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Pasts: Media, Politics, Amnesia
The author of this piece of work talks
about the memory primarily. He provides an argument that memory concept can be
questioned whether the sudden occurrence in aiming to preserve memories, events
such as political or just social. Huyssen explains that there is a distinct
relationship between Time and Space, in the recollection of past events.
According to Huyssen (18), memory discourse in the West was triggered by
television series and anniversaries of the Holocaust. Initially, it all began
with Hitler’s ascent to power in 1933 which was remembered in 1983 marked by
the book burnings. In 1938, Kristallnacht, which was the organized atrocities
against the Jews, was commemorated communally in 1988.
The author’s central theme is to present
facts that all these past events have in one way or the other contributed to
the present. Apparently, these events are still held as past historical
memories which are used as the reference points. In the early 90s, Rwanda and
Bosnia experienced similar acts of genocide as those of Germany during the
Holocaust, but it was argued that the events cannot be compared due to
historical differences. Behind that fallacy was the fact that they did not want
to mediate. In contrast, NATO intervened in Kosovo citing Holocaust reminiscence.
Those are among the major tenants of the author’s point of view in the
expression of this topic, Present Pasts (Huyssen 23).
Some of the concepts that Huyssen uses to
explain his thesis include memory discourses and oblivion. Memory discourse establishes a distinct
relationship between time and space. The focus has moved from merely
associating past events to the time they took place, and a new paradigm of
space has been included to account for postmodern civilizations. He argues that
time and space should be split to comprehend either a contemporary culture or a
post-contemporary culture. Various aspects such as geographies, trade routes,
Maps, displacements, borders, and migrations of the postcolonial and cultural
studies can be used as the modern way of accounting for historical and
political past events.
To support his theme, the author uses
museumization to illustrate memory discourse.
Considering how fast the world is changing, technologically, culturally,
and scientifically museums have been used as a means of preserving memories.
Memory and museumization have been used to curb negative differences in aspects
that may befall information. Such uncertainties include disappearance and
obsolescence in countering our deep anxiety about the speed of change (Huyssen,
28). When we look at oblivion, the author tries to get the answer to some
questions that cannot be ignored.
Furthermore, Huyssen presents an argument
that even though amnesia was a by-product of the cyberspace, we should not let
the fear of memory loss overwhelm us (Huyssen, 34). We cannot continue to
obsess over what happened in the past without considering the state of our
minds first. Amnesia should be looked into thoroughly if preservation of the
history is to be taken seriously.
In conclusion, the author has presented a
strong argument regarding his position. Besides, a good illustration is used by
the author to bring out various themes among them being politics, amnesia, and
media.
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