On the matter of forgetting and ‘memory returns’

Abstract

Much geographical attention is paid to issues of memory and its relationship to place. Yet, there has been less disciplinary interrogation of what goes on when one forgets. This paper argues that forgetting, as it involves active embodied, material and spatial practices of producing absences, is just as salient as its counterpart, and worthy of analysis on its own terms. Drawing on the personal experiences of individuals who went through the Second World War in Malaysia, this paper first examines individuals' strategies for obscuring if not obliterating memories that are personally traumatic and injurious to well-being. The paper then shows how these memories can re-emerge, frequently in an involuntary or unexpected fashion, despite attempts to render them pass e. In doing so, the paper espouses forgetting as a 'productive' practice; yet such practice is frequently incomplete as materials limit -as well as support -explicit efforts to keep the past in the past. More broadly, it challenges the valorisation of 'presence' in human-landscape interactions to expose the ways 'absence' too is imbricated in the everyday milieu.

Rethinking heritage, but ‘from below’

“…Formed on the bedrock of discussions related to 'alternative' or 'peripheral' critical geographies generally (see Minca 2003;Berg 2010) and critical heritage studies specifically (Winter and Waterton 2013), the 'critical' in the subtitle also relates to the undoing of the binary that often pitches AHD as 'bad' and HFB as 'good'. What clearly emerges in the chapters that follow is that the two are at times almost impossible to disentangle, especially when AHD seeks to (or at least appears to) co-opt HFB for its purposes (Blackburn 2013), or where HFB may rely heavily on what AHD affords it in order to do its tasks, such as to achieve more visibility (see Johnson 2011;Muzaini 2015).…”

“…In fact, HFB may also serve to (sometimes inadvertently) reproduce dominant official discourses or even be motivated by hidden agendas (Aigner 2016). Some work has indeed shown how, in cases of 'difficult heritage', individuals too may seek to play down or forget altogether the past (see Till 2005;Dwyer and Alderman 2008;MacDonald 2010;Muzaini 2014Muzaini , 2015. Witcomb and Buckley (2013, p. 563), for instance, suggest for us to 'move away from the idea that critique should only come from the bottom up', lamenting the lack of concern for the fact that HFB as 'critique does not need to be accountable to issues concerning its implementation'.…”

“…Given that there can be as many alternative interpretations of the past as there are interpreters, HFB can also be responsible for having its own preferred heritages (as defined by a few, driven by their own motives) such that it too may be culpable, as AHD, of playing down or eliding altogether elements of the past. It is not uncommon to find, for instance, examples of visitors to a heritage site who do not want to hear stories that diverge from rehearsed, 'well-known', narratives about a particular past, or situations in which the public may be divided in terms of how they feel the past should be represented (Dwyer 2000;Smith 2006;Muzaini 2015). There are also those who feel that, while everyone may have a personal story or understanding of the past, these stories are not always to be emphasized since they may risk bringing up unwanted and traumatic memories (see Muzaini 2012Muzaini , 2014.…”

“…In fact, much production of heritage and its related practices may be missed, especially if one is not deliberately seeking them or if the respondents simply do not care to bring these up in interviews. Central to the approach guiding this book, therefore, is the extent to which our experiences of formal as well as informal heritage sites are frequently influenced not only by the carefully choreographed routes and narratives of heritagescapes, but also by the material surroundings and by our own positionalities, which then form an ever transient and evolving assemblage determining how we feel and what we think at any given time (Muzaini 2015). Our aim here is thus to capture the more fluid ways in which individuals and groups not only participate in the production of, but also engage with, heritagescapes that may be overlooked in more conventional ethnographies of (sites and practices of) heritage.…”

Historical geography III: Hope persists

“…Sometimes, the re-emergence of the past is not only disruptive of space-time, but also unwelcome and feared. Hamzah Muzaini (2015) discusses the process of 'wanting to forget' through the personal experiences of individuals who experienced the Second World War in Malaysia. Focusing on how individuals choose to forget their past, Muzaini (2015:104) explores 'conspiring silences, enacting absences and embodying avoidance'.…”