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SEMINAR IN THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF MEMORY GSO6011/1925 Spring 2011 Thur. 4-5:50pm Rm.913 (212) 229-5737 X 3133 th Off. Hrs:6 E.16 St.D1015 Tue. 2-5 or by apptmt. [email protected] Introduction Remembering and forgetting, usually thought of as individual matters, have social dimensions. For some sociologists, memory is always a collective phenomenon. In this course we analyze the theoretical foundations of memory as a collective process. Through the now classic writings of Halbwachs, Benjamin, and more recent theorists, we consider how memory is constructed, its functions for social cohesion, durability, and other dynamics. We analyze recent writing that treats collective memory as multi-vocal, divisive, and unpredictable. Memory is to be distinguished from History. Less concerned with documented accuracy than are modern historians, sociologists assume that the past is a construction in which little can be taken for granted. Who are the nation’s heroes? Which national events are commemorated by monuments, holidays and ceremonies? How is the past “revised”? Why have a nation’s “growth, development, advancement” come to be seen as “colonialism, imperialism, banditry.” Divergences such as these may be found at micro levels as well as macro. We trace the elaboration of collective memory by recent analysts, who foreground different attributes of nation states: homogeneity – heterogeneity, concord – cleavage; nationalist autarchy – transnational ties. These may become the (sometimes) conflicting elements that produce the richly symbolic meanings of the “imagined communities” that become a foundation for identity formation. Organization Combining lectures and class discussion of writings in this field make up the bulk of the course. Beside the required reading and your own selections from the recommended readings, as a seminar, your most important work will be to prepare a study of an aspect of memory of your choosing. th As soon as possible (no later than the 5 week, Feb. 24), please turn in a statement, not more than one page long of your research topic. It may be a case study in historical and national memory dealing with the relatively recent past or a more narrowly focused topic. Contact me by e-mail for guidance. Students will present their own research in progress to the class as a whole. Each student will also act as discussant for another presenter. These presentations are intended to be “works in progress” and invite comments from the class. Course grades are based on participation (attendance, discussion) and the Seminar Paper. Incompletes are discouraged. Books are on reserve in Fogelman Library. Some may be bought at Barnes & th th Noble 5 Ave. at 17 St., Amazon, or elsewhere. Articles will be placed on ereserve and/or at a nearby copy shop. The E-reserves password is m5mory Required Readings Yifat Gutman, Adam D. Brown, Amy Sodaro, eds.2010. Memory & the Future of Transnational Politics, Ethics & Society. Palgrave/Macmillan Daniel Levy & Natan Sznaider. 2010. Human Rights & Memory.Pennsy lvania State Univ. Press Maurice Halbwachs. The Collective Memory. McGraw Hill Press (n.b., The book is out of print, but will be available in photocopy) Iwona Irwin-Zarecka.1994. Frames of Remembrance.N.J. Transaction Books John Torpey, ed. Politics & the Past. Rowman & Littlefield Benedict Anderson. 1991 (or latest edition) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin & Spread of Nationalism. NY: Verso Course Outline and Readings Jan. 27-Feb.3 I.Introduction A.Theoretical considerations – Please begin reading: Maurice Halbwachs. The Collective Memory Ch.1 Iwona Irwin-Zarecka. Frames of Remembrance Ch.1. Setting the Analytical Parameters Jeffrey Olick and Brenda Coughlin. “The Politics of Regret: Analytical Frames” in John Torpey. Politics and the Past Recommended Maurice Halbwachs. On Collective Memory (trans.L.Coser) – Univ. of Chicago Press, 1992) D.L. Schacter. The Seven Sins of Memory (Houghton Mifflin 2001) D.L. Schacter. Searching for Memory (Basic 1996) Feb. 10 - 17 B. Memory and/or History? M. Halbwachs. The Collective Memory Ch. 2 (e-reserve or BB) I. Irwin-Zarecka. Frames of Remembrance Ch.3 Communities of Memory W. Benjamin. “Theses for a Philosophy of History” in Illuminations Pierre Nora. “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire” Feb. 24 Research Topic is Due. It will be presented to the class on March 3 C. Time, Space and Memory M. Halbwachs. The Collective Memory Ch.3 and Ch. 4 (reserve) Today’s class will be devoted to a book launch: Excerpts to be announced: Yifat Gutman, Adam D. Brown, Amy Sodaro, eds.2010. Memory & the Future of Transnational Politics, Ethics & Society. Palgrave/Macmillan Daniel Levy & Natan Sznaider. 