CULT 364 – Topics in Memory Studies: “Collective Memory in the Aftermath of Mass Violence”
Instructor: Esen Egemen Özbek
Time: Tuesday – 10:40-13:30 – FASS 1098
Thursday – 9:40-12:30 – FASS 1089
Office: TBA
Office hours: Thursday – 13:30-14:30
Email address:
Course Description
In this course we will look at the ways in which collective memory is formed, sustained and disseminated in the aftermath of mass violence and systematic violation of human rights. As the burgeoning field of memory studies shows, collective memory is a contested political and cultural field where different claims over history are formed and negotiated. Acts of remembrance, commemoration, bereavement and efforts to find the “historical truth” after mass violence put tremendous pressure on both perpetrator and victim groups in terms of coming to terms with the past.
During the course we will work with the theoretical and case-based tools to understand acts of memory. Beginning with laying the groundwork for collective memory as a theoretical framework of analysis, we will then focus on investigating conceptual sites such as ethics and politics of memory, trauma, witnessing, justice and reconciliation. Weekly readings on case studies will help us understand how these concepts are mobilized to explain some problems of coming to terms with past atrocities at the local, national or global level.
Grading
Class Participation30%
Take-Home Midterm30%
Final Paper40%
Course Requirements
- Class Participation: 30%
This course is a seminar. You are expected to come having done the readings and ready to participate in the class discussion. Consistent attendance and active participation are essential for success in this class.
- Take-Home Midterm: 30%
You will be required to answer two essay questions based on course readings and classroom discussions. You may refer to work outside the syllabus and class discussion, but the goal is to give you a chance to reflect on the readings and provide your own analysis of the relationship between tools and thinking.The approximate total page length will be 6-8 pages. Late midterms will not be accepted without prior approval.
- Final Paper: 40%
You will be required to submit a final paper at the end of the term and this paper will make up the largest portion of your grade. You can choose any topic as it relates to collective memory and mass violence. However, I recommend you to make sure that your topic is not too ambitious; make sure your topic is narrow enough to allow you to do it justice in the limited space you have.
Proposal and Bibliography: 5%
The first step in planning your final paper will be preparing a short (250-300 words) proposal that states your given topic and how you intent to explore it. Attached to your proposal you should include a bibliography of at least 5 academic sources which you intend to use for your research. Please take care writing this proposal, as it will be invaluable in allowing me to give you feedback that will help guide you in the research and writing of your paper.
Draft: 5%
Next step in planning your final paper will be writing up a draft of your paper. In writing this draft you are looking for a flow of ideas. Write using your proposal and research notes as guides. Do not worry about correct spelling or punctuation at this stage. Remember that the purpose of a draft is to see if you have a logical progression of arguments and sufficient supporting material. Drafts will receive comments and suggestions, but will not be graded. Drafts will be returned to you during the next week.
Final Paper: 30%
Your final paper should be between 2000-2500 words. You are expected to make a clearly formulated argument about the topic you have chosen in your introduction, and then spend the body of your paper elaborating on that argument with examples that you thoughtfully analyze. You must use at least 7 academic resources in your paper. You must use formal citations in your essays.
Writing Guidelines:
All paper assignments must be double-spaced and typed in a standard 12 pitch font. Your name, the course name and number and the date must be on the first page of all written assignments. Please do not include cover page. Do not forget to have page numbers on all pages except the first one. Adhere to standard writing guidelines and use parenthetical citations (not endnotes or footnotes) in citing sources. Citations and style must conform to a standard style manual and be consistent.
Session 1: Introduction
Session 2: Mass Violence and Memory
Required Readings:
Minow, Martha. “Facing History.” Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. 118-147.
Winter, Jay and Emmanuel Sivan. “Setting the Framework.” War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century. Eds. Jay Winter and Emmanuel Sivan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 6-39.
Suggested Readings:
Hirsch, Herbert. “Trivializing Human Memory: Social Science Methods and Genocide Scholarship.” Genocide and the Politics of Memory: Studying Death to Preserve Life. 1995. 73-82.
Lemarchand, René. "The Politics of Memory in Post-Genocide Rwanda." After Genocide: Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond. Eds. Phil Clark and Zachary D. Kaufman. London : Hurst, 2008.
Session 3: Collective Memory
Required Readings:
Halbwachs, Maurice. “Historical Memory and Collective Memory.” The Collective Memory. Trans. Francis J. Ditter, JR and Vida Yazdi Ditter. New York: Harper & Row, 1980. 50-87.
Nora, Pierre. "Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire." Representations, 26. Spring 1989. 7-25.
Suggested Reading:
Olick, Jeffrey K. “Collective Memory: The Two Cultures.” The Politics of Regret: On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility. New York; London: Routledge, 2007. 17-35.
Session 4: Collective Memory as Syndrome
Required Reading:
Rousso, Henry. The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944. Trans. Arthur Goldhammer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991. 1-167.
Session 5: Memories and Counter-Memories
Required Reading:
Jelin, Elizabeth. “Political Struggles for Memory” and “History and Social Memory.” State Repression and the Labours of Memory. Trans. Judy Rein and Marcial Godoy-Anativia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. 26-45; 46-59.
