In a high-context culture like Chinese, the linguistic code encompasses only part of the message and is incomplete without context. One of the implicit codes embedded in high-context communication is color tropes. Highly recognizable in the Sinophone world, color tropes often manifest themselves in the forms of metaphor, metonymy, allusions, and similes and are often related to the conveyance of emotional content. This paper provides a selection and discussion of such color tropes, demonstrates that color in a language inspires associations (...) and connotations that are often very subtle and determined by deep cultural memory, and, giving several Chinese examples, shows how the primary semasiology of a color term often influences its subsequent semantic extension. (shrink)

Cultural Memory, Memorials, and Reparative Writing examines the ways in which memory furnishes important source material in the three distinct areas of critical theory, memoir, and memorial art. The book first shows how affect theorists have increasingly complemented more traditional archival research through the use of "academic memoir." This theoretical piece is then applied to memoir works by Caribbean writers Dionne Brand and Patrick Chamoiseau, and the final case study in the book interprets as memorial art Kara (...) Walker's ephemeral 80,000 pound sugar sculpture of 2014. Memory as method; memory as archive; memorial as affect: this book looks at the interplay between archival sources on the one hand, and the affective memories, both personal and collective, that flow from, around, and into the constantly shifting record of the past. (shrink)

Referring to a past that never was, dij vu shares a structure not only with fiction, but also with the ever more sophisticated effects of media technology. Tracing the term from the end of the nineteenth century, when it was first popularized in the pages of the Revue philosophique, Peter Krapp examines the genealogy and history of the singular and unrepeatable experience of dij vu. This provocative book offers a refreshing counterpoint to the clichid celebrations of cultural memory (...) and forces us do a double take on the sanctimonious warnings against forgetting so common in our time. Disturbances of cultural memory-screen memories, false recognitions, premonitions-disrupt the comfort zone of memorial culture: strictly speaking, dij vu is neither a failure of memory nor a form of forgetting. Krapp's analysis of such disturbances in literature, art, and mass media introduces, historicizes, and theorizes what it means to speak of an economy of attention or distraction. Reaching from the early psychoanalytic texts of Sigmund Freud to the plays of Heiner M]ller, this exploration of the effects of dij vu pivots around the work of Walter Benjamin and includes readings of kitsch and aura in Andy Warhol's work, of cinematic violence and certain exaggerated claims about shooting and cutting, of the memorial character of architecture, and of the high expectations raised by the Internet. Peter Krapp, lecturer in the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, coedited "Medium Cool," a special issue of the South Atlantic Quarterly on contemporary media theory. He has published in the fields of German studies, media studies, and literary theoryand, since 1995, has acted as editor of the Hydra Web site for theories of literature and media. (shrink)

This chapter investigates the overlaps between the ‘cultural memory’ of the distant past and the memory of the Great War in Britain and Germany between 1914 and 1939, looking in particular at the use of medieval images in war memorials. There was a certain tension between advocates of medievalism and supporters of classicist images, but often, they reached a compromise. The chapter combines a discussion of the concept of ‘cultural memory’ with case studies on the (...) reception of antiquity and the Middle Ages in the era of the Great War. (shrink)

