmas Day, 1989.
The news of the exhumation, the latest development in a five-year court case, broke as most Romanians were asleep. Officials rapidly closed the cemetery as dozens of journalists began arriving at the gates. A few elderly people wandered around the sprawling cemetery but were kept away from the exhumations by guards.
Ceausescu was toppled Dec. 22, 1989, as Romanians fed up with years of draconian rationing and communist rule revolted. He tried to flee Bucharest by helicopter but his pilot switched sides. After a summary trial, Ceausescu and his wife were executed by a firing squad three days later.
A team of pathologists and cemetery officials hoisted the wooden caskets of Ceausescu and his wife out of their graves Wednesday. They took samples from the corpses and put them into plastic bags — a process lasting more than two hours — before reburying the coffins.
"We are closer to knowing the truth," the couple's son Valentin Ceausescu told The Associated Press by phone.
Officials say it will take up to six months to determine the identity of the remains.
Ceausescu's alleged remains were better preserved than those of his wife, said Mircea Oprean, the couple's son-in-law who was present at the exhumation.
Oprean's wife, Zoia Ceausescu, had sued the defense ministry in 2005, saying she had doubts that her parents were buried in the cemetery. She died of cancer in 2006 and her brother Valentin took up the case.
Cemetery worker Cornel Muntean told the AP that Ceasescu was dressed in a thick gray overcoat. An AP reporter saw a dirty cloth being removed from Ceausescu's remains and what looked like a thick gray fur hat at the end of the coffin.
Romanians rose up in 1989 as other Communist regimes collapsed in Eastern Europe, angered and exhausted by years of rationing as the dictator tried to pay off the country's foreign debt. Meat, cooking oil and butter were severely limited and blackouts were common.
Ceausescu stifled dissent with his Securitate secret police, which were believed to have 700,000 informers in the nation of 22 million.
Ex-Romanian Dictator Ceausescu, Wife Are Exhumed
by The Associated Press
Taking the country by surprise, forensic scientists on Wednesday exhumed what are believed to be the bodies of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena at the request of their children.
Ceausescu ruled Romania for 25 years with an iron fist before being ousted and executed during the 1989 anti-communist revolt in which more than 1,000 people were killed.
Some Romanians doubt that the Ceausescus were really buried in the Ghencea military cemetery in west Bucharest. There is also some nostalgia for the communist period and regrets that the couple was executed on Christmas Day, 1989.
The news of the exhumation, the latest development in a five-year court case, broke as most Romanians were asleep. Officials rapidly closed the cemetery as dozens of journalists began arriving at the gates. A few elderly people wandered around the sprawling cemetery but were kept away from the exhumations by guards.
Ceausescu was toppled Dec. 22, 1989, as Romanians fed up with years of draconian rationing and communist rule revolted. He tried to flee Bucharest by helicopter but his pilot switched sides. After a summary trial, Ceausescu and his wife were executed by a firing squad three days later.
A team of pathologists and cemetery officials hoisted the wooden caskets of Ceausescu and his wife out of their graves Wednesday. They took samples from the corpses and put them into plastic bags — a process lasting more than two hours — before reburying the coffins.
"We are closer to knowing the truth," the couple's son Valentin Ceausescu told The Associated Press by phone.
Officials say it will take up to six months to determine the identity of the remains.
Ceausescu's alleged remains were better preserved than those of his wife, said Mircea Oprean, the couple's son-in-law who was present at the exhumation.
Oprean's wife, Zoia Ceausescu, had sued the defense ministry in 2005, saying she had doubts that her parents were buried in the cemetery. She died of cancer in 2006 and her brother Valentin took up the case.
Cemetery worker Cornel Muntean told the AP that Ceasescu was dressed in a thick gray overcoat. An AP reporter saw a dirty cloth being removed from Ceausescu's remains and what looked like a thick gray fur hat at the end of the coffin.
Romanians rose up in 1989 as other Communist regimes collapsed in Eastern Europe, angered and exhausted by years of rationing as the dictator tried to pay off the country's foreign debt. Meat, cooking oil and butter were severely limited and blackouts were common.
Ceausescu stifled dissent with his Securitate secret police, which were believed to have 700,000 informers in the nation of 22 million.
