CRN: 78491

class email list: anth608-l@hawaii.edu

course website on WebCT server: http://wct01.hawaii.edu/webct/public/home.pl

Objectives

Stories about the past (sometimes called histories) play a central role in the life of nations, social movements, and personal lives. Given the close affinity of “memory” and “culture,” anthropology has long taken a special interest in stories about the past, especially the collective past. This seminar will explore a variety of disciplinary approaches to contemporary memory-making, emphasizing the ethnographic study of historical representation and the contestations that surround it. In particular, we will ask how the tools of ethnography may be used to analyze the poetics and politics of cultural memory, whether in ordinary conversation, museums, media, or grand ceremony.

How and where is collective memory created in today's globalizing societies? What are the social and political conditions of remembering and forgetting? In answering these questions we will explore historical representation in a variety of media (oral narrative, textbooks, film, photographs, architecture, the internet) and institutional sites (such as museums, memorials, commemorative practices, tourist sites, malls).

The seminar will provide an opportunity for students to pursue ethnographic and historical projects that extend their own research interests. Seminar assignments and discussions will encourage collaborative work and critical dialogue about the assumptions and strategies of current approaches to social memory.

Requirements

Active student participation is required and will consist of preparation, class discussion, and oral presentation of project research. These three components will make up 30% of the final grade. The remaining 70 % will consist of written assignments in the form of a written critique (5-8 pages) of one of the ethnographies discussed in class (20%), and a 15-20 page research paper (50%). The final paper offers an opportunity for class members to pursue independent research on topics related to the production of collective memory. These may involve fieldwork, analysis of media formations, or critical assessment of published work.

Required Texts:

Flores, Richard, Remembering the Alamo: Memory, Modernity, and the Master Symbol

Handler, R. & E. Gable, The New History in an Old Museum

Halbwachs, Maurice, On Collective Memory

Rosenstone, Robert, Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to our Idea of History

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. Silencing the Past

Yoneyama, Lisa, Hiroshima Traces: Time, Space, and the Dialectics of Memory

Optional texts:

Fujitani, T., White, G. and L. Yoneyama, Perilous Memories: The Asia-Pacific War(s)

Gillis, John, Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity

Rosenzweig, Roy and David Thelen. The Presence of the Past: popular uses of history in American life

Sturken, Marita, Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering

Young, James. At Memory's Edge: After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture

Wallace, Mike, Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory.

Week by week outline:

I. Introduction

Aug 22: 1. Introduction

no reading assigned

Aug 29: 2. History & Memory: Disciplinary Takes

(Klein 2000) pp. 127-150

(Nora 1989) pp. 7-25

(H. White 1996) pp. 58-78

(Young 2000) pp. 1-11, 12-41

(Huyssen 2003) pp 1-29

(Trouillot 1995) pp 1-30

(Hau'ofa 2000) pp. 453-71

II. Memory: Individual / Collective // Personal / Public

Sept 5: 3. LABOR DAY HOLIDAY: NO CLASS

(develop project proposals)

Sept 12: 4. Thinking through September 11 [PROJECT ABSTRACTS DUE]

(Butler 2002)

(Spiegelman 2004) Preface pp 1-2

(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3908199)

(White 2004) pp. 293-310

(Sturken 2004) pp. 311-325

article or website of own choosing on 2005 anniversary

film: In Memoriam: New York City 9/11/01

Sept 19: 5. Collective Memory / Personal Memory

(Coser 1992) pp. 37-40, 46-84, 167-189

(Gedi and Elam 1996) pp. 30-50

(Neisser 1982) pp. 3-19, 43-48

(White 2000a) pp. 493-510

(Cole 2001) Pp. 1-34 (especially 1-8, 22-30)

(Rosenzweig and Thelen 1998) pp.1-36

Sept 26: 6. Personal Narrative & Moral History: Rigoberta Menchu

(Lambek 1996) pp. 235-254

(Personal Narratives Group 1989) pp. 3-23

(Warren 2001) 198-218

(Beverley 2004) pp. 29-44

(Beverley 2001) pp. 219-236

(Ferman 2001) pp. 156-170

film: Rigoberta Menchú Cassandra and crusader [VIDEOTAPE 20188]

