Commemoration and Memory

Commemorating Quebec: Nation, race, and memory

by Darryl Leroux

This is my PhD dissertation, a copy of which is available on Digital Dissertations or send me an email for a copy.

COMMEMORATING QUEBEC: NATION, RACE, AND MEMORY

This study focuses on discourses of nation, race, and memory... more COMMEMORATING QUEBEC: NATION, RACE, AND MEMORY

This study focuses on discourses of nation, race, and memory in present-day Québec society through an analysis of the celebrations of Québec City’s 400th anniversary in 2008. My analyses locate these commemorative practices within the broader context of a perceived crisis of Québécois identity. I identify the modes through which difference was discursively constructed in relation to culture, race, and gender in Québec. I then adopt a theoretical framework that examines the relationship among public commemoration, nation-building, and subject formation in Québec. Specifically, I examine the high-profile Rencontres spectacle, several museum and art exhibits, a theatrical production, a number of musical concerts, a variety of policy documents, various protocol events, and the Québec nationalist and anarchist protest movements in relation to each other.

I argue that the Québec 400 is best understood as a set of subject-making practices that sought to define an ideal Québécois subject through norms of belonging that prioritized French colonial heroes and subjugated indigenous and non-French Others. Commemorative practices at the Québec 400 celebrations articulated the liberal discourse of cultural pluralism common in Western liberal democracies post-1980s in ways that effectively positioned the normative Québécois subject as the enlightened, generous, and reasoned patron of cultural diversity. Commemoration also operated as a creative, festive, spectacularized, and thus seemingly innocent mode of constituting national subjects in 21st century Québec, relying as it did on territoriality and kinship relations to interpellate subjects into a national project in Québec and to locate them in a hierarchy of belonging.

The Québec 400 was also characterized by the performance of intimate relationships between France and Québec throughout 2008. The transnational dimensions of the normative Québécois subject were premised on a shared understanding of the
colonial-settler project in Québec, organized around notions of whiteness, civilization, and territory

'Mobilising Lidice: Cosmopolitan Memory between Theory and Practice'

by Jessica Rapson

Culture, Theory and Critique

This paper interrogates the orthodoxies of cosmopolitanism via the example of an emerging commemorative network... more This paper interrogates the orthodoxies of cosmopolitanism via the example of an emerging commemorative network surrounding the Czech village of Lidice, drawing attention to a disjunction between idealised theories of memory and actual, instrumental memory practice. Razed by Nazi officials as an act of retaliation for the assassination of Reinhardt Heydrich in Prague, 1942, Lidice's male inhabitants – mainly miners and factory workers – were shot, and women and children deported. In a notable example of productive transnational identification, a group of coal miners in Stoke-on-Trent, England began a fundraising initiative which resulted in the construction of a new Lidice overlooking the former site (1947). Whilst the field-defining work of Daniel Levy and Natan Sznaider (2006) suggests that cosmopolitan memory-work avoids the homogenisation of Holocaust memories in the global sphere, I explore here the possibility that the complex motivations that guide such practices may undermine this premise.

Accordingly the paper explores inscriptions of Lidice into local contexts via processes of de-territorialisation and re-territorialisation, focusing on its mobilisation in the 21st century in an examination the twinning of Lidice with Khojaly, Azerbaijan (February 2010) and with Stoke-on-Trent (underway). Campaigners in Stoke aim to inaugurate a new museum restore the town's ‘emotional bond’ with Lidice (Alan Gerrard 2010), whereas in Khojaly Lidice's memory is polemically aligned with the massacre of over 600 Azerbaijanis during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between ethnic Armenians and the Republic of Azerbaijan (1988–1992). The chapter considers the Lidice's twinning network as an example of cosmopolitan, supranational ‘glocalisation’ (Levy and Sznaider 2006). Whilst both cases rely on a sense of global-local solidarity rendered possible by the mobilisation of Holocaust memory, the motivations that ground them are significantly divergent; this essay assesses to what extent this may interfere with the potential of the twinning initiatives discussed to avoid a global homogenisation of Holocaust memory.

