Books by Paul M M Doolan
Obled Europy: Histoire Alternatywne XX Wieku, 2022
This is a chapter from a book, Obled Europy by Kuba Benedyczak. Each chapter consists of Benedycz... more This is a chapter from a book, Obled Europy by Kuba Benedyczak. Each chapter consists of Benedyczak in conversation with a specialist in European 20th century history. This chapter is of Benedyczak in conversation with me. The conversation took place in English, but is published in Polish.
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Collective Memory and the Dutch East Indies: Unremembering Decolonization examines the afterlife ... more Collective Memory and the Dutch East Indies: Unremembering Decolonization examines the afterlife of decolonization in the collective memory of the Netherlands. It offers a new perspective on the cultural history of representing the decolonization of the Dutch East Indies, and maps out how a contested collective memory was shaped. Taking a transdisciplinary approach and applying several theoretical frames from literary studies, sociology, cultural anthropology and film theory, the author reveals how mediated memories contributed to a process of what he calls "unremembering." He analyses in detail a broad variety of sources, including novels, films, documentaries, radio interviews, memoirs and historical studies, to reveal how five decades of representing and remembering decolonization fed into an unremembering by which some key notions were silenced or ignored. The author concludes that historians, or the historical guild, bear much responsibility for the unremembering of decolonization in Dutch collective memory.
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Collective Memory and the Dutch East Indies: Unremembering Decolonization, 2021
While the German occupation of Holland came to dominate postwar Dutch collective memory, the memo... more While the German occupation of Holland came to dominate postwar Dutch collective memory, the memories of those repatriated from Indonesia suffered from a loss of place. This caused a traumatic rupture in remembering. During the 1950s and early 1960s, nostalgic remembering in the works of the likes of Dermoût and Nieuwenhuys, as well as feelings of existential angst and victimhood, contributed to unremembering the reality of decolonization. However, memories of military brutality were present in the stories of Beb Vuyk and in the memoirs and novels of some veterans. Unlike American and Australian historians, few Dutch historians showed much interest in decolonization. Despite some promising historical work in the early 1950s, historians and memoirists ignored the reality of warfare.
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Collective Memory and the Dutch East Indies: Unremembering Decolonization, 2021
Maurice Halbwachs demonstrated that memory is shaped by social forces. I argue that collective me... more Maurice Halbwachs demonstrated that memory is shaped by social forces. I argue that collective memory is mediated in symbolic representations. National collective memory is unstable and open to revision and is a site for dispute between alternative representations. Changes in media lead to changes in collective memory. The trauma within collective memory is passed down through generations. I argue that collective memory is not a process of remembering and forgetting, but remembering and unremembering. Unremembering is a process of concealment. Literature is significant in shaping collective memory, but so too are film, memoir, public media like newspapers and television, as well as works of historical scholarship. I end this chapter with a factual summary of the Indonesian War of Independence.
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Collective Memory and the Dutch East Indies: Unremembering Decolonization, 2021
During the Indonesian War of Independence (1945-1949) Dutch national media collaborated with the ... more During the Indonesian War of Independence (1945-1949) Dutch national media collaborated with the authorities in providing a sanitized representation of the conflict. The public was complicit in this early unremembering. Some left-wing media carried reports of Dutch atrocities. Joris Ivens' documentary Indonesia Calling (1946) represented the conflict as one of international liberation which contested colonialism, but was viewed by few members of the Dutch public. Hella Haasse's novel Oeroeg (1948) came to be widely read as a representation of the irreconcilability of East and West. In early historiography, Van Mook offered the enlightened colonial view that the Dutch mission had been sabotaged by outsiders. De Kadt's thesis was that Dutch smugness had brought about the violent conflict.
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Papers by Paul M M Doolan
Philosophy Now, 2024
Examines how attempts to be authentic often results in absurdity.
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Collective Memory and the Dutch East Indies: Unremembering Decolonization, 2021
Maurice Halbwachs demonstrated that memory is shaped by social forces. I argue that collective me... more Maurice Halbwachs demonstrated that memory is shaped by social forces. I argue that collective memory is mediated in symbolic representations. National collective memory is unstable and open to revision and is a site for dispute between alternative representations. Changes in media lead to changes in collective memory. The trauma within collective memory is passed down through generations. I argue that collective memory is not a process of remembering and forgetting, but remembering and unremembering. Unremembering is a process of concealment. Literature is significant in shaping collective memory, but so too are film, memoir, public media like newspapers and television, as well as works of historical scholarship. I end this chapter with a factual summary of the Indonesian War of Independence.