III. Nations, States and Politics of the Past

Oct 3: 7. Making National Memory: Commemoration

[PROPOSALS & BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE]

(Hobsbawm 1983) pp. 1-14

(Gillis 1994b) pp. 3-24

(Zerubavel 1994) pp. 105-123

(Cole 1998) pp. 610-633

(Segal 1994) pp. 221-239

(Guss 2000) pp. 1-23

(Trouillot 1995) pp 108-156

(Rosenzweig and Thelen 1998) pp.147-176

Oct 10: 8. Making National Memory: Museums & Memorials

(Savage 1994) pp. 127-149

(Young 2000) pp. 184-223

(Kelly 2000) pp. 195-216

(White 1995) pp. 529-555

(Fujitani 1997) pp. 99-112

(Sturken 1997) pp. 44-84

film: Maya Lin: a strong clear vision (LL #: VIDEOTAPE 12081)

IV. Ethnographies of Memory

Oct 17: 9. Theme Parks: Colonial Williamsburg

(Handler and Gable 1997) pp. 3-235

(Gable and Handler 2000) pp. 237-252

(Carson 1994) pp. 137-150

(Wallace 1996b) pp. 133-157

Oct 24: 10. Historic Sites: The Alamo

(Flores 2002) (xiii – 161)

(Wallace 1996d) pp. 177-221

(Wallace 1996e) pp. 224-246

Oct 31: 11. Memorials: Hiroshima

(Yoneyama 1999) pp. vii – 270

(Wallace 1996a) pp. 269-318

Nov 7: 12. Memorials: Pearl Harbor [ETHNOGRAPHY CRITIQUE DUE]

(White 1997a) pp.

(White 1997b) pp. 8-26

(White 2000b) pp 1-26

(White 2001) pp. 267-295

film: USS Arizona Memorial film, untitled.

V. Media(tions)

Nov 14: 13. Film & Visual Media

(Rosenstone 1995) pp. 1-246

(Sturken 1997) pp. 19-43, 85-122

film: History and Memory: for Akiko and Takashige (LL #: VIDEOTAPE 6994)

IV. Projects

Nov 21: 14. Project Presentations

Nov 28: 15. Project Presentations

Dec 5: 16. Project Presentations

Dec 14: [FINAL PAPERS DUE]

Reading List

Beverley, John

2001 What Happens When the Subaltern Speaks: Rigoberta Menchu, Multiculturalism, and the Presumption of Equal Worth. In The Rigoberta Menchu Controversy. A. Arias, ed. pp. 219-236. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

____________

2004 The Margin at the Center: On Testimonio. In Testimonio: on the politics of truth. pp. 29-44. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Bodnar, John

1994 Public Memory in an American City: Commemoration in Cleveland. In Commemoration: The Politics of National Identity. J. Gillis, ed. Pp. 74-89.

Butler, Judith

2002 Explanation and Exoneration, or What We Can Hear. Social Text 72. Special Issue, 911--A Public Emergency? 20(3):177-199.

Carson, Cary

1994 Lost in the Fun House: A Commentary on Anthropologists' First Contact with History Museums. Journal of American History June:137-150.

Cole, Jennifer

1998 The Work of Memory in Madagascar. American Ethnologist 25(4):610-33.

____________

2001 Forget colonialism?: sacrifice and the art of memory in Madagascar. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Coser, Lewis A., ed.

1992 Maurice Halbwachs on Collective Memory. Ch icago: University of Chicago Press.

Fujitani, Takashi

1997 National Narratives and Minority Politics: The Japanese American National Museum's War Stories. In Public History and National Narrative. Special Issue of Museum Anthropology 21(1). G. White, ed. Pp. 99-112.

Gable, Eric and Richard Handler

2000 Public History, Private Memory: Notes from the Ethnography of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. Ethnos 65(2): 237-252.

Gedi, Noa and Yigal Elam

1996 Collective Memory: What Is It? History and Memory 8(1): 30-50.

Gillis, John R., ed.

1994a Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Gillis, John R.