Each society is marked by a selective cultural memory which, beside events and traditions whose importance is emphasized, is also constituted by its parts and contents whose influence is either diminished or forgotten. Our society, too is marked by such kind of memory, with obvious reduction, value opposition and, in sum, general duality within the reception of cultural memory, which is always more complex than it appears in political speeches mother-tongue reading books or history textbooks. (...) For this reason, an examination of construction and reception of cultural memory, with an emphasis on traditions of Enlightenment and Romanticism, stems from a necessity to answer a set of questions regarding the contemporary relation to the past, the way "distance" or "proximity" to the latter is constituted, and especially the way in which contemporary practices mark, change and make use of cultural history. Starting from the assumptions that shaping cultural history, its heritage and "memory" is closely connected to the beginnings of nation-building and that cultural memory is a never-ending political process it is my intention in this research project to examine the rivalry juxtapositions, "interruptions" and new foundations of traditions, focusing on the interdependent relation of Enlightenment and Romanticist strands, and particularly on their unmarked, empty spots. Just as cultural memory is a result of two opposed processes - foregrounding and oblivion - so this research is similarly devoted to a double and apparently paradoxical task. On one hand, the accent is on the resurrection and reinforcement of integrative segments of these traditions which, at the time of their emergence as well as in subsequent interpretations, were mostly neglected. On the other hand there is the need to keep pace with what is required by the current "acceleration of time", which amounts to nothing else but the necessity to forget. Briefly put, the aim is to point to disciplinary-interdependent, more nuances and more communicative ways of viewing these relations, which would diminish the exclusivist and profound opposition within the contemporary reception of the traditions examined. (shrink)

This essay uses the concept of the constellation to characterize the relations among interdisciplinarity, cultural memory, and comparative literature. To do so entails: (a) reviewing the paradoxical interdisciplinarity of comparative literature, (b) tracing its establishment at a liberal arts college (Bryn Mawr College, USA), and (c) describing a course on “The Cultural Politics of Memory” that tested the limits of scholarship and testimony. The discussion includes an account of an unusual conference on cultural memory: (...) that is, the ways in which different cultural groups identify and describe their shared pasts. The informality and collegial dialogue of the conference were associated with a liberal arts context. It then turns to the question of theorizing aspects of cultural memory that are conveyed at the margins of conventional discourse: by what is largely unsaid, or represented in dance or pantomime. Because each of the performances discussed here is related in a distinct way to a preceding historical trauma (the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, African American slavery in the USA, the terrorism of the Shining Path in Peru), it was important to determine what source of memory, what archival materials, could persist through traumas that often suppress memory. Traditional archives consist of written documents. Moreover, they often support or represent official histories. New ways of thinking about archives--their composition, their place in cultural history, and their theoretical dimensions--have suggested new approaches to cultural memory. The essay ends with accounts of three forms of dance or pantomime that convey cultural histories informed by trauma in significantly different ways. A narrative thread foregrounds the close relations between scholarship and pedagogy. (shrink)

Literary-communicational theory offers a foundation for two types of literary criticism whose workings are basically ameliorative: mediating criticism, which seeks to bridge the gaps between writers and readers who are differently positioned; and communicational criticism, which offers an ethical assessment of literary writing as communication. The present article illustrates the processes of mediating criticism, by trying to help its own readers understand the religio-historical sitedness of the early-seventeenth-century English Catholic poet, Sir John Beaumont. More extensively, the article pays attention to (...) Beaumont’s use of cultural memory, as an illustration of communicational criticism. In some of his poems, Beaumont was communicationally exclusive, appealing to past history in a defensive spirit, as part of an effort to purify and strengthen a Catholic identity under threat. Elsewhere, he resorted to cultural memory in communicational gestures that were more inclusive, and of three different kinds. Sometimes his Catholicism went on to the offensive, and he arrogated a common memorial ground in a coercive, missionary spirit. Sometimes his inclusivity may strike a present-day reader as disingenuous, in that it involved a self-disguising, self-betraying acquiescence in the royal court’s dominant, non-Catholic discourse. Sometimes the play of cultural memory was altogether more dialogical in spirit: an inclusiveness which was neither aggressive not self-demeaning, but which invited readers to compare notes in the hope of viable co-existence. (shrink)

Assuming a relational understanding of the self, I argue that empathy is necessary for individual and cultural recovery from rape. However, gender affects our ability to listen with empathy to rape survivors. For women, the existence of cultural memories discourages empathy either by engendering fear of their own future rape or by provoking sympathy rather than empathy. For men, the lack of cultural memories makes rape what Arendt calls an "unreality," thus diminishing the possibility for empathy. Although (...) empathetic listeningpresents gender specific challenges for both women and men, it should not be abandoned as a strategy for trauma recovery. I make two broad suggestions for promoting empathy. First, we need to teach empathy for victims and survivors. Second, we need to discredit problematic gender norms, which buttress rape culture and sexual violence. (shrink)

