How, if at all, should we remember the histories of injustice and atrocity that haunt most modern states? Since World War II, it has become commonplace to suggest that properly responding to injustices requires societies to remember them, and to remember the experiences of those they touched. But what specific value might memory in this sense constitute in or contribute to the lives and societies of those coping with troubled history? This question raises two issues. The first is ontological: what does it mean to say that a society should remember in the first place? Is it to say that the individuals who make up society should each privately remember, or is to say that the society as a whole should somehow create or maintain a collective memory that is not reducible to the sum of individual cognitive processes? The second issue is normative: what exactly can memory so conceived do to ameliorate the undesirable legacies that historical injustices leaves on the world? How might remembering help us to move forward, or help us to lessen the pains we can’t leave behind? This study takes on both of these issues. On the first, I suggest that when we speak of societies remembering, we’re speaking of irreducibly social processes, by which individual memories are translated into publicly available traces of the past, which can then inform recollection by others, perhaps at some distance from the original event. On the second, I suggest that this sort of remembering can be valuable in the wake of injustice as a way of combating the legacies of persistent harm and exclusion that sometimes follow victims long after an injustice is over, and challenge their abilities to stand, participate, and identify as full members of the political community. Memory in this sense is crucial for re-negotiating the boundaries of membership, and for rebuilding a more inclusive public world.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This dissertation examines the development of Holocaust education in South Africa, specifically in the period of political transition to democracy and the two decades after apartheid. The history of placing the Holocaust in post-apartheid South Africa shows the dynamics and tensions of identity construction by the state, communities and individuals as the country emerged from a history of violent conflict. Holocaust education was claimed by the newly democratic state as a vehicle of reconciliation. Using archival material, interviews and secondary sources, I examine how a minority community’s project of building a permanent Holocaust centre, came to be considered as part of a national project of reconciliation. I consider the impact of this framing of Holocaust education and the tensions that arose as the Cape Town Holocaust Centre’s founders attempted to define and contain, the place of apartheid in Holocaust memory. Holocaust education shaped the development of post-apartheid identities. It contributed to a collective memory of apartheid by suggesting a particular collective memory of the Holocaust. The Cape Town Holocaust Centre provided the South African Jewish community with a legitimate identity in post-apartheid South Africa and a way to bypass an examination of the implications of having benefited from apartheid. I examine the tensions and contradictions within this construction of the collective memory of the Holocaust and apartheid, and consider the implications for the process of justice, memory and history in South Africa as it emerged from apartheid.

A festa do Divino Espírito Santo de São Luiz do Paraitinga, estado de São Paulo, mantém, na atualidade, muitos elementos típicos da cultura popular, destacadamente a constituição de uma fortalecida identidade local, a presença da oralidade e uma memória pautada em padrões coletivos e elementos altamente simbólicos e agregadores. Através da análise da história desta festa foi possível perceber a grande capacidade de plasticidade e transformação da cultura popular, e deparar-se com novas possibilidades de interpretação tanto da história local, como do espaço das manifestações populares na sociedade contemporânea brasileira. / The festivity of the Holy Spirit at São Luiz do Paraitinga, in the state of São Paulo, keeps nowadays many typical elements of the popular culture, specially de constitution of a strong local identity, the presence of orality and a memory based upon collective patterns and elements highly symbolic and aggregative. By analyzing this festivity it was possible to notice the popular culture great malleability and capacity of transform itself, and face new possibilities of interpreting both local history and the place of the popular culture in the Brazilian contemporary society.

