Presenting unwieldy pasts

Abstract

In the rich and varied work of memory studies, scholars have turned to exploring the meanings that different communities assign to the past, the social mediations of memories, as well as how the memories of subaltern subjects re-signify the relationship between history and memory. This special issue explores the ever present dynamics of unwieldy pasts through what have been termed “the spectral turn” and “the forensic turn.” We argue that specters (which appear in the literature as ghosts, or as haunting) and exhumations defy notions of temporality or resolution. Both trace the social dynamics that redefine the meanings of the past and that voice suffering, expose institutions’ limits, reveal disputes, explore affect and privilege political resistance. They draw from significant intellectual traditions across disciplinary and thematic boundaries in the natural and social sciences, the humanities, art and fiction. Their intellectual subjects range from work that explores the political struggles of confronting slavery and the possibility of reparations in the Americas long after it was formally abolished, to sensitive treatments of graves of Franco’s Spain. We suggest that both the spectral turn and the forensic turn have provided lenses to conceptualize the social life of unwieldy pasts, by exploring its dynamics, practices, and the cultural transmissions. They have also offered a language to communities that mobilize the political strength of resentment, deepened by the late phase of global capitalism and its consequent, deepening inequalities.

Naming and framing victims: Identity, ‘usable’ victimhood, and the spectral turn in transitional justice

“…However, as the ‘spectral turn’ in TJ literature has increasingly shown, such spectral figures invariably return to ‘haunt’ and ‘unsettle’ the post-conflict present, whether through keeping past injustices alive, demanding acknowledgement, or broadening our victimological worldview (Hite and Jara, 2020; Lawther, 2021; Willems, 2021). When confronted with these spectral figures, transitioning societies are forced to either ‘welcome’ or ‘reject’ them (Lorek-Jezinska and Wieckowska, 2017).…”

“…Regardless of how exactly Hugh McCabe is differentially framed by various communities of memory, the decision to ‘welcome’ him into competing collective memories in furtherance of post-conflict claims-making demonstrates how spectral figures can become focal points for transformative action (Hite and Jara, 2020). McCabe’s memory has thus emerged from the ‘shadow world’ to ‘unsettle’ the post-conflict present by becoming central to mobilisation by Nationalists in the metaconflict, to veteran grievances with the ‘dealing with the past’ process, and to a familial campaign for truth and justice.…”

“…Naturally, the 'spectral turn' has percolated into studies on TJ and memorialisation (Lawther, 2021;Willems, 2021), with a growing awareness of, and receptiveness to, the 'memory holes' (Brewer, 2020) that previously forgotten, silenced, or denied victims return to fill as 'spectres'. These 'spectres', the TJ literature notes, have a disruptive potential to unsettle claims-making in the present by resisting state power and official 'truth', demanding acknowledgement and accountability, and stretching the victimological boundaries of dominant narratives (Hite and Jara, 2020).…”

Keepers of the Grave: Ritual Guides, Ghosts, and Hidden Narratives in Indonesian History

“…However, this national narrative formed through monuments reveals an unwieldy past as the Indonesian killings of 1965 cannot be explained away easily despite the Suharto regime expending vast ideological resources in silencing the event. As such, cracks continue to reveal “something simmering below the surface, what has haunted, continues to be exposed, unearthed and visibly awakened” (Hite & Jara, 2020, p. 246). In this article, I utilize oral interviews conducted over 3 years of fieldwork in and around the central Javanese city of Semarang.…”

Texas, monuments, toward a politics of self-reckoning

“…Little mobilizes memories of his ancestors to preserve and even weaponize the violent myth that the Civil War was not about slavery (Hirsch, 2019: 2). Amos-McGehee mobilizes ancestral memories toward a public reckoning-both a recognition that the Confederate statue monumentalizes this violent white supremacist myth, and a demand that white civic leaders act to remove it (Hite and Jara, 2020; see also Gordon, 2008). She joins black and multiracial coalitions of activists across the country who call upon whites to connect the racist violence of the past to racist violence in the here and now, and often, to face their own deeply internalized racism.…”