This research aimed to identify the constituent elements of the musicographic document and whether they show signs of cultural memory and the composer's identity. This is a bibliographic and documentary research, using the indexical method. Data analysis and interpretation were based on a qualitative approach. The results indicated that the musicographic document brings together elements of the social structure, musical elements and technological elements capable of revealing the context of the production of the documentary item, as well as (...) the traces of memory and identity of the composer. Therefore, the study concludes that musical composition can be considered a significant cultural memory device. (shrink)

Nowadays the issues of space and place pertain more than ever to the ongoing discussion about personal/regional/national identities. The worlds of private archives of memory often exist independently of political and administrative divisions, while dominant ideologies are often capable of re-defining national archives of memory through selective representation of the past. The way we remember our past and our heritage inscribes the space we live in: the places we remember and the places we wish to forget, the monuments (...) we pull down and erect and the museums we build are only some of the signposts on the landscape of our cultural memory. The essays collected in this volume examine the role of places and spaces in the formation of both cultural practices and the existential experience of modern individual. (shrink)

I offer an analysis of the role of aesthetic value in the formation of cultural memory. More specifically, I examine how cultural memory is formed through cultural artifacts that embody a connection to the past via aesthetic means. My approach is motivated by artifacts from small-scale preindustrial societies, which make it apparent that aesthetic values, rather than being pursued for their own sake alone, enhance other functions, such as maintaining cultural identity and bringing the (...) past into the present. I focus on rock art painting from the Kimberley, Australia, and effigies animated during rituals in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea to argue that, to play a significant role in the formation of cultural memory, aesthetic value must be aligned with implicit conceptions of time which inform the production of artifacts mediating cultural memory. This argument has implications for understanding differences in apprehending memory values and aesthetic values across cultural domains. (shrink)

This essay examines the response of Habermas and Giddens to postmodern criticisms of modernity. Although Giddens and Habermas recognize that the "totalizing critique" of poststructuralism lacks a convincing analysis of social interaction, neither of their perspectives adequately addresses the postmodern themes of aesthetics, play, and cultural memory. Giddens and Habermas believe that these dimensions of social life are important; yet they remain underdeveloped in their approaches. This essay explores the theoretical consequences of aesthetics, play, and cultural traditions (...) for social theory, drawing on the pragmatists, the psychoanalyst Winnicott, and early critical theory. The aesthetic and playful moments of experience must be recast in terms of social theory to avoid the solipsism so often characteristic of postmodernism. The essay ends by suggesting how the theories of Habermas and Giddens could benefit by a closer consideration of these issues. (shrink)

Utopias are embedded in contexts from which they derive meaning and significance. As a vehicle for speculation, intervention, and creativity, narrative utopia reflects the circumstances of its times, including its culture's relationship to the past. This article offers a survey of ways in which utopias engage with the problematics of historical memory both by looking to the past in the “real” world or in a mythical world and by positing fictional peoples with their own historical memory/ies, as instanced (...) in legends, libraries, works of art, and so on. The erasure or falsification of memory, on the other hand, appears as an important leitmotif of the dystopian imagination. By pointing out a variety of examples and issues, the article will attempt to bridge the existing gap between utopian studies and cultural memory studies. (shrink)