Propus realizar, nesta investida acadêmica, entrevistas de história oral com protestantes brasileiros que vivenciaram dramas e tramas no Regime Militar Brasileiro entre 1964 e 1985. Reconheci a historia oral como disciplina acadêmica capaz de propiciar uma polifonia por meio do cruzamento do corpus documental da pesquisa. Antes de partir para os documentos regulares, entrevistei protestantes com percepções díspares sobre o Regime Militar e aqueles que se engajaram à direita e à esquerda na política brasileira. Analisei os seus testemunhos relacionados às experiências religiosas e políticas. Estabeleci, portanto, a comunidade de destino de religiosos que sofreram os destinos do Regime Militar no ambiente político de 1964 e 1985; a colônia de protestantes históricos e pentecostais que sofreram consequências ao se posicionarem no ambiente da ditadura militar brasileira. Daí, três redes de enunciação que combinaram elementos religiosos e políticos se constituíram: a rede dos ortodoxos anticomunistas, a rede dos heterodoxos comunistas e, finalmente, a rede dos convertidos depois do Regime Militar Brasileiro. Depois de escrever a História do projeto: um itinerário da pesquisa e história oral, memória coletiva e oralidade protestante, constatei o surgimento de outra forma de messianismo pertencente à sociedade brasileira moderna no ambiente do golpe civil-militar brasileiro. Não obstante a procura por elementos subjetivos e pelo cruzamento das entrevistas de história oral com documentações regulares, escrevi sobre O Reino de Deus e as narrativas de resistência ao Regime Militar Brasileiro para demonstrar os dramas, bem como o arbítrio de agentes repressivos apoiadores da ditadura militar brasileira. Posteriormente, escrevi sobre A memória religiosa entre pecar e perdoar: exílios, sofrimentos, retornos e conversões depois do Regime Militar. Por fim, abordei alguns Aspectos da justiça de transição brasileira\", a CNV e o GT sobre o papel das igrejas na ditadura; procurei pela polifonia e pelas disputas mnemônicas referentes à justiça de transição, assim como utilizei uma documentação produzida pelo GT sobre o papel das igrejas na ditadura na busca pelo caráter público e político da pesquisa. Elementos místicos, ritualísticos, experienciais, teológicos e políticos foram analisados com base na memória coletiva. / I proposed, in this academic work, interviews of oral history with Brazilian Protestants who lived dramas and plots during the Brazilian Military Regime between 1964 and 1985. I recognize oral history as an academic discipline that is able to provide some polyphony through the intersection of documentary corpus of the research. Before referring to regular documents, I interviewed Protestants with disparate perceptions on the Military Regime and those who were engaged in right-wings and left-wings Brazilian politics. I analyzed their testimonies related to religious and political experiences. I established the target community described as Religious people who were target of the military regime in the political environment between 1964 and 1985; the colony of historical Protestants and Pentecostals who suffered consequences to position themselves in the Brazilian military dictatorship environment. Then, three enunciation networks that combined religious and political elements were formed: anti-communist ortodox network, communist heterodox and, finally, people that were converted after the Brazilian Military Regime network. After writing Project history: a research itinerary and oral history, collective memory and Protestant orality, I noticed the emergence of another form of Messianism belonging to modern Brazilian society in the environment of the Brazilian civil-military coup. Despite the search for subjective elements and the intersection of oral history interviews with regular documentation, I wrote about \'Kingdom of God\' and the resistance narratives to the military regime Brazilian to demonstrate the dramas, as well as the will of support repressive agents of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Afterwards I wrote about The religious memory between \"sin\" and \"forgive\": exile, suffering, returns and conversions after the Military Regime. Finally, I addressed Aspects of \'transitional Brazilian justice, National Truth Commission (NTC) and Working Group (WG) on the \'role of the churches in the dictatorship\'\", I looked for the polyphony and the mnemonic disputes concerning the \"transitional justice\" and I used some documentation produced by the WG about the \'role of the churches in the dictatorship\', aiming at public and political character of the research. Mystical, ritual, experiential, theological and political elements were analyzed based on the collective memory.

The attacks of 11 September 2001 have had a profound impact for many, altering lives, perceptions, politics and policies. The last decade saw the construction of numerous memorials commemorating the events across the United States. Most prominent is the National 9/11 Memorial in New York City at Ground Zero. Highly contested in its planning and building stages, the memorial site was designed to be a national symbol of mourning, remembrance and resiliency, and has since become one of the city's most popular tourist attractions. This thesis casts the matter of memorialising 9/11 as a performance of remembering. It utilises an analytical frame that draws from theoretical resources of collective memory and performance studies to examine how and by whom public remembrances of the event are framed, performed and maintained. Theories of social remembering render it an active process. A performance lens used analytically allows for a recognition of commemorative practices not as a mode of representation, but rather as a doing, (en)acting and interacting in the moment. By understanding public remembrance as performance, this thesis explores the implications of thinking about public memory in those terms. Through ethnographic methods the research unpacks the doing of public memory in three scenarios, each with their own setting and cast of characters, and interprets how, if and when individuals subscribe to the public and/or official memory of the events being memorialised. The first is set at the 9/11 memorial. Although the performances at the memorial site occur in an institutionalised, scripted and choreographed environment, the bodily (en)acting of and at the site can shift complex boundaries and commemorative narratives. The second provides the example of commemorative walking/ running events as performed remembering. These public processions are ritual-like (re)enactments that solidify and reaffirm the politicised national commemorative master narrative of 9/11. Lastly, the annual ritual of commemoration on the anniversary of 9/11 highlights and intensifies the separation of official and vernacular public memory and shows how in both settings organisers and actors utilise embodied performance strategies to gain or regain visibility in the public sphere.

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A festa do Divino Espírito Santo de São Luiz do Paraitinga, estado de São Paulo, mantém, na atualidade, muitos elementos típicos da cultura popular, destacadamente a constituição de uma fortalecida identidade local, a presença da oralidade e uma memória pautada em padrões coletivos e elementos altamente simbólicos e agregadores. Através da análise da história desta festa foi possível perceber a grande capacidade de plasticidade e transformação da cultura popular, e deparar-se com novas possibilidades de interpretação tanto da história local, como do espaço das manifestações populares na sociedade contemporânea brasileira. / The festivity of the Holy Spirit at São Luiz do Paraitinga, in the state of São Paulo, keeps nowadays many typical elements of the popular culture, specially de constitution of a strong local identity, the presence of orality and a memory based upon collective patterns and elements highly symbolic and aggregative. By analyzing this festivity it was possible to notice the popular culture great malleability and capacity of transform itself, and face new possibilities of interpreting both local history and the place of the popular culture in the Brazilian contemporary society.