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Philosophy Now, 2022
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Collective Memory and the Dutch East Indies: Unremembering Decolonization examines the afterlife ... more Collective Memory and the Dutch East Indies: Unremembering Decolonization examines the afterlife of decolonization in the collective memory of the Netherlands. It offers a new perspective on the cultural history of representing the decolonization of the Dutch East Indies, and maps out how a contested collective memory was shaped. Taking a transdisciplinary approach and applying several theoretical frames from literary studies, sociology, cultural anthropology and film theory, the author reveals how mediated memories contributed to a process of what he calls "unremembering." He analyses in detail a broad variety of sources, including novels, films, documentaries, radio interviews, memoirs and historical studies, to reveal how five decades of representing and remembering decolonization fed into an unremembering by which some key notions were silenced or ignored. The author concludes that historians, or the historical guild, bear much responsibility for the unremembering of d...
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Philosophy Now Magazine, 2021
Paul Doolan reveals that the real problem with "the real world" is knowing what "real" really mea... more Paul Doolan reveals that the real problem with "the real world" is knowing what "real" really means.
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Philosophy Now, 2020
Argues that Nietzsche was not in favour of forgetting over remembering. Likewise, he did not cond... more Argues that Nietzsche was not in favour of forgetting over remembering. Likewise, he did not condemn the study of history. Rather he argued for a remembering and for a study of history that was subjective and life enhancing.
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Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies, 2021
The year 1945 marked the end of two occupations in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The first occu... more The year 1945 marked the end of two occupations in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The first occurred with the German surrender in May. The second came about with the sudden surrender of Japan in August. The ending of World War Two in Asia left the Dutch East Indies in a volatile and complex situation. The “liberated” Dutch found themselves surrounded by hostile nationalist forces loyal to the newly founded Republic of Indonesia.Years of violence and a full-scale war ensued, with the Dutch reluctantly ceding sovereignty to the new republic in 1949. This study briefly looks at the situation that unfolded in late 1945 Indonesia and attempts to explain why the Dutch found the new situation hard to comprehend and to accept. I suggest that the short stories of Beb Vuyk offer unique insights into the reservoir of violence that had been expanding prior to 1945, the shift in violence between 1945 and 1949 and the violence as it was experienced by Asians and Europeans alike. Accepting that Vuyk's position within the colonial complex was that of a colonial before the war, I maintain that Vuyk challenges colonial narratives by drawing out some of the pathologies
engendered by colonial intimacies. By reclaiming local, native and particular histories, her stories written between the late 1940s and late 1960s reflect a variety of experiences and do not privilege the experiences of European victims over Indonesians.
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In the early 1950s two novels, set in the early years of the 20th century, Only yesterday (Nog pa... more In the early 1950s two novels, set in the early years of the 20th century, Only yesterday (Nog pas gisteren) and The ten thousand things (De tienduizend dingen), appeared from a new writer, Maria Dermoût. In this essay I argue that both of these works helped to shape a collective memory of the recent colonial past and that with the loss of place, the Indisch community was threatened by a potential loss of identity, but that literature was able to provide the memory of a sense of place, and collective memory could be retained. I argue that this memory, as represented in Dermoût's novels, took on a nostalgic form, helping to shape a collective identity based
partially on a melancholy sense of common loss. But dwelling on nostalgic loss did nothing to help explain the loss of the colony, and thereby inadvertently contributed to a general unremembering, or refusal toremember, the painful final years of decolonization.
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History Today, 2019
The significance of the Dutch Transatlantic slave trade goes well beyond the actual numbers. The ... more The significance of the Dutch Transatlantic slave trade goes well beyond the actual numbers. The Dutch were innovative in the sugar plantation industry, that relied on African slaves, at a crucial point during 1647-1648, laying the foundations for a flourishing slave trade of the British and French.
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History Today, Jan 1, 1997
The period 1945-49 in Dutch colonial history, however, is still highly sensitive. Indeed, this ch... more The period 1945-49 in Dutch colonial history, however, is still highly sensitive. Indeed, this chapter is conspicuous among colonial studies by its absence. Unlike Vietnam, which Hollywood has transformed into an icon of contemporary culture, post-Second World War Indonesia ...
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Books by Paul M M Doolan
Papers by Paul M M Doolan
engendered by colonial intimacies. By reclaiming local, native and particular histories, her stories written between the late 1940s and late 1960s reflect a variety of experiences and do not privilege the experiences of European victims over Indonesians.
partially on a melancholy sense of common loss. But dwelling on nostalgic loss did nothing to help explain the loss of the colony, and thereby inadvertently contributed to a general unremembering, or refusal toremember, the painful final years of decolonization.
engendered by colonial intimacies. By reclaiming local, native and particular histories, her stories written between the late 1940s and late 1960s reflect a variety of experiences and do not privilege the experiences of European victims over Indonesians.
partially on a melancholy sense of common loss. But dwelling on nostalgic loss did nothing to help explain the loss of the colony, and thereby inadvertently contributed to a general unremembering, or refusal toremember, the painful final years of decolonization.