The Future of the Past: Countermemory and Postmemory in Contemporary American Post-Holocaust Narratives

Sicher, Efraim

doi:10.1353/ham.2000.0008

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Such collective memories have been described by Emile Durkheim (c1933/1964) as collective conscience because of their role in forming, maintaining, or reinforcing group identity. Shared values may emerge from collective memories and also shape how collective memories are represented (Sicher 2001). …”

Section: Collective Memory Social Learning and Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

Stewardship, learning, and memory in disaster resilience

Tidball

Krasny

Svendsen

et al. 2010

Environmental Education Research

130

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Section: Collective Memory Social Learning and Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

Stewardship, learning, and memory in disaster resilience

Tidball

Krasny

Svendsen

et al. 2010

Environmental Education Research

130

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“…A project such as this clearly represents “vicarious witnessing,” whereby visitors bear witness to events that they have never experienced (Sicher 2001). Visitors use these sites in search of a usable past and identity (Sicher 2001). After staying the night in the Royall House slave quarters, one participant tearfully stated,One of the things my father didn’t want to talk about was our slave-holding ancestry .…”

Section: Sleeping In Slave Quarters: Assuaging Guilt or Creating Signmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Students had an overnight stay in the slave quarters, toured the University of Mississippi, and discussed its ties to slavery. A project such as this clearly represents "vicarious witnessing," whereby visitors bear witness to events that they have never experienced (Sicher 2001). Visitors use these sites in search of a usable past and identity (Sicher 2001).…”

Section: Sleeping In Slave Quarters: Assuaging Guilt or Creating Signmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some have argued that we should preserve physical structures, such as statues and slave quarters, while others feel that these memories are too painful (Horton 1999; Horton and Horton 2006; Vlach 2006). Past studies have offered insight on how memory contests solidify current identities or construct new ones (Horton and Horton 2006; Lieb 2004; Markovitz 2004; Sicher 2001). Studies of tourism have addressed the use of slavery as spectacle (Araujo 2010; Gardullo 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Royall Must Fall: Old and New Battles on the Memory of Slavery in New England

Beeman

2018

Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

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There is much scholarly and public debate over how slavery should be remembered, especially in the southern United States. We have seen this recently with the case of Charlottesville, Virginia, where protest ensued over a statue of Robert E. Lee. However, attention should also be paid to the history of slavery in the northern United States, particularly in places such as New England, where attempts were made to silence this history. The author analyzes the archives of the Royall House Association to study the historic preservation and presentation of the Isaac Royall House and slave quarters in Medford, Massachusetts. Royall and his connections to Harvard University have recently gained more attention with nationwide protests against racism on college campuses. Drawing on critical race theory, research on racism denial, and scholarship on history and memory, the author analyzes public narratives on how the Royall House should be remembered. The author teases out the various purposes battles over public memory serve and what their outcomes are and addresses whether these contests are largely symbolic or if they play an important role in dismantling racism. The author finds three main outcomes of these memory projects: to make invisible a racist past and uphold white supremacy, to serve as an illusion of progress with an attempt to assuage guilt, and to make an impact against racism.

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“…Based on open-ended interviews, which I conducted with individuals born in Serbia, Bosnia andHerzegovina, andCroatia in Serbia during 2008-2011, I found that some respondents made spontaneous references to WWII in their statements, usually drawing parallels between the cycle of violence in the 1990s and in the 1940s, while others did not. 2 second-generation descendants of Holocaust survivors (Hirsch 2008, 103-128;Sicher 2000;Waterston and Rylko-Bauer 2006). Hirsch refers to the new identity that emerges through the process of "remembering" as the "generation of postmemory" (2008,107).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory and identity: intergenerational narratives of violence among refugees in Serbia

Dragojević

2013

Natl. pap.

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This article examines the role of the intergenerational memory of the Second World War (WWII) in identity formation and political mobilization. An existing explanation in the ethnic-conflict literature is that strategic political leaders play a crucial role in constructing and mobilizing ethnic identities. However, based on 114 open-ended interviews with individuals born in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, conducted in Serbia during 2008–2011, nearly a third of the respondents make spontaneous references to WWII in their statements, usually drawing parallels between the cycle of violence in the 1990s and that in the 1940s. The question this article asks, then, is why some respondents make references to WWII spontaneously while others do not. It is argued that intergenerational narratives of past cycles of violence also constitute a process of identity formation, in addition to, or apart from, other processes of identity formation. The respondents mention WWII violence in the context of the 1990s events because they “recognize” elements, such as symbols, discourse or patterns of violence, similar to those in the intergenerational narratives and interpret them as warning signs. Hence, individuals who had previously been exposed to intergenerational narratives may be subsequently more susceptible to political mobilization efforts.

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The Future of the Past: Countermemory and Postmemory in Contemporary American Post-Holocaust Narratives

Cited by 10 publications

References 45 publications

Stewardship, learning, and memory in disaster resilience

Stewardship, learning, and memory in disaster resilience

Royall Must Fall: Old and New Battles on the Memory of Slavery in New England

Memory and identity: intergenerational narratives of violence among refugees in Serbia

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