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“If the past has nothing to say to the present, history may go on sleeping undisturbed in the closet where the system keeps its old disguises.”
- Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer
Memory and practices of memory-making and remembering—whether collective or individual, textual or non-textual—play a role in framing the reading of present and future situations, in articulating and legitimating moral and political discourses, and in structuring action in contexts of crisis, conflict, and peace. Memory is also significant in the formation of identity and production of subjectivities, in mediating social relationships, in forging a sense of belonging as well as producing exclusions, and in the (un)making of collectivities. Linked to an individual and group’s access to power, resources, and justice, memory can be contested, where the meanings, values, and portrayals of the past/s are subjected to competing definitions, interpretations, selection, and appropriations in the present. This is especially so since material, social, and political conditions impact which group’s memory is privileged, institutionalized, and authorized over others, and which memory gets forgotten or silenced.
This seminar takes these themes up by looking at the various ways in which memory is produced, politicized, institutionalized, authorized, and contested, and what their consequences are, in several Southeast Asian countries. The semester will be divided into three parts. Part one focuses on the concepts and theories related to memory studies. Part two links these concepts with selected texts on the politics of memory in several Southeast Asian countries. The texts will be supplemented by feature films and documentaries. These will be discussed in terms of how past/s, society, and politics are portrayed in these films, and how these films contest or reproduce representations of the past/s. Part three consists of presentations of students’ research projects on selected themes discussed in class.
Requirements:
Presentation of text
Review of a film/documentary
Research project on a selected theme |
