This book examines the phenomenon of modern memory as a reaction to total war, an aspiration to truth-seeking provoked by the independent forces of modern war and collective violence which is transnational, or postnational, in character. Using examples from prose and poetry, film and theatre, painting and photography, and music and the popular arts, the author traces a narrative path through the events of the twentieth century, defining the tradition of modern memory in terms of its essentially anti-militaristic, anti-war character, as expressed in the manner in which it represents recalled violence and atrocity. Through a series of thematic discussions of two world wars, the Shoah, urbicide and nuclear weapons, Postnational Memory explores the formation of transnational memory, drawing on examples from industrialized societies, with a focus on memory of real events and their reproduction in literature and the arts, often including personal recollections that link the self to the represented past. As such, by asking how the concept of modern memory is constructed through the victims of war and genocide, the book constitutes an alternative to national memories and hegemonic, militarist or ethnocentric histories. Surveying the emergence of new, transnational forms of remembering the past, it will appeal to students and scholars of sociology, memory studies and peace studies, as well as those working in disciplines such as modern and international history, cultural studies and military studies.

This book aims to bridge the gap between what are generally referred to as ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches to peacebuilding. After the experience of a physical and psychological trauma, the period of individual healing and recovery is intertwined with political and social reconciliation. The prospects for social and political reconciliation are undermined when a ‘top-down’ approach is favoured over the ‘bottom-up strategy’- the prioritization of structural stability over societal well-being. Peacebuilding, Memory and Reconciliation explores the inextricable link between psychological recovery and socio-political reconciliation, and the political issues that dominate this relationship. Through an examination of the construction of social narratives about or for peace, the text offers a new perspective on peacebuilding, which challenges and questions the very nature of the dichotomy between ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, social psychology, political science and IR in general.

Long considered a subfield of international relations and political science, Peace Studies has solidified its place as an interdisciplinary field in its own right with a canon, degree programs, journals, conferences, and courses taught on the subject. Internationally renowned centers offering programs on Peace and Conflict Studies can be found on every continent. Almost all of the scholars working in the field, however, are united by an aspiration: attaining Peace, whether “positive” or “negative.” The telos of peace, however, itself remains undefined and elusive, notwithstanding the violence committed in its name. This edited volume critically interrogates the field of peace studies, considering its assumptions, teleologies, canons, influence, enmeshments with power structures, biases, and normative ends. We highlight four interrelated tendencies in peace studies: hypostasis (strong essentializing tendencies), teleology (its imagined “end”), normativity (the set of often utopian and Eurocentric discourses that guide it), and enterprise (the attempt to undertake large projects, often ones of social engineering to attain this end). The chapters in this volume reveal these tendencies while offering new paths to escape them. Visit http://www.rethinkingpeacestudies.com/ for further details on the Rethinking Peace Studies project.

This book asks the question: what is the role of memory during a political transition? Drawing on Ethiopian history, transitional justice, and scholarly fields concerned with memory, museums and trauma, the author reveals a complex picture of global, transnational, national and local forces as they converge in the story of the creation and continued life of one modest museum in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa—the Red Terror Martyrs Memorial Museum. It is a study from multiple margins: neither the case of Ethiopia nor memorialization is central to transitional justice discourse, and within Ethiopia, the history of the Red Terror is sidelined in contemporary politics. From these nested margins, traumatic memory emerges as an ambiguous social and political force. The contributions, meaning and limitations of memory emerge at the point of discrete interactions between memory advocates, survivor-docents and visitors. Memory from the margins is revealed as powerful for how it disrupts, not builds, new forms of community.

This book examines the legacy of Lebanon’s civil war and how the population, and the youth in particular, are dealing with their national past. Drawing on extensive qualitative research and social observation, the author explores the efforts of those who wish to remember, so as not to repeat past mistakes, and those who wish to forget. In considering how the Lebanese youth are negotiating this collective memory, Larkin addresses issues of: Lebanese post-war amnesia and the gradual emergence of new memory discourses and public debates Lebanese nationalism and historical memory visual memory and mnemonic landscapes oral memory and post-war narratives war memory as an agent of ethnic conflict and a tool for reconciliation and peace-building. trans-generational trauma or postmemory. Shedding new light on trauma and the persistence of ethnic and religious hostility, this book offers a unique insight into Lebanon’s recurring communal tensions and a fresh perspective on the issue of war memory. As such, this is an essential addition to the existing literature on Lebanon and will be relevant for scholars of sociology, Middle East studies, anthropology, politics and history.