This paper examines certain theoretical underpinnings of the historical processes by which Shakespeare's history plays became the de facto collective memory of the events they depict, even when those events are misrepresented. The scholarly conversation about this misrepresentation has heretofore centered on Shakespeare's potential political motivations. I argue that this focus on a political, authorial intent has largely ignored the impact these historical distortions have had over the subsequent 400 years. I propose that, due to Shakespeare's unique place in the historical timeline of the development of collective memory, Shakespeare's historical misrepresentation in the history plays is a byproduct of the emerging ability to access historical sources while also shaping the nascent collective memory. Shakespeare became an archon, in the Derridian sense, of English history. As such he exercised the archon's hermeneutic right to interpret English history. Tracing the methods by which the public experienced Shakespeare's plays, this project shows that in the 20th century film became the dominant medium by which audiences experienced Shakespeare for the first time. Using Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight as the principle example, I show that the hermeneutic right shifted away from Shakespeare and was instead taken on by directors reinterpreting Shakespeare's version of history. Welles' knowing manipulation of the archontic function empowers his film, affecting subsequent interpretation and placing it squarely in the Shakespearean film canon.

This study investigates journalistic representations and discursive constructions of memories of the Asia-Pacific War (1931-45) in three newspapers from three East Asian countries: Japan, China, and South Korea. These three countries have been having decades-long debates over how to interpret and recount what happened in East Asia during the war. Numerous people perished during the wars Japan waged in pursuit of its ambition to be a great Asian empire. The debates over war memories intensified during the past decade due to “memory politics” in the region. Among the many atrocities that have been the subject of international disputes, this study explores media discourses of three of the most heated controversies associated with the Asia-Pacific War: the Yasukuni Shrine controversy, the “Comfort Women” controversy, and the Japanese textbooks revisionism controversy. There are two theoretical groundings that support this study: “memory and politics,” and “journalistic discourses of memory.” Regarding memory and politics, this study approaches the topic from a collective/cultural memory perspective. In this regard, the three controversies over war memories were theoretically identified as sites of memory by which war memories were articulated and reinvented. As for the journalistic aspect, this study focuses on the cultural meanings of journalism and news. The cultural approach in journalistic study views texts as cultural artifacts that represent key values and meanings. Journalism plays a major role in creating, transmitting, and articulating memories. A critical discourse analysis was the primary method that was employed to investigate the discursive constructions of memory through news texts. An interpretive policy analysis was also conducted to examine official stances of the three countries with respect to war memories. The analysis has found that the three newspapers were agents of collective memory. They articulated the meanings of national memory based upon what they believed to be the most appropriate interpretations of their nations’ past. Political circumstances and ideological stances greatly influenced their coverage of war memories. Their coverage has shown that East Asia still lives under the shadow of the Asia-Pacific War that ended more than a half century ago. Memory has not been forgotten because it has been reinterpreted and reconstructed mirroring the national, social, political, and international climate. Situated at the center of such reproduction of memory, the three newspapers were also sites of memory. The three newspapers’ active involvement in the historical controversies exceeded what scholars described as common features of commemorative journalism. The controversies surrounding war memories and the newspapers’ construction of memory have shown that journalism is a cultural practice and that a cultural approach is necessary in journalism studies to gain a more holistic understanding of the representation of social events in the news.

In addition to proposing a survey and subsequent analysis of the French-Algerian War in French-language comics, also known as bandes dessinées, published in Algeria, France, and Belgium since the 1960s, my dissertation investigates the ways in which this medium re-appropriates textual and iconographic source materials. I argue that the integration or citation of various sources by artists functions to confer a measure of historical accuracy on their representation of history, to constitute a collective memory as well as personal postmemories of the war, and to re-contextualize problematic images so that they and the hegemonic discourses they reinforce may be deconstructed. Moreover, the bande dessinée mimics secondary schoolbook representations of the war in both Algeria and France in its recycling of problematic images such as Orientalist painting, colonial postcards, and iconic images of war. The recycling of textbook images has the double advantage of ensuring reader familiarity with these images and of inviting critical interpretations of them. By exploring how the bande dessinée reuses colonial images as well as critical histories in predominantly anti-colonialist narratives, I seek to explain how this popular medium uniquely problematizes questions of history, memory, and postcolonial identity related to French Algeria and its decolonization. It is my contention that, because historical bandes dessinées frequently include or reference authentic textual and iconographic source material documenting the repercussions of the French-Algerian war on various communities, they represent a valuable resource to middle and high school teachers looking to enrich the state-mandated history curriculum. By using the bande dessinée in this capacity, educators exploit this medium as both a historical document (whose objective is to transmit knowledge of the past) and a document of history (which allows scholars to retrace the evolution of public opinion).