Sanctities, Blasphemies and the (Jewish) Nation: Commemorative Inscriptions at a National Memorial Site in Israel

by Chaim Noy

Prime Time Commemoration: An Analysis of Television Broadcasts on Israel's Memorial Day for the Holocaust and the Heroism

by Eyal Zandberg

Tuned to the nation's mood: Popular music as a mnemonic cultural object

by Eyal Zandberg

A Mechanism for Multidisciplinary Dialogue: The Memory & . . . Series

by Hilton Kelly

Defining the victims of terrorism: competing frames around victim compensation and commemoration post 9/11 New York City and 3/11, Madrid

by Cristina Flesher Fominaya

2012, (co author, Rosemary Barberet) in Violence and War in Culture and the Media: Five Disciplinary Lenses, edited by Athina Karatzogianni, London: Routledge

La mémoire européenne à l'heure du "paradigme victimaire" (European Memory in the Age of "Victimization Paradigm"), in Stella Ghervas & F. Rosset (eds), "Lieux d'Europe. Mythes et limites", Paris, Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 2008, p. 215-243.

by Stella Ghervas

Co-authored with R. Sigist. Published in Stella Ghervas & F. Rosset (eds), "Lieux d'Europe. Mythes et limites", Paris, Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, 2008, p. 215-243.

Continent riche en histoire et en culture, l’Europe se conçoit pourtant moins comme héritage que comme projet... more Continent riche en histoire et en culture, l’Europe se conçoit pourtant moins comme héritage que comme projet politique et social. En se dotant de symboles étatiques comme le drapeau, la monnaie ou l’hymne, l’Union européenne a bien marqué sa volonté de concrétiser ce projet. Mais en exprimer l’essence d’une manière claire et reconnaissable, de manière à susciter l’adhésion des citoyens potentiels, est une tout autre tâche, que ces symboles abstraits ne suffisent pas à exécuter. Seul l’euro, avec sa symbolique de l’ouverture (carte sans frontières, ponts, fenêtres), est capable d’exprimer une faible partie des valeurs dont se réclame la nouvelle fédération européenne. Pour le reste, on pourrait se demander en quoi consiste le vécu commun des Européens d’aujourd’hui, si ce n’est précisément en l’utilisation d’une monnaie commune, ou l’organisation de manifestations sportives comme les coupes européennes de football.

Historiquement, c’est bien la volonté de dépasser les identités nationales classiques, et les conflits qu’elles ont engendrés notamment au xxe siècle, qui fut à l’origine de la construction européenne.

BOOK CHAPTER - Posting Nationalism: Postage Stamps as Carriers of Nationalist Messages.

by Henio Hoyo

In Burbick, Joan and William R. Glass (eds.) Beyond Imagined Uniqueness: Nationalisms in Contemporary Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010 pp. 67-92.
--- Published with the permission of Cambridge Scholars Publishing ---

Items like coins, banknotes and political posters have been regarded as useful sources for research on the diffusion... more Items like coins, banknotes and political posters have been regarded as useful sources for research on the diffusion of nationalist messages. In contrast, postage stamps have been largely ignored for such purpose. My hypothesis is, stamps are “carriers” of an official national imaginary about the history, features, composition and development of the issuing nation. A first section of the paper develops this argument by presenting some key features and paradoxes of stamps, explaining how states manage and intervene in stamp design, and presenting a typology of messages about the nation that can be found on them. A second section will test my arguments by means of both a synchronic and a diachronic comparison. The first uses a sample of stamps issued by Germany on two contrasting periods (Nazi vs. Federal Republic) to find how the political and ideological changes were presented. The second comparison utilizes a sample of stamps issued by Spain and Mexico to commemorate 500 years of the arrival of Columbus to the American continent. It analyzes if, and how, those stamps offer contrasting visions regarding an episode that is so crucial for the national narratives of each.