McDowell and Braniff explore the relationship between commemoration and conflict in societies which have engaged in peace processes, attempting to unpack the ways in which the practices of memory and commemoration influence efforts to bring armed conflict to an end and whether it can even reactivate conflict as political circumstances change.

In troubled societies narratives about the past tend to be partial and explain a conflict from narrow perspectives that justify the national self and condemn, exclude and devalue the 'enemy' and their narrative. Through a detailed analysis, Teaching Contested Narratives reveals the works of identity, historical narratives and memory as these are enacted in classroom dialogues, canonical texts and school ceremonies. Presenting ethnographic data from local contexts in Cyprus and Israel, and demonstrating the relevance to educational settings in countries which suffer from conflicts all over the world, the authors explore the challenges of teaching narratives about the past in such societies, discuss how historical trauma and suffering are dealt with in the context of teaching, and highlight the potential of pedagogical interventions for reconciliation. The book shows how the notions of identity, memory and reconciliation can perpetuate or challenge attachments to essentialized ideas about peace and conflict.

This book explores the psychic, cultural, and political ramifications of memory within the Irish Troubles. It investigates the traumatic impact of the violence perpetrated since 1969; the antagonistic cultural narratives of memory fashioned and mobilized in this context within public and private arenas; and the conflicts, paradoxes, and contradictions involved in "coming to terms with the past," both before and during the Irish peace process initiated in 1993-94. The study focuses on personal and collective remembrance within two particular locations: the Unionist communities along the Irish Border, and nationalist Derry. It traces the formation from below of competing public narratives, one concerned with the "ethnic cleansing" of Protestants by the Irish Republican Army, the other with British state violence on Bloody Sunday; and analyzes their subjective roots in specific experiences of fear and loss, their role in ideological struggle, and their complicated relation to private, familial, and individual remembering.

Memory Perceived: Recalling the Holocaust analyzes the oral testimony of Holocaust survivors for the purpose of understanding and explaining deeply traumatic memory. Robert N. Kraft, a professor of psychology at Otterbein University, highlights 129 separate accounts that recorded at the Fortunoff Video Archive of Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University. The testimonies reveal the patterns of Holocaust memory and the persistent influence of memory on the lives of survivors and their families. They also highlight how memory responds to atrocity and how Holocaust survivors comprehend and remember their experiences and ultimately adapt. A synthesis of a myriad of memories shows that Holocaust memory exists at two levels. Core memory is the representation of the original phenomenal events in the form of visual images, sounds, smells, tastes, emotions, and bodily sensations. These are as vivid and compelling as dreams. Narrative memory is constructed from the images in core memory, shaped in accordance with narrative conventions, and conveyed primarily in language. To give testimony is to remember for the purpose of remembering-and witnesses are motivated by a fundamental desire to tell what happened. Discover what they have to say in this important book. Kraft's incredible work captures what is currently lacking in the Holocaust literature: how to represent and hold onto the atrocity, the tragedy, when all that is left is memory. -Linda G. Mills, professor of social work, public policy and law; executive director, Center on Violence and Recovery, New York University

WINNER OF THE 2022 HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL Now a USA Today bestseller! Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2021 Amazon's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2021 Bookpage's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee for Best Science Fiction Book of 2021 "[An] all around brilliant space opera, I absolutely love it."—Ann Leckie, on A Memory Called Empire A Desolation Called Peace is the spectacular space opera sequel to Arkady Martine's genre-reinventing, Hugo Award-winning debut, A Memory Called Empire. An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options. In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass—still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire—face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity. Their failure will guarantee millions of deaths in an endless war. Their success might prevent Teixcalaan’s destruction—and allow the empire to continue its rapacious expansion. Or it might create something far stranger . . . Also by Arkady Martine: A Memory Called Empire At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.