Silence, Screen, and Spectacle: Rethinking Social Memory in the Age of Information

Published by Berghahn Books 2014

Silence, Screen, and Spectacle

Rethinking Social Memory in the Age of Information

Edited by: Lindsey A. Freeman , Benjamin Nienass and Rachel Daniell

Volume 14 in the series Remapping Cultural History

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781782382812

Overview
Contents

About this book

In an age of information and new media the relationships between remembering and forgetting have changed. This volume addresses the tension between loud and often spectacular histories and those forgotten pasts we strain to hear. Employing social and cultural analysis, the essays within examine mnemonic technologies both new and old, and cover subjects as diverse as U.S. internment camps for Japanese Americans in WWII, the Canadian Indian Residential School system, Israeli memorial videos, and the desaparecidos in Argentina. Through these cases, the contributors argue for a re-interpretation of Guy Debord’s notion of the spectacle as a conceptual apparatus through which to examine the contemporary landscape of social memory, arguing that the concept of spectacle might be developed in an age seen as dissatisfied with the present, nervous about the future, and obsessed with the past. Perhaps now “spectacle” can be thought of not as a tool of distraction employed solely by hegemonic powers, but instead as a device used to answer Walter Benjamin’s plea to “explode the continuum of history” and bring our attention to now-time.

Author / Editor information

Lindsey A. Freeman is an Assistant Professor in Sociology and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University. She is the author of Longing for the Bomb: Oak Ridge and Atomic Nostalgia and a co-editor of The Bohemian South: Creating Countercultures from Poe to Punk.

Benjamin Nienass is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at California State University San Marcos. His research is concerned with the politics of memory in postnational contexts, particularly in the European Union.

Rachel Daniell is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at The Graduate Center, CUNY and works with the Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense (EAAF). Her research examines everyday social practices around data and documents that contribute to the visibility of human rights violations.

Lindsey A. Freeman is an Assistant Professor in Sociology and Anthropology at Simon Fraser University. She is the author of Longing for the Bomb: Oak Ridge and Atomic Nostalgia and a co-editor of The Bohemian South: Creating Countercultures from Poe to Punk.

Reviews

“This is an extremely interesting collection of essays on a wide variety of memory practices from across the globe.” · Jo Labanyi, New York University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: Rethinking Social Memory in the Age of Information Lindsey A. Freeman, Benjamin Nienass and Rachel Daniell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I Spectacular Memory: Memory and Appearance in the Age of Information
Chapter 1 Haunted by the Spectre of Communism: Spectacle and Silence in Hungary’s House of Terror Amy Sodaro Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Chapter 2 Making Visible: Reflexive Narratives at the Manzanar U.S. National Historic Site Rachel Daniell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
Chapter 3 The Everyday as Spectacle: Archival Imagery and the Work of Reconciliation in Canada Naomi Angel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Part II Screening Absence: New Technology, Affect, and Memory
Chapter 4 Viral Affiliations: Facebook, Queer Kinship, and the Memory of the Disappeared in Contemporary Argentina Cecilia Sosa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Chapter 5 Learning by Heart: Humming, Singing, Memorizing in Israeli Memorial Videos Laliv Melamed Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Chapter 6 Arcade Mode: Remembering, Revisiting, and Replaying the American Video Arcade Samuel Tobin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
Part III Silence and Memory: Erasures, Storytelling, and Kitsch
Chapter 7 Remembering Forgetting: A Monument to Erasure at the University of North Carolina Timothy J. McMillan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
Chapter 8 The Power of Conflicting Memories in European Transnational Social Movements Nicole Doerr Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Chapter 9 Memories of Jews and the Holocaust in Post-Communist Eastern Europe: The Case of Poland Joanna B. Michlic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Chapter 10 1989 as Collective Memory “Refolution” East-Central Europe Confronts Memorial Silence Susan C. Pearce Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Conclusion: Comments on Silence, Screen, and Spectacle Lindsey A. Freeman, Benjamin Nienass and Rachel Daniell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	244
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 260
Keywords: Memory Studies; Media Studies; Sociology; Cultural Studies (General)

eBook

Published: February 1, 2014
ISBN: 9781782382812