78904 - Semiotics of Memory (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2015/2016

  • Docente: Maria Patrizia Violi
  • Credits: 6
  • SSD: M-FIL/05
  • Language: English
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Semiotics (cod. 8886)

Learning outcomes

This course aims to give students a broad overview of the contemporary debate on memory and trauma from a semiotic perspective which views memory as a cultural and semiotic construction,  with a special focus on the role of space in memorialisation processes.

Course contents

Memory and Trauma are today extremely rich fields of investigation, and are objects of specific disciplinary branches, respectively Memory Studies and Trauma Studies. While the various disciplines address traumatic memories from many different perspectives -  historical, psychological, sociological and so on -  less attention has been paid to the interplay between memory and trauma from a semiotic point of view. This course aims to illustrate the semiotic construction of remembering processes by way of texts and semiotic artefacts of different kinds, starting with a critical analysis of the very notion of cultural memory itself, its limits, uses and abuses. Various forms of memory types will be discussed: cultural memory, public memory, historical memory and so on, with focus on their mutual interplay during the shaping of individual memories.

The course will focus particularly on the ways in which memory is spatially constructed, both in the public spaces of cities and in the construction of different kinds of sites devoted to remembrance, such as memorials, monuments,  memory sites and museums. A number of  actual case studies will be analysed during the course.

Readings/Bibliography

This is only a preliminary list of readings. Further, more specific, references will be provided during the course. 

Alexander, J. (2003), The Meaning of Social Life. A cultural Sociology, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Alexander, J. -  Eyerman, R. et al. (2004),   Cultural Trauma and Collective Identities, Berkeley: University of Californa Press.

Andermann, J. -  Arnold-de-Simine S. (2012)  “Introduction. Memory, Community and the New Museumâ€, in Theory, Culture & Society,  vol.29 (1): 3-13.

Andermann, J. (2012), “Returning to the Site of Horror. On the the Reclaiming of Clandestine Concentration Camps in Argentina, Theory, Culture &  Society, 29 (1): 76-98

Arnold-de Simine, S. (2013),  Mediating Memory in the Museum. Trauma, Empathy, Nostalgia, Houndmills : Palgrave Macmillan.   

Assman A., ( 2004)  “Four Formats of Memory: From Individual to Collective Constructions of the Pastâ€, in C. Emden and D. Midgley (eds.), Cultural Memory and Historical Consciousness in the German-Speaking World since 1500, Oxford: Peter Lang, pp.19-37.

  Buelens, G. - Durrant, S. -  Eaglestone, R. (eds.), (2014)  The Future of Trauma Theory. Contemporary Literary and Cultural Criticism, London and New York: Routledge.

  Mazzucchelli F. (2013) “(Post-) "Urbicide. Reconstruction and Ideology in Former Yugoslavia Citiesâ€, Gonçalves Miranda, R.; Zullo, F. (eds.), Post-Conflict Reconstructions. Re-Mapping and Reconciliations , Nottingham, CCCP.

Mazzucchelli F. (2015) “Of bridges and borders: post-war urban geographies in Mostarâ€, in Couroucli, M.; Marinov, T. (eds.), Balkan Heritages. Negotiating History and Culture , Farnham: Ashgate.

  Salerno D., (in press) "Memorialising boat tragedies in the Mediterranean: the case of the Kater I Rades" in Lynda Mannik, ed.  Migration by Boat: discourses of trauma, exclusion and survival, Berghahn Books, New York.

  van der Larse R., Mazzucchelli F., Rejnen C., eds. (2014), "Traces of Terror, Signs of Trauma. Practices of representation of collective memories in space in contemporary Europe", Special issue of VS, 119.

  Violi P., (2012),   “Trauma Site Museums and Politics of Memory. Tuol Sleng, Villa Grimaldi and Bologna Ustica Musuemâ€, in Theory, Culture & Society,  vol.29 (1): 36-75.

 

 

Teaching methods

The course is designed to stimulate active participation on the part of students. They will be asked to read and present in class a selection of reading materials. Active participation in collective discussion  of these presentations will be considered an essential component of the course evaluation. Moreover, students will be asked to present one semiotic analysis, of one specific memory space of their own choice.  

Assessment methods

The exam will consist of discussion of a paper which can be derived from those selected for in-class presentation, previously agreed upon with the professor. The paper might be a case study or a theoretical elaboration on some of the principal topics discussed during the class. It should have a length of 10 pages each of 2500 characters. Final papers may be based on collective work in a group, and in this case their total length must be proportional to the number of people participating in the group. Students who will not attend the course will have to present a paper of the same length  on a topic previously agreed upon with the professor, and an oral examination on three of the papers from the reading list.

Teaching tools

The course foresees theoretical lectures and empirical analysis with multimedia support. Moreover,  students will be invited to take part in guided visits to a number of places of memory and to discuss their experience of these in the group.

Office hours

See the website of Maria Patrizia Violi