Suggested Readings:
Dwyer, Leslie. "A Politics of Silences: Violence, Memory, and Treacherous Speech in post-1965 Bali." Genocide: Truth, Memory, and Representation. Eds. Alenxander Laban Hinton and Kevin Lewis O'Neill. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. 113-146.
Sheftel, Anna. "'Monument to the international community, from the grateful citizens of Sarajevo': Dark humour as counter-memory in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina. Memory Studies. 2011.
Session 6: Memories and Counter-Memories II
Required Reading:
Dixon, Jennifer M. "Defending the Nation?: Maintaining Turkey’s Narrative of the Armenian Genocide.” South European Society and Politics, 15:3. September 2010. 467-485.
Suggested Readings:
Linke, Uli. “Archives of Violence: The Holocaust and the German Politics of Memory.” Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide. Ed. Alexander Laban Hinton. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. 229-271.
Rodman, Debra H. “Forgotten Guatemala: Genocide, Truth, and Denial in Guatemala’s Oriente.” Genocide: Truth, Memory, and Representation. Eds. Alexander Laban Hinton and Kevin Lewis O'Neill. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. 192-218.
Session 7: Ethics of Memory
Required Reading:
Margalit, Avishai. "Introduction" and "Forgiving and Forgetting." The Ethics of Memory. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press, 2002. 1-17; 183-209.
Suggested Readings:
Blustein, Jeffrey. "Ethics, Truth, and Collective Memory." The Moral Demands of Memory. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 176-239.
Thompson, Janna. "Apology, Historical Obligations and the Ethics of Memory." Memory Studies, 2:2. 2009.
Session 8: Trauma
Required Readings:
Caruth, Cathy. "Unclaimed Experience: Trauma and the Possibility of History." Yale French Studies, 79. 1991.
Dawson, Graham. "Trauma, Place and the Politics of Memory: Bloody Sunday, Derry, 1972-2004." History Workshop Journal, 59. Spring 2005.
Suggested Reading:
Eyerman, Ron. 2004. “Cultural Trauma: Slavery and the Formation of African American Identity.” Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity. Eds. Alexander, Jeffrey et al. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. 60-111.
Session 9: Witnessing
Required Readings:
Das, Veena. “The Act of Witnessing: Violence, Poisonous Knowledge, and Subjectivity.” Violence and Subjectivity. Eds. Veena Das, Arthur Kleinman, Mamphela Ramphele, and Pamela Reynolds. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 2000. 205-225.
Hirsch, Marianne and Leo Spitzer. "The Witness in the Archive: Holocaust Studies/Memory Studies," Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates. Ed. Susannah Radstone and Bill Schwarz. New York: Fordham University Press, 2010. 390-405.
Suggested Reading:
Allan, Diana. "The Politics of Witness: Remembering and Forgetting 1948 in Shatila Camp." Nakba: Palestine, 1948 and the Claims of Memory. Eds. Ahmad Sa'di and Lila Abu-Lughod. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. 252-282.
Session 10: Forgetting
Required Readings:
Connerton, Paul. "Seven Types of Forgetting." Memory Studies, 1:1. January 2008. 59-71.
Buckley-Zistel, Susanne. "Remembering to Forget: Chosen Amnesia as a Strategy for Local Coexistence in Post-Genocide Rwanda." Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, 76:2. 2006. 131-150.
Suggested Reading:
Zur, Judith. "Remembering and Forgetting: Guatemalan War-Widows' Forbidden Memories." Trauma: Life Stories of Survivors. Eds. K. L. Rogers et al. New Brunswick: Transaction, 2004.
Session 11: Archive
Required Readings:
Steedman, Carolyn. "The Space of Memory: In an Archive." Dust. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001. 66-88.
Ahiska, Meltem. "Occidentalism and Registers of Truth: The Politics of Archives in Turkey." New Perspectives on Turkey, 34. Spring 2006. 9-29.
Session 12: Gender
Required Readings:
Coombes, Annie E. "The Gender of Memory in Post-Apartheid South Africa," Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates. Ed. Susannah Radstone and Bill Schwarz. New York: Fordham University Press, 2010. 442-457.
Jacobs, Janet Liebman. “Gender and Collective Memory: Women and Representation at Aushwitz.” Memorializing the Holocaust: Gender, Genocide and Collective Memory. London; New York: I. B. Tauris, 2010. 27-48.
Suggested Reading:
Stockwell, Jill. "Women's Affective Memories of Trauma and the Transmission of Emotional Knowledge in Argentina." Memory Studies, 4:1. January 2011. 73-82.
Session 13: Post-memory
Required Reading:
Hirsch, Marianne. "The Generation of Postmemory." Poetics Today, 29:1, 2008.
Suggested Reading:
Larkin, Craig. "Beyond the War? The Lebanese Postmemory Experience." International Journal of Middle East Studies, 42, 2010.
Session 14: Human Rights
Required Reading:
Levy, Daniel and Natan Sznaider. "The Ubiquity of Human Rights in a Cosmopolitan Age." Human Rights and Memory. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010.
Suggested Readings:
Rosoux, Valerie. "Human Rights and the 'Work of Memory' in International Relations." Journal of Human Rights, 3:2. 2004.
Palmie, Stephan. "Slavery, Historicism, and the Poverty of Memorialization." Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates. Ed. Susannah Radstone and Bill Schwarz. New York: Fordham University Press, 2010. 363-375.
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