History and Postmemory

This article argues that expressions of postmemory-a form of relationship that a generation has with its antecedants, as proposed by Marianne Hirsch-are writ large in the descendants of the Kashmiri Pandits who fled from the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s and before then. Through a close reading of two novels by Kashmiri writers, Siddhartha Gigoo's The Garden of Solitude and Rajat Mitra's The Infidel Next Door, this article analyses the prevalence of guilt, curiosity and the yearning to (re)connect with a lost home that is evident amongst subsequent generations in relation to their parents' and grandparents' forced migration from Kashmir. We demonstrate that the idea of postmemory provides a useful framework for understanding the feelings of simultaneous attachment to and generational distance from the past.

The paper focuses on the veneration of the goddess Artemis. Since written testimony mentions her aid in the battles against the Persians, I include pre-Persian archaeological evidence in my analysis in order to test whether the Persian Wars had an actual impact on the perception of the deity. While it becomes clear that commemorative rituals with relation to the Persian Wars were embedded in the cults for Athenian Artemis, the consideration of material down into the Hellenistic period reveals that this did not occur immediately after the Persian Wars, but only after several decades. Understanding the events of the Persian Wars as traumatic might offer a possible explanation for a belated introduction of commemorative practice, following the concept of “postmemory”, developed in Modern history.

The article contains an analysis of the construction of the narrative of the Shoah, using motifs from the Book of Esther. Non‑fiction book: Code of Esther, 2013 (Le Code d'Esther, 2012), written by French journalists: Bernard Benyamin and Yohan Perez is a record of investigative journalism. During the investigation various interpretations of the "enigmatic" words of Julius Streicher – a Nazi war criminal in the context of the biblical text are recalled. The title of the book and its cover's design predicts sensation while the attractiveness of the communication is achieved by using of multimedia elements (online videos illustrating the described events, accessible through QR codes placed in the book), and an invitation to interact through thematic websites, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The authors, belonging to the "second generation", derive knowledge and experiences through mediation, which is the reason of the treatment of the book in terms of post‑memory.

The fall of the Berlin Wall not only anticipated the demise of Communism as a political symbol in the former Eastern Bloc and beyond, but it also meant for millions of citizens the loss of the reference points around which their identity and everyday life had been organised since the end of the Second World War.

Past (Im)Perfect Continuous.
Trans-Cultural Articulations of the Postmemory of WWII
June 26-28, 2018
University of Rome, “La Sapienza”

Deadline for accepting proposals for our conference, Past (Im)Perfect Continuous. Trans-Cultural Articulations of the Postmemory of WWII is drawing near... February 28! We look forward to your submissions!

Confirmed keynote speakers include:
• Marianne Hirsch
• Alessandro Portelli
• Anne Roche

See the attached document for CfP and submission details.

Deadline for accepting proposals for our conference, Past (Im)Perfect Continuous. Trans-Cultural Articulations of the Postmemory of WWII is drawing near... February 28! We look forward to your submissions!

Confirmed keynote speakers include:
• Marianne Hirsch
• Alessandro Portelli
• Anne Roche

See the attachment for CfP and submission details.

Past (Im)Perfect Continuous.
Trans-Cultural Articulations of the Postmemory of WWII
June 26-28, 2018
University of Rome, “La Sapienza”