JOURNAL ARTICLE - Fresh Views on the Old Past: The Postage Stamps of the Mexican Bicentennial

by Henio Hoyo

Published in: Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 12(1):19-44. [2012]

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1754-9469.2012.01158.x/abstract

The year 2010 in Mexico marked both the 200th anniversary of the start of its independence movement and the 100th... more The year 2010 in Mexico marked both the 200th anniversary of the start of its independence movement and the 100th anniversary of its revolution. Besides several public events, a number of items including commemorative coins, banknotes, and stamps were produced to mark the occasion. This article analyses the postage stamps issued to commemorate the Mexican bicentennial. It does so by comparing these stamps with the ones issued for previous independence anniversaries, and then tracking changes and continuities in their messages. It is found that, on the one hand, the bicentennial postage stamps of Mexico promoted a particular narrative regarding the historical, territorial, and ethnic features of the Mexican independence process, which in many ways departs from previous, long-established nationalist narratives. But on the other hand, bicentennial stamps also demonstrate the influence of traditional interpretations of the national past – particularly those related to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional's (Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI) revolutionary nationalism doctrine – which are still being reproduced even after the 2000 democratic transition.

Commemoration in 'La Mort le Roi Artu'

by Emma Campbell

in Arthurian Literature, ed. by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2010), vol. 27, pp. 1-17

Remembering and forgetting the Great War in New York City

by Ross Wilson

First World War Studies Volume 3, Issue 1, 2012, p.87-106

This article examines the history of the Great War in New York City and the means by which it has been remembered and... more This article examines the history of the Great War in New York City and the means by which it has been remembered and forgotten through the presence and absence of war memorials. New York City played a unique role in the history of the Great War, contributing to the war effort even before the declaration of war by the United States in 1917. The wartime experiences in the city were accompanied by political and racial tensions as fears of foreign influences undermining the city and the wider nation were ever-present. In a city which had witnessed large-scale immigration over the preceding century, fears of unrest or unpatriotic and un-American behaviour preoccupied both the city and the federal government. Nevertheless, the wartime contribution of the city's foreign-born residents was substantial as large numbers registered for military service. As a means of reaffirming the principles of patriotism and an ‘American’ identity for the city, after the Armistice the official bodies and veterans groups worked to develop a singular expression or ‘spirit’ for the local war memorials. As the schemes for a central war memorial for the city floundered, the local memorials served as a means for residents to adopt and adapt this hegemonic expression of ‘American’ identity and form specific memories of the war for each community.

Памяць і забыццё: ушанаванне герояў Брэсцкай крэпасці.

by Christian Ganzer

Published in:
Сіябган Дусэт, Андрэй Дынько, Алесь Пашкевіч (ред.): Вяртанне ў Еўропу: Мінулае і будучыня Беларусі. Варшава 2011.

(Кристиан Ганцер: Память и забвение: Культ героев в Брестской крепости) (Кристиан Ганцер: Память и забвение: Культ героев в Брестской крепости)

Remembering and Forgetting: Hero Veneration in the Brest Fortress

by Christian Ganzer

Published in:
Siobhan Doucette, Andrej Dynko, Ales Pashkevich (ed.): Returning to Europe. Belarus. Past and Future. Warsaw 2011.

Embodiment and living memorials

by Matthew Allen

co-authored with Steve Brown (University of Leicester)

The 2005 London bombings have been the subject of numerous commemorative practices, ranging from public silence to the... more The 2005 London bombings have been the subject of numerous commemorative practices, ranging from public silence to the Hyde Park memorial. In this article we discuss a less well-studied commemorative practice that we term, following Esther Hyman, a ‘living memorial’. This type of commemoration differs from other memorials in that it functions by making connections at the level of life rather than that of symbols. It constitutes an ‘affect economy’ in which the affective labour of participants weaves thick relations of care and emotion that accomplish a salvation of the commemorated person or event. Drawing on interview data from people who have created and maintained living memorials, we show the centrality of the body and embodied acts of caring as central to how commemoration is enacted. Such commemoration may ultimately involve the erasure of the story of what is commemorated, but not the embodied relations in which the remembered lives inhere directly.

War Memory and Musical Tradition: Commemorating Croatia's Homeland War through Popular Music and Rap in Eastern Slavonia

by Catherine Baker

Journal of Contemporary European Studies 17:1 (2009): 35-45

From the outbreak of the Homeland War (1991–1995) in Croatia to the present day popular music has been used as a means... more From the outbreak of the Homeland War (1991–1995) in Croatia to the present day popular music has been used as a means to commemorate the upheaval and sacrifice of Croatia’s war against the Yugoslav National Army and the Serb militia. This paper focuses on the musical commemoration of a particular region, Eastern Slavonia, which was not fully integrated into the Croatian state until three years after the official end of the war. The narrative, vocabulary and symbols established during the immediate wartime phase have persisted into the present day when war memory has become inflected by post-war developments, such as the indictment of Croatian Army officers for war crimes.

