“Technologies of memory are not vessels of memory in which memory passively resides so much as objects through which memories are shared, produced and given meaning.” (p9, Tangled Memories*) This is the most impressive sentence I have seen since I started to read the introduction part of Tangled Memories written by Marita Sturken. It is from the section “Technologies of Memories”. Compare to the other sections, this section is hard to find examples. However, when the example is found the degree of its description can be very percise. Rather than general concepts and way too broad examples, I tended to like this section more. Cultural memories need something to represent themselves, at modern time things can represent them are photographies, movies and television shows. There are way too many events happened in United States between 1960s and 1980s. Most of the events such as Assasssination of JFK, Vietnam War and AIDS epidemic all have records of photos, footage which can be made to documentaries. These are what we called “cutural memories”. It can be also counted things to create meaning of a nation. More “Americanness” are found when more things are recorded down in the U.S history. Of course, everybody wants to memorize things glorious, positive. Therefore, they would forget memories that are really dark and have negative impact to their country. Records kept at these sort of event would not be popular. No matter it’s positive or negative it is something actually happened and shouldn’t be forgotten. One famous example would be how Turkish people build their own republic after the old Ottoman Empire have crumbled down. General Mustafa Kemal Ataturk become the leader most people likes, he changed almost everything from the old empire. He was a very popular leader who seats that position for 15 years since Treaty of Lausanne in Oct.29th, 1923*. Throughout this whole process, the dark side of empire and it’s people’s miserable lives and changes Kemal brought would become a very strong comparison. It all belongs to history of Turkey. Written documents would be the most important thing to record cultural memories no matter what era we are in. Some of them even changed history of a country*. These records would pass through generations by generations which becomes the foundation of cultural memories.
*Bibliography:
Sturken, M. (n.d.). Introduction: Tangled Memories.
A&E Networks Television. (2020, June 22). Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Biography.com. Retrieved October 23, 2021, from https://www.biography.com/political-figure/mustafa-kemal-ataturk.
10 documents that changed history. Conga. (2021, October 13). Retrieved October 23, 2021, from https://conga.com/resources/blog/10-documents-changed-history.
Hi, Mark! I like the topic of “technologies of memory” you have chosen and am glad that you have found your favourite section from the book. I like how you point out that people tend to forget memories that have a negative impact on themselves, their community, and their nations – as what you and I might do unconsciously. Again, I enjoy how you use the historical example, a convincing and sound one, to demonstrate the role of “technologies of memory” plays in Turkish history: from the dark ages to the better times, it helps track the cultural memory so that people in the later generation are able to realize how the past shaped their present. — Bertie
Your post was really interesting! I enjoyed reading your perspective on the topic. I like your point about tangled memories, and how countries don’t commemorate the dark side of their countries and try their best to ignore and sweep the truth under the rug. We see examples of this in Canada with indigenous people. The history behind residential schools and a lot of facts and realities of that time still not being clear. I think countries also glamorize certain historic events that were not as pleasant as they are made out to seem. This can be due to nationalism and not wanting to share the true atrocities.
Hi, Mark! I find your post really interesting. My favorite part in the book is “Memory and Forgetting”. In that section, Sturken argues regimes could make use of strategic, organized forgetting when needed, which share similarities which your point that changing history of a country.
An example of memories changing history of a country would be the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests and Massacre, which is one of the darkest part of contemporary Chinese history. Though the significancy of the incident, it was not in the “official” history under People’s Republic of China. It was not recorded in history books and it is no where to be found on Chinese internet. Most of the population have no idea at all what happened on June 4th in 1989. Regardless of whether it is “right” to wipe out the historical event, it was one of the most successful attempt for “changing history”.