2010. Human Rights & Memory.Pennsylvania State Univ. Press March 3 - 10 D. Durability and Impermanence A. Huyssen. “Time and Cultural Memory at our Fin de Siècle” in Twilight Memories E. Zerubavel. Ch. 6. ”Social Memories” in Social Mindscapes R. Wagner-Pacifici. “Memories in the Making: The Shape of Things that Went” in Qualitative Sociology (e-reserves) Recommended D.L. Schacter. Searching for Memory J. Boyarin. Introduction and Ch. 1 in Remapping Memory E. Zerubavel. Hidden Rhythms: Schedules & Calendars in Social Life SPRING BREAK – NO MAR. 17 CLASS March 24-26 Fourth Annual Memory Conference No regular class meeting on March 24. Students are required to attend at least one session of the conference, and be prepared to present their reaction to it in the class of March 31 March 31 - April 7 II. Inventing National Identity and National History A. The Malleable Past Eric Hobsbawm & Terence Ranger. The Invention of Tradition, Introduction Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities Chs. 1-3 (pp. 1-37) B. Problems of Multivocality – Whose Past? How Commemorated? S. Vromen. “The French Panthéon: A Study in Divisiveness” in JAMALS (Spring 1995) 27-38 R. Wagner-Pacifici & Barry Schwartz. “The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Commemorating a Difficult Past” AJS 97 (1991): 376-420 Recommended Karen Cerulo. Identity & Designs: The Sights & Sounds of a Nation. Lynn Spillman. Nations & Commemoration: Creating National Identities in the U.S. & Australia Ch. 1 Apr. 14 C. Multivocality via Museums A. Huyssen. “Escape from Amnesia” The Museum as Mass Medium” Pp. 13-36 in Twilight Memories Benedict Anderson. Ch. 10. “Census, Map, Museum” S. Dubin. “A Matter of Perspective: Revisionist History & the West as America” in Displays of Power: Memory & Amnesia in the American Museum and S. Dubin.”Battle Royal: The Final Mission of the Enola Gay” V.L. Zolberg. “Contested Remembrance: The Hiroshima Exhibit Controversy” in Theory & Society Apr. 21 III. Cases of Victimization A. Remembering and Forgetting the Holocaust Ian Buruma. “Memorials, Museums and Monuments” in The Wages of Guilt pp. 202-238 (e-reserves) Jan T. Gross. Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community Jedwabne, Poland Jerzy Jedlicki. “How to Deal With This” (e-reserves) A.Huyssen. “The Politics of Identification. ’Holocaust’ and West German Drama” in After the Great Divide Recommended Jan T. Gross. Fear (Random House, 2006) Films: “Night & Fog” (one of the earliest documentaries to be released) “Shoah” by Claude Lanzmann (9 hours long) “Schindler’s List” by Steven Spielberg “The Pianist” by R. Polanski & the book on which it is based, by W. Szpilman April 28 B. Victims & Perpetrators A.Grossman. “A Question of Silence: The Rape of German Women by Occupation Soldiers” October 72 (Spring 1995): 43-64 I. Irwin-Zarecka. “’Topographies of Terror’ in Berlin: Is Remembrance of Forgetting Possible?” Additional articles will be recommended concerning the G ünter Grass affair Recommended Hamburg Inst. For Soc. Res’ch. The German Army & Genocide The New Press, 1998 John Hersey. Hiroshima Günter Grass. The Tin Drum G. Schlink. The Reader (a novel) May 5 C. Imperialism Past & Responses in the Present B.Anderson. Imagined Communities Ch.6 “ Official Nationalism & Imperialism” P. Gilroy. “The Whisper Wakes, the Shudder Plays: ‘race’, nation and ethnic absolutism” in There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack Recommended Zaydie Smith. White Teeth Film:“Black and White in Color” (French feature film set in WWI in a West African colony) Several Films by Sembène Ousmane, Senegalese director Chocolat, a feature film by Claire Denis, on the ambiguous relations among Europeans and West Africans under colonialism May 12 Last Class Meeting C. Persistent Issues: Reparations, Regrets, Revenge J. Torpey. Politics & the Past I. Introduction Dalton Conley. “Calculating Slavery Reparations: Theory, Numbers, and Implications” Laura Hein. “War Compensation: Claims against the Japanese Government & Japanese Corporations for War Crimes” Recommended Stuart E. Eizenstat. Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor & the Unfinished Business of WWII Seminar paper is due SELECTED REFERENCES The list may grow as the semester proceeds. Students are warmly invited to make further suggestions of books, articles, films, etc. of interest to the class. Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin & Spread of Nationalism NY: Verso, 1991 Walter Benjamin. “Theses for a Philosophy of History” in Illuminations ed. By Hannah Arendt. Schocken Books, 1969 (orig. 1955) Jonathan Boyarin. Remapping Memory: The Politics of Time Space. Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1994 Ian Buruma. The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany & Japan. [Meridian] Penguin, 1994 Karen Cerulo. Identity & Designs: The Sights & Sounds of a Nation. Rutgers Univ. Press, 1995 Michele C. Cone. French Modernism: Vichy and the Arts. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000 Stefanie Coontz. The Way We Never Were. Basic, 1992 N.B. Dirks, et al. Culture/Power/History Princeton. Univ Press, 1994 Steven C. Dubin. Displays of Power: Memory & Amnesia in the American Museum. NYU Press, 1999 Emile Durkheim. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. [trans. Karen Fields] Elizabaeth L. Eisenstein. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communications and Cultural Transformations in Early-Modern Europe Cambridge Univ. Press, 1980 Stuart E. Eizenstat. Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, & the Unfinished Business of World War II. New York: Public Affairs Press, 2003 William A. Gamson & David Stuart. “Media Discourse as a Symbolic Contest: The Bomb in Political Cartoons” in Sociological Forum 7/1 (March 1992): 55-86 Paul Gilroy. There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race & Nation 1987 ________ The Black Atlantic & Double Consciousness , Ch. 6 “’Not a Story to Pass On’: Living Memory & the Slave Sublime” pp. 187-224 Harvard Univ. Press, 1993 Jan T. Gross. Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland. Princeton Univ. Press, 2001 Jan T. Gross. Fear . Random House, 2006 Atina Grossman. Victims, Victors & Survivors: Gender & Memory, Germany 1945-49. (New Press) Maurice Halbwachs. On Collective Memory [trans. Lewis Coser] Univ. of Chicago Press, 1992 _________ The Collective Memory. Harper & Row, 1980 [n.b., This book is out of print, but a Xerox copy of the assigned chapters is on reserve] Hamburg Institute of social Research. The German Army and Genocide. The New Press, 1998 John Hersey. Hiroshima (the report by Hersey was printed in its entirety in The New Yorker Magazine and subsequently appeared in book form. Eric Hobsbawm & Terence Ranger. The Invention of Tradition Andreas Huyssen. After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture, Postmodernism Indiana University Press 1996 ________ Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia. Routledge, 1995 Iwona Irwin-Zarecka. Frames of Remembrance N.Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1994 Fredric Jameson “Remapping Taipei” Ch.2 in The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema & Space in the World System. Bloomington, IN.: Univ. of Indiana Press, 1995 Jerzy Jedlicki. “How To Deal With This” from Polityka Feb. 10, 2001 (reserve article) Flora E.S. Kaplan. Museums & the Making of “Ourselves : The Role of Objects in National Identity Leicester Univ. Press, 1994 Robert Jay Lifton & Greg Mitchell. Hiroshima in America Grosset/Putnam, 1995 Elizabeth Long, ed. From sociology to Cultural Studies: New Perspectives. Blackwell, 1997 George L. Mosse. Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the memory of the World wars . Oxford Univ. Press, 1990 G.B. Nash et al. History on Trial: Culture Wars & the Teaching of the Past. Alfred Knopf, 1997 Philip Nobile, ed. Judgment at the Smithsonian: The Bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki N.Y.: Marlowe & Co., 1995 Pierre Nora. “From Lieux de mémoire to Realms of Memory” Preface to the EnglishLanguage edition of Lieux de Mémoire ________ “Between Memory and History: les lieux de mémoire in Representations 26 (spring 1989) Jeffrey K. Olick. “Introduction: Memory and the Nation – Continuities, Conflicts and Transformations” and ________ ‘’What does it mean to Normalize the Past? Official Memory in German Politics Since 1999”, in Social Science History: Special Issue: Memory and the Nation 22/4 (Winter 1998) D.L. Schacter. Memory Distortion.1995 ________ Searching for Memory: The Brain, the Mind, and the Past Basic Books, 1996 Barry Schwartz. George Washington: The Making of an American Symbol Part I. (pp. 13-106) ________ “The Social Context of Commemoration: A Study in Collective Memory” in Social Forces 61/2 (pp. 374-397) Art Spiegelman. Maus I & Maus II, Pantheon, 1992 Lyn Spillman. Nation and Commemoration: Creating National Identities in the U.S. & Australia. Cambridge Univ, Press, 1997 Wladyslaw Szpilman. The Pianist , New York: Picador, 1999. John Torpey, ed. Politics and the Past: On Repairing Historical Injustices. Rowman and Littlefield, 2003 Robin Wagner-Pacifici & Barry Schwartz. “The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: commemorating a Difficult Past “ AJS 97 (1991): 376-420 James E. Young. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust memories & Meaning. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1993 Eviatar Zerubavel. Social Mindscapes Harvard Univ. Press, 1997 _______ Hidden Rhythms: Schedules & Calendars in Social Life. Berkeley, CA. Univ. of California Press, 1981 Vera L. Zolberg. “Contested Remembrance: The Hiroshima Exhibit Controversy” in Theory and Society