Deportāciju pieminēšanas atainojums Atmodas laika preses izdevumos

by Olga Procevska

Grāmatā apkopoti valsts programmas “Nacionālā identitāte” pētnieciskajā projektā “Latvijas sociālā atmiņa un identitāte” 2010. gadā tapušie pētījumi, kuros aplūkotas Latvijas sabiedrības attiecības ar pagātni. Uzmanības centrā – kultūras trauma, kuru radījis Otrais pasaules karš un ar to saistītie notikumi. Pētījumos tiek jautāts, kā šī trauma ir ietekmējusi Latvijas iedzīvotāju kolektīvo atmiņu un identitāti. Krājumā ietvertajos rakstos analizēti traumatiskie nospiedumi Latvijas iedzīvotāju identitātē: valstiskuma zaudēšana, holokausts, Latvijas vēstures konstrukcija nacistiskās okupācijas periodā, pretošanās kustība, Latgales nacionālie partizāni un staļiniskās deportācijas. Vairāki pētījumi veltīti kultūras notikumu – grāmatu, spēlfilmu un teātra izrāžu – lomai mūsdienu sociālās atmiņas veidošanā un funkcionēšanā.

1941. un 1949. gada deportācijas Latvijas vēsturē ir viena no nozīmīgākajām traumatiskajām pieredzēm, kurai bijusimore 1941. un 1949. gada deportācijas Latvijas vēsturē ir viena no nozīmīgākajām traumatiskajām pieredzēm, kurai bijusi
ilgstoša ietekme uz nācijas paštēlu. Analizējot izsūtījuma pieminēšanas atainojumu medijos, iespējams izprast
traumatiskās identitātes veidošanos publiskajā telpā, apzināt tās nozīmīgākos elementus un aktorus. Šajā pētījumā
ar plašas un detalizētas kontentanalīzes un tematiskās analīzes palīdzību konstatēti līdz šim neapzināti fakti par
Atmodas laika (1987–1991) nacionālo un lokālo preses izdevumu lomu deportāciju komemoratīvās reprezentācijas
veidošanā un strukturēšanā. Pētījums parāda, kā atšķiras laikrakstu radītās piemiņas brīžu reprezentācijas un
kā medijos nostiprinās viendabīgs pieminēšanas diskurss.

Commemorative Dates and Related Rituals: Soviet Experience, its Transformation and Contemporary Victory Day Celebrations in Russia and Latvia

by Olga Procevska

co-authored with Klinta Ločmele and Vita Zelče

Persistence and Transformation of Cultural Trauma: Commemoration of Soviet Deportations in the Media of Post-Soviet Latvia (1987-2010)

by Olga Procevska

co-authored with Mārtiņš Kaprāns and Laura Uzule

An essential part of the political strategy of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was the extermination of social groups... more An essential part of the political strategy of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was the extermination of social groups that he regarded as the enemies of the people: owners of the capital and land, counterrevolutionaries, and opponents of Soviet ideology and collectivisation. Thus on June 14th 1941 and March 25th 1949 the population of Latvia diminished by 60 thousand people overnight. Soviet authorities labelled them as dangerous for socialism and deported them to various destinations in Siberia with no hope of return. Memories of them were unspeakable in the public sphere until perestroika, but since then it has become as principal a source of cultural trauma for Latvians as September 11th is for Americans and the Holocaust is for Jews. During the decline of the Soviet Union, the commemoration of Soviet crimes became an important social practice in Latvia and elsewhere in post-communist societies. A crucial role in this process was played by Latvian mass media: since perestroika the media have been forming the public discourse of the commemoration and thereby also of the trauma of the deportations.
By analysing the content of the most read national and local newspapers Latvia issued in the last 23 years, this extensive study offers an overview of the creation and transformation of mediated trauma.

Being there is everything!

by Ben Gook