NYT article: "The Web Means the End of Forgetting"
From: The New York Times
The Web Means the End of Forgetting
By JEFFREY ROSEN
Four years ago, Stacy Snyder, then a 25-year-old teacher in training at Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., posted a photo on her MySpace page that showed her at a party wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup, with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” After discovering the page, her supervisor at the high school told her the photo was “unprofessional,” and the dean of Millersville University School of Education, where Snyder was enrolled, said she was promoting drinking in virtual view of her under-age students. As a result, days before Snyder’s scheduled graduation, the university denied her a teaching degree. Snyder sued, arguing that the university had violated her First Amendment rights by penalizing her for her (perfectly legal) after-hours behavior. But in 2008, a federal district judge rejected the claim, saying that because Snyder was a public employee whose photo didn’t relate to matters of public concern, her “Drunken Pirate” post was not protected speech.
When historians of the future look back on the perils of the early digital age, Stacy Snyder may well be an icon. The problem she faced is only one example of a challenge that, in big and small ways, is confronting millions of people around the globe: how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing — where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever.
The Web Means the End of Forgetting
By JEFFREY ROSEN
Four years ago, Stacy Snyder, then a 25-year-old teacher in training at Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., posted a photo on her MySpace page that showed her at a party wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup, with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” After discovering the page, her supervisor at the high school told her the photo was “unprofessional,” and the dean of Millersville University School of Education, where Snyder was enrolled, said she was promoting drinking in virtual view of her under-age students. As a result, days before Snyder’s scheduled graduation, the university denied her a teaching degree. Snyder sued, arguing that the university had violated her First Amendment rights by penalizing her for her (perfectly legal) after-hours behavior. But in 2008, a federal district judge rejected the claim, saying that because Snyder was a public employee whose photo didn’t relate to matters of public concern, her “Drunken Pirate” post was not protected speech.
When historians of the future look back on the perils of the early digital age, Stacy Snyder may well be an icon. The problem she faced is only one example of a challenge that, in big and small ways, is confronting millions of people around the globe: how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing — where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Hugo Chávez Has Bolívar's Remains Exhumed
"Venezuela. President Hugo Chávez gets quite a surprise when exhuming the remains of Simón Bolívar."
Artist: Erlich
Appeared in El País (July 18, 2010)
Hugo Chávez has always exalted certain figures -- Che, Castro, Simón Bolívar -- in political speeches. In fact, he is the self-proclaimed leader of the "Bolivarian Revolution." But the news that he has exhumed the remains of Simón Bolívar is a bit over the top. Public exhumations and burials of former national heroes during one's time in office always seem to augur an increase in state control; often, they are an attempt not to remember, but conveniently forget, certain aspects of the past for one's own political gain. The question "who owns the bones?" comes to mind. In this case, the particular "father-son" drama being played out is quite intriguing. If Chávez can claim that Bolívar was murdered, it will no doubt help him justify his "revolution" even further and provide him with more photo opps. for the sort of public, melodramatic weeping he enjoys, even on Twitter!
In the cartoon above, it would appear that we are looking at the skeletonized hand of Bolívar, giving Chávez the middle digit. This is because although Chávez has exalted Bolívar's image throughout his time as "President," many say that Bolívar would not have shared the former's policies.
From: BBC News
17 July 2010
Venezuela's Chavez exhumes hero Simon Bolivar's bones
The remains of South American independence hero Simon Bolivar have been exhumed in Venezuela to determine the cause of his death nearly 200 years ago.Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered Bolivar's tomb be opened because he suspects he was murdered.
Most accounts maintain Bolivar died from tuberculosis in Colombia in 1830.
Mr Chavez announced the exhumation of his hero on Twitter, saying he "wept with emotion".
"What impressive moments we have lived tonight. We have seen the bones of the Great Bolivar!" he tweeted from the national pantheon in Caracas.
"That glorious skeleton must be Bolivar, because his flame can be felt. Bolivar lives!" he added.
'Important discoveries'
More than 50 experts including criminal investigators and forensic pathologists have been examining the remains to see if Bolivar was the victim of a conspiracy rather than disease, according to Venezuela's attorney-general, Luisa Ortega Diaz.
"We have important discoveries that will be announced to the nation at the appropriate moment," she said.
The exhumation comes as Colombia has accused Venezuela of tolerating the presence on its territory of the main Colombian leftist groups, the Farc and the ELN.
Relations between Mr Chavez, an outspoken socialist, and the conservative government of Colombia have deteriorated in the last two years.
Mr Chavez has rejected Colombia's accusations.
Known as "the Liberator", Simon Bolivar led the 19th Century revolutionary war against Spain, winning independence for Venezuela and several other South American nations.
The Venezuelan president claims him as the inspiration for his "Bolivarian" revolution, though some historians say Bolivar would not agree with Mr Chavez's socialist policies.
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