This essay considers Paul Ricœur’s early notion of cultural memory from 1956-1960. He discusses it in two texts: “What does Humanism Mean?” and the slightly later The Symbolism of Evil. In the former, cultural memory appears as an ongoing and dynamic process of retroaction focussed on questioning and rethinking the meaning of classical antiquity for contemporary worlds, on the one hand, that is linked to an important critical aspect as a counterweight to the flattening effects of (...) modernity, on the other. In the latter, cultural memory expands the reach of the classical heritage, and, in addition to retroaction, further modes of orientation, such as relations of depth and breadth, are delineated. At first glance, cultural memory, in Ricœur’s sense, appears to be embodied in the singular, albeit generalized self. Yet, in reconstructing its meaning, the essay argues that Ricœur’s articulation of cultural memory relies on an implicit collective dimension. The present essay’s hermeneutic reconstruction of Ricœur’s notion of cultural memory comprises a preliminary step of a broader project that aims to rearticulate Jan and Aleida Assmann’s cultural memory framework along social imaginary lines. In this vein, the essay concludes with an overview of the Assmannian approach to cultural memory and considers possible bridges between Ricœur and the Assmanns. (shrink)

Cinema has long played a crucial role in the way that societies remember and represent themselves. In the last quarter century, film has been an important medium in the public debate around the memory of the Holocaust and of Hiroshima; of the Algerian war for independence and of the Spanish Civil War; of the Allende legacy in Chile, the utopian dreams of 1968, and the aborted project of the German Democratic Republic; in identity formation in Palestine and in the (...) African diaspora. Hedges discusses the role of cinema within a global perspective that spans five continents, and proposes an original typology of cultural memory. In the process, she re-evaluates the contributions of major directors and uncovers hitherto neglected yet important works. The author develops her arguments in an approachable style that will encourage readers to rethink their own memories of films and to reflect on the way that cinema contributes to collective and cultural memory. The book's innovative approach should transform the way that we think of film and its social effects. (shrink)

Review of Paolo Cherchi-Usai _The Death of Cinema: History, Cultural Memory and the Digital Dark Age_ Preface by Martin Scorsese London: British Film Institute, 2001 ISBN 0851708374 (pb) 0851708382 (hb) 134 pp.

The paper discusses various aspects of the concept of “cultural memory” coined by Jan Assmann and related both to the problem of determining the categories of culture that became the first objects of philosophical reflection in the era of the Axial Age and to the issues of the modern crisis of the ideology of globalism and multiculturalism. Using the example of some categories of an archaic myth that have not lost their cultural and social relevance at present, (...) the variability of the genesis of philosophy in various civilizations of the epoch of the “Axial Age” is demonstrated - both those in which it arises as an independent form of worldview and those where this process stops at the stage of a highly speculative myth. Special attention is paid to the cultural and social aspects of memory and recollection of the past as forms of spiritual “resistance” to external cultural influences and the preservation of religious and ethnic identity, which is equally relevant both during the genesis of philosophy and in modern post-industrial society during the crisis of globalist ideology and the philosophy of multiculturalism. (shrink)

"The main spine of this book stems from a comprehensive series of interviews with subjects recalling their experiences of 1930s cinemagoing. Your feel the breath of life in these spectators, a rarity in film studies, thanks to the painstaking work contracting the interview subjects and recording and tabulating their testimony."- JUMPCUT In the 1930s, Britain had the highest annual per capita cinema attendance in the world, far surpassing ballroom dancing as the nation's favorite pastime. It was, as historian A.J.P. Taylor (...) said, the "essential social habit of the age." And yet, although we know something about the demographics of British cinemagoers, we know almost nothing of their experience of film, how film affected them, how it fit into their daily lives, what role cinema played in the larger culture of the time, and in what ways cinemagoing shaped the generation that came of age in the 1930s. In Dreaming of Fred and Ginger , Annette Kuhn draws upon contemporary publications, extensive interviews with cinemagoers themselves, and readings of selected film, to produce a provocative and perspective-altering ethno-historical study. Taking cinemagoers' accounts of their own experiences as both "the engine and product of investigation," Kuhn enters imaginatively into the world of 1930s cinema culture and analyzes its place in popular memory. Among the topics she examines are the physical space of the cinemas; the role film played in growing up; the experience of being a member of a cinema audience; film-inspired fantasies of American life; the importance of cinema to adolescence in offering role models, ideals of romance, as well as practical opportunities for courtship; and the sheer pleasure of watching such film stars as Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Nelson Eddy, Ronald Colman, and many others. Engagingly written and painstakingly researched, with contributions to film history, cultural studies, and social history, Dreaming of Fred and Ginger offers an illuminating account of a key moment in British cultural memory. (shrink)