1994b Memory and Identity: The History of a Relationship. In Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity. J.R. Gillis, ed. Pp. 3-24. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Handler, Richard, and Eric Gable

1997 The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Hau’ofa, Epeli (2000). Pasts to Remember. In R. Borofsky, ed. Remembrance of Pacific Pasts. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. Pp. 453-471.

Hobsbawm, Eric and Ranger, Terence, ed.

1983 The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Klein, Kerwin Lee

2000 On the Emergence of Memory in Historical Discourse. Representations 69 (Winter):127-150.

Kelly, John

2000 Nature, Natives, and Nations: Glorification and Asymmetries in Museum Representation, Fiji and Hawaii. Ethnos 65(2):195-216.

Lambek, Michael

1996 The Past Imperfect: Remembering as Moral Practice. In Tense Past: Cultural Essays in Trauma and Memory. P. Antze and M. Lambek, eds. pp. 235-254. New York: Routledge.

Neisser, Ulric

1982 Memory Observed: Remembering in Natural Contexts. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.

Nora, Pierre

1989 Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire. Representations 26 (Spring)7-25.

Personal Narratives Group, ed.

1989 Interpreting Women's Lives: Feminist Theory and Personal Narratives. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Rosenzweig, Roy, and David P. Thelen

1998 The presence of the past : popular uses of history in American life. New York: Columbia University Press.

Rosenstone, Robert A., ed.

1995 Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. Cambridge, MA:: Harvard University Press.

Savage, Kirk

1994 Black Emancipation and the Civil War Monument. In Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity. J. Gillis, ed. Pp. 127-149. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Segal, Daniel A.

1994 Living Ancestors: Nationalism and the Past in Postcolonial Trinidad and Tobago. In Remapping Memory: The Politics of Timespace. J. Boyarin, ed. Pp. 221-239. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Spiegelman, Art

2004 In the shadow of no towers. New York: Pantheon Books.

Sturken, Marita

2004 The aesthetics of absence: Rebuilding Ground Zero. American Ethnologist 13(3):293-310.

_____________

1997 Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Wallace, Mike

1996a The Battle of the Enola Gay. In Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory. Pp. 269-318. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

__________

1996b Mickey Mouse History: Portraying the Past at Disney World. In Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory. Pp. 133-167. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

__________

1996e Preservation Revisited. In Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory. Pp. 224-246. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

__________

1996d Preserving the Past: A History of Historic Preservation in the United States. In Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory. Pp. 177-221. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Warren, Kay

2001 Telling Truths: Taking David Stoll and the Rigoberta Menchu Expose Seriously. In The Rigoberta Menchu controversy. A. Arias, ed. pp. 198-218. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

White, Geoffrey M.

__________

1995 Remembering Guadalcanal: National Identity and Transnational Memory-Making. Public Culture 7:529-555.

__________

1997a On Not Being a Theme Park. Paper read at meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C., 1997, pp. 1-27.

__________

1997b Museum, Memorial, Shrine: National Narrative in National Spaces. Museum Anthropology, Special Issue on "Public History and National Narrative" 21(1):8-27.

__________

2000a Introduction: Histories and Subjectivities. In History and Subjectivity. Special Issue of Ethos 28(4): 493-510.

__________

2000b Emotional Remembering and the Pragmatics of Public Memory. Special Issue edited by R. Desjarlais & T. O'Nell. Ethos 27(4): 1-26.

____________

2001 Moving History: The Pearl Harbor Film(s). In Perilous Memories: The Asia-Pacific War(s). T. Fujitani, G. White, and L. Yoneyama, eds. pp. 267-295. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

____________

2004 National Subjects: Pearl Harbor and September 11. American Ethnologist 13(3):293-310.

White, Hayden

1996 Storytelling: Historical and Ideological. In Centuries' Ends, Narrative Means. R. Newman, ed. Pp. 58-78. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Young, James

2000 Art Spiegelman's Maus and the After-Images of History. In At Memory's Edge: After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture. Pp. 12-41.

Zerubavel, Yael

1994 The Historic, The Legendary, and the Incredible: Invented Tradition and Collective Memory in Israel. In Commemoration: The Politics of National Identity. J. Gillis, ed. Pp. 105-123. Princeton: Princeton University Press.