Andreas huyssen present pasts
This book analyzes the relation of public memory to history, forgetting, and selective memory in Berlin, Buenos Aires, and New York three late-twentieth-century.
This book analyzes the relation of public memory to history, forgetting, and selective memory in Berlin, Buenos Aires, and New York..
Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory
Andreas Huyssen looks into the domain of historical memory to argue that in the era of cultural globalisation monuments, buildings, government palaces, museum and parks represent the material traces of historical memory.
The fact that in the 19th and in the first half of 20th century, nation-states looked to construct monuments, artefacts and memorials in order legitimize and give meaning to the state building process—politically, socially and culturally—has been radically transformed in the wake of, what critics call, memory boom.
The emergence of memory as a key cultural and political concern gained currency with the rise of Holocaust Studies. Since then, it has been a revisionist political process initiated by governments to acknowledge the injustice done to certain communities, tribes and sects.
The resultant outcome had been a p