The advent of AI calls for an existential self-redefinition of humanity. It necessitates the establishment of a pluralistic global humanist culture that enables us to coexist in the new world of active media and autopoietic technology. In this paper, related philosophical questions give rise to the proposal of a novel metaculture that elevates human heritages and cultural memories to the plane of a digital AI- based infrastructure. I argue for a balanced and holistic approach to human-to-human and human–AI interactions (...) and metaculture that can be developed in the form of combinatorial “metagames” that reflect the potential of human consciousness, transcend the boundaries between technology, human embodiment and biology, the arts, sciences and humanities, and philosophy, and, finally, include the element of meaningful coincidence and spontaneity “in the second potency.” Hermann Hesse’s final novel, The Glass Bead Game, offers a key to understanding this basic idea. His vision is extremely relevant today. Based on this, the concept of cultivating global cultural memories through innovative aesthetic-epistemic “Glass Bead Games 2.0” is discussed further from a systematic angle. To complement this, reference is also made to Hesse’s own source of inspiration: Novalis’s “encyclopedist” approach interlinks aesthetic and epistemic productivity in a way that could become a major starting point to create a new holistic metaculture in the Age of AI. (shrink)

Matthias Smalbrugge compares modern images to plays without a script: while they appear to refer to a deeper identity or reality, it is ultimately the image itself that truly matters. He argues that our modern society of images is the product of a destructive tendency in the Christian notion of the image in general, and Augustine of Hippo's in particular. This insight enables him to decode our current 'scripts' of image. As we live in an increasingly visual culture, we are (...) constantly confronted with images that seem to exist without a deeper identity or reality - but did this referential character really get lost over time? Smalbrugge first explores the roots of the modern image by analysing imagery, what it represents, and its moral state within the framework of Platonic philosophy. He then moves to the Augustinian heritage, in particular the Soliloquies, the Confessions and the Trinity, where he finds valuable insights into images and memory. He explores within the trinitarian framework the crossroads of a theology of grace and a theology based on Neoplatonic views. Smalbrugge ultimately answers two questions: what happened to the referential character of the image, and can it be recovered? (shrink)

Focusing on A Sketch of Sites and Objects in the Imperial Capital, this article examines how the primary author, Liu Tong, created and preserved the cultural memory of Beijing through writing the city’s scenic sites in the waning years of the Ming dynasty. Liu Tong, who sojourned in the capital then situated on the state’s frontier, observed Beijing during a period of comprehensive decay. This temporal and spatial framework affected the way he observed Beijing’s northern landscape features and (...) inspired him to both preserve the city’s literary and historical heritage and report on its current dilapidation. This study addresses Liu Tong’s literary strategies to preserve Beijing’s literary legacy and surviving landscapes, with particular attention to his adaptation of earlier travel writings about Beijing, his development of a new lyrical style of prose, and the portrayal of the immediate reality of his lived experience. (shrink)

