In theories of armed conflict in international relations and security studies, human psychology, namely the concept of collective trauma, is very little taken into account. However, considering...Show moreIn theories of armed conflict in international relations and security studies, human psychology, namely the concept of collective trauma, is very little taken into account. However, considering that states and armed groups consist of individuals, their collective traumas might play a role in the outbreak of armed conflict. This paper articulates theoretical elements from IR, memory studies, and psychoanalysis allowing to better grasp how and why collective traumas generated by large-scale violent events may in turn engender armed conflict if they remain unhealed. This articulation leads to a refined theory and mechanism of ‘cycles of violence’, which is then qualitatively tested in two empirical cases: The United States, with 9/11 and the following invasion of Afghanistan; and Afghanistan, with the US intervention and the following insurgency. In both cases it is possible to establish with a high degree of certainty that the respective large-scale violent events caused a collective trauma which, for different reasons, remained unaddressed and participated in the outbreak of further violence. Each case thus represents a cycle of violence itself, and they represent a larger one together. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the power dynamics sometimes preventing proper healing, and sheds light on the case of Afghanistan, in which Western versions of events often dominate.Show less
Subsequent to Allende’s death, Augusto Pinochet lead a military dictatorship, and political violence in Chile resulted in “more than 3,000 killed, 30,000 tortured, and 80,000 incarcerated.” The...Show moreSubsequent to Allende’s death, Augusto Pinochet lead a military dictatorship, and political violence in Chile resulted in “more than 3,000 killed, 30,000 tortured, and 80,000 incarcerated.” The 1973-1990 coup d’état transformed Chilean democracy into an atrocious dictatorship. In post- conflict periods of the 19th and early 20th centuries, political reconciliation within the country depended on resistance to impunity, following a quest for justice in the name of social peace and governability. This Chilean approach to political reconciliation promoted a multiparty system spanning the political spectrum, enforcing the participation of conservatives, communists and socialists. The Museum of Memory and Human Rights was created to make known the systematic human rights violations by the Chilean state, and to promote ethical reflection about memory and human rights so that ‘Never Again’ will these events that attack human dignity be repeated. In order to unveil visitor’s experience of memory reparation at the MMHR, this research aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the interplay of the architectural elements of design at the MMHR. The interaction of elements at the MMHR: its form, extensive use of glass, structural systems, design of the exhibition allowing for the inclusion of different modes of display of multimedia within the exhibit, will bring forth how their combination elicits a regime of memory experience and remembrance on museum visitors.Show less
This thesis critically approaches the notion of nostalgia as a site for negotiating the way communities in Ladakh reproduce the past in the present. Multiple nostalgias are explored and the various...Show moreThis thesis critically approaches the notion of nostalgia as a site for negotiating the way communities in Ladakh reproduce the past in the present. Multiple nostalgias are explored and the various nostalgic postures are unpacked as they encounter and engage with modernity. The aim is to understand through ethnographic analysis, the temporalities within which nostalgia occurs and the interplay between nostalgia and cultural practices that provide a site to study how the past is maintained in the present.Show less
During the Iran-Iraq war, the Iranian government applied Shi’ite notions of martyrdom in order to mobilize people for the war and enhance its legitimacy. In this research, the question is analyzed...Show moreDuring the Iran-Iraq war, the Iranian government applied Shi’ite notions of martyrdom in order to mobilize people for the war and enhance its