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Present 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,...