This paper affords a Lotmanian cultural semiotic analysis of the inner workings of ritual embodying the mechanism of cultural memory. In this intersectional study, we propose treating ritual as an integral semiotic system in which the community follows a prescribed collective process to create religious or social meanings and to regulate the mechanism of cultural memory through concrete symbols in the forms of behavior, speech, gestures, objects, spatial structures, and so on. Three semiotic properties of (...) ritual in relation to cultural memory are identified, namely, continuity, concreteness, and integrity, which are jointly responsible for the efficacy of ritual in cultural memory making, or to be specific, in the preservation, retrieval, and even reproduction of cultural memory. With these properties, ritual helps construct and maintain socio-cultural order and group identity in the community, by repeating itself and thus creating a sense of continuity through the preservation and retrieval of cultural memory. The key components in ritual are its diverse and polysemous symbols, which are seldom confined to a specific context, although they are indeed subject to the dominant symbol and the dominant meaning in a ritual when necessary. With an extraordinary degree of autonomy and not bound to any fixed context, ritual symbols can enter a ritual situation as its components but retain the freedom of leaving the ritual context at any time, like an unchained “spectator,” and permeating multiple contexts as self-contained units. It is precisely through these transferrable ritual symbols that the fragments of cultural memory are randomly dispersed in the semiosphere and carried to unexpected socio-cultural contexts, bridging the past, the present, and the future and creating new cultural memory. (shrink)

A journey from cultural memory through recall to transformation of historical grievances is elucidated with the aid of phenomenological thought. The context for this study is a conflict resolution project undertaken by the Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction of the University of Virginia. Russians and Estonians of Klooga participated in a group meeting aimed at resolving ethnonational conflict. This meeting is described, and the potential of phenomenology in an interdisciplinary approach to conflict resolution is (...) explored. (shrink)

In this volume some of today's most influential thinkers face the question of philosophy's future and find an answer in its past.

The dance traditions embedded within the intangible cultural heritage of Shaanxi are not merely artistic expressions but also profound carriers of spiritual narratives, ritualistic symbolism, and collective memory. However, the modernization process has led to significant challenges in their preservation, including the aging of inheritors and the weakening of traditional transmission mechanisms. This study explores the philosophical and spiritual dimensions of Shaanxi’s intangible dance heritage, emphasizing its role in religious ceremonies, moral teachings, and metaphysical expressions of human connection (...) to the cosmos. Guided by theories of intangible cultural heritage protection and cultural ecology, this research examines the preservation and inheritance of Shaanxi’s traditional dance forms, integrating both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. National and provincial intangible cultural heritage dance traditions are systematically analyzed, and an evaluative framework is developed to assess their historical, cultural, and spiritual significance. Using the hierarchical analysis method, the study determines weighted evaluation indices and applies a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model to quantify the value of these dance traditions. The results reveal that _Ansai Waist Drum_ holds exceptional historical and cultural significance (95 points) and strong regional characteristics (95 points), reflecting its deep-rooted ritualistic and communal importance. Similarly, _Shaanbei Yangge_ scores highly in historical and cultural value (85 points) and regional identity (90 points), demonstrating its role in shaping the spiritual consciousness of the local community. In contrast, _Huazhou Back Flower Drums_ face considerable challenges in preservation, with lower scores across cultural value (65), regional significance (75), and innovation potential (50), highlighting the urgent need for renewed conservation efforts. By situating these dance traditions within the broader discourse of religious philosophy and sacred aesthetics, this study argues that Shaanxi’s intangible dance heritage embodies more than artistic expression—it serves as a bridge between past and present, the material and the transcendent. The research proposes targeted preservation strategies that prioritize not only cultural continuity but also the revitalization of the spiritual and philosophical dimensions inherent in these dances. Future research should explore the intersection of ritual, movement, and metaphysical thought in dance traditions, further contributing to the understanding of intangible cultural heritage as a medium of religious and philosophical reflection. (shrink)

본 논문은 ‘세월호 사태’를 중심으로 ‘기억’의 사회정치학적 메커니즘을 통해 현 한국 사회의 구조적 모순점을 분석하고, 인간의 ‘공감능력’을 중심으로 그 해결방안을 모색해나가고자 하는데 그 목적이 있다. 이를 위해 먼저 ‘반공/안보주의’와 ‘경쟁적 자본주의 체제’를 통한 현 한국사회의 배타적 가치관 형성배경과 그 사회구조적 특징을 살펴보았다. 그리고 이로부터 파생되는 억압된 사회문화적 기억을 통한 한국 사회의 집단 트라우마 현상을 고찰하였다. 한국사회의 구조적 모순점을 해결하기 위해서는 억압받는 사회구성원들의 자기 공감과정을 통한 정치세력화, 그리고 타자에 대한 공감능력을 중심으로 한 억압된 사회문화적 기억의 활성화 과정 및 사회적 연대과정을 탐색하였다. (...) 마지막으로 타자와의 차이의 인정을 통한 상호 문화적 가치관을 통해 보다 성숙한 현대사회로의 이행가능성을 모색하였다. (shrink)

The momentum of globalization and universalism, operating through the media, information technology and politics, has steadily diminished the importance of cultural diversity. It has even threatened to erase many of our cultural traditions, or extinguish our diverse experiences of the sacred. Yet the sacred which seems to be lost is often still encased in our cultural objects, stories and religious rituals. This paper will discuss how the memories of the sacred can be both preserved and reawakened. This (...) paper will focus on three scholars who develop alternative approaches to the universal. Franz Rosenzweig saw universal historical progress as oppressive. He believed that the practice of his Jewish religion offered a resistance and a possible correction to the general movement of history. Walter Benjamin saw the forgotten 'ruins' of history encase memories of the sacred and the silenced voices within history. For Benjamin, the role of interpretation is to awaken these hidden memories and voices which are encoded within our objects, images and commodities. This led him to a particular idea of a momentary messianic redemption in relation to greater flow of time. And finally, Jacob Taubes read St. Paul as offering a revolutionary model on how to live one's particular faith within a wider political order. In general, each writer developed an idea of redemption which involves a kind of remembrance of what has been obscured by the more general universal movement of history itself. This is especially relevant for the various religious and cultural communities within Cambodia. The paper will begin and end by discussing the origin story of Cambodia – the marriage between Preah Thong, the Indian prince, and Neag Neak, the Naga princess. I will additionally try to demonstrate that the story and its various reenactments is important because it represents a regenerative process rooted in the eclectic character of South East Asian culture in general. Various forms of memory within the syncretic or eclectic context of Southeast Asia can operate to preserve the sacred in an age of universalization and globalization. It also illustrates how the performance of memory can also offer an antidote to the "trauma" of Cambodia's past. (shrink)

Two decades ago, East European state socialism met with a paradoxical fate. Between 1989 and 1991, communist party hegemony was abolished, leaving the very idea of socialism permanently discredited—or so it seemed. Yet in the decade that followed, “socialistic” principles and practices would retain—or perhaps acquire—a surprising degree of popular appeal. Was this a cultural legacy of systematic indoctrination? A strategic response to material insecurities? Perhaps a combination of both? In this article, it is argued that many previous efforts (...) to unravel the paradox are inadequate because they ignore both the “strategic” dimensions of culture and the cultural dimensions of instrumental reason. Using life-history data on the former East Germany, it is shown that apparently discredited ideologies can acquire renewed salience in the wake of regime change if they (1) remain culturally available as strategies of action that (2) provided material opportunities or symbolic privileges in the past, and (3) promise to ameliorate new problems engendered by alternative strategies. (shrink)

프로이트의 모세 및 유일신교의 성립 배경에 대한 연구는 정치신학의 논의 확산과 최근 이집트학의 재발견이라는 새로운 분위기 속에서 주목의 대상이 되고 있다. 이 논문은 프로이트의 마지막 저서 『인간 모세와 유일신교』의 출판 배경과 의도를 살펴보면서, 그의 모세-이집트인설과 유일신교 비판이 독일 나치주의의 반유대주의의 확산을 저지하려는 정치신학적 의도를 숨기고 있다는 사실을 부각시키고자 한다. 이집트학자 얀 아스만에 의하면, 모세의 유대교는 유일신교이나 아케나텐의 아톤교는 우주신교라는 점에서 차이가 있으며, 프로이트가 ‘역사적 인물’ 모세를 중시하는 반면, 문화적 기억이론에서는 ‘기억의 인물’ 모세를 대상으로 한다.BR 프로이트가 유대인 증오의 근원이 유일신교를 수립한 (...) 모세 그 자신에 있다고 말한 것처럼, 아스만 역시 유일신교는 참된 종교와 거짓 종교를 구별하는 이른바 ‘모세구별’에서 시작되었고, 따라서 모세구별의 폐지를 통해서만 억압과 폭력의 해체가 가능하다고 주장한다. 아스만은 프로이트가 “모세구별의 가장 노골적인 반대자”로서 반유대주의의 확산을 저지하려는 분명한 입장을 가졌다고 평가한다. 반유대주의적 증오가 나치주의 시대의 기독교인들에게 전이되는 가운데, 프로이트는 기독교의 실질적인 창시자 유대인 바울을 ‘유대교의 파괴자’인 동시에 ‘유대교의 계승자’라고 평가한다. 바로 이 지점에서 타우베스는 바울을 정치신학적으로 해석하기 시작하였으며, 아스만이 그것을 계승하였다. 프로이트가 기술하는 ‘역사적 모세’는 ‘예언자 모세’가 아니라 ‘법제정자와 정치적 개조로서 모세’이고, 그가 단행한 ‘구별’에서 유대인 혐오가 발생한 것이다. 따라서 ‘역사적 환원에 의한 해체’(니체)로서 프로이트의 유일신교 비판은 정치신학적 권능을 가지고 있다. 타우베스가 바울을 정치신학자로 해석한 것처럼, 아스만은 프로이트의 유일신교 비판에서 정치신학적 요소를 발굴한 것이다. (shrink)

Jan Assman traces the roots of Mosaic Religion back to its Aegyptian origin. Reading the Holy Bible often makes one think that Moses was Hebrew. But Moses was an adopted Agyptian, as we become aware. Cultural memory is certainly stored in books, but at the same time it is a memory that forms our perception as human beings.

David Houston Jones builds a bridge between practices conventionally understood as forensic, such as crime scene investigation, and the broader field of activity which the forensic now designates, for example performance and installation art, as well as photography. Contemporary work in these areas responds both to forensic evidence, including crime scene photography, and to some of the assumptions underpinning its consumption. It asks how we look, and in whose name, foregrounding and scrutinising the enduring presence of voyeurism in visual media (...) and instituting new forms of ethical engagement. Such work responds to the object-oriented culture associated with the forensic and offers a reassessment of the relationship of human voice and material evidence. It displays an enduring debt to the discursive model of testimony which has so far been insufficiently recognised, and which forms the basis for a new ethical understanding of the forensic. Jones's analysis brings this methodology to bear upon a strand of contemporary visual activity which has the power to significantly redefine our understandings of the production, analysis and deployment of evidence. Artists examined include Forensic Architecture, Simon Norfolk, Melanie Pullen, Angela Strassheim, John Gerrard, Julian Charrière, Trevor Paglen, Laura Poitras and Sophie Ristelhueber. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture, literary studies, modern languages, photography and critical theory. (shrink)

J. Assmann, Religion and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (R. Livingstone trans; Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006), ISBN 0804745226, 222 pp.

My artistic inquiries draw from gender and sexuality in public space and use performance as process. In inspiration, the works emerge as aesthetic responses to post-colonial, gendered public identi...

This article has a twofold scope: I want to suggest that the term “philosophical archaeology” is a methodologically significant concept which is relevant when working historically with the humanities—texts primarily. As a means for this the two most interesting philosophical archaeologists will play a key role: Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben. Furthermore, I want to discuss why philosophical archaeology is needed when working critically with what Jan Assmann so famously has defined as cultural memory scholarship. For this purpose (...) Carlo Ginzburg’s concept of, especially, the principle of reality will be discussed lastly where also the difference—or, perhaps, the alleged difference-between law and history, proof and fact will be debated. (shrink)

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 4, Page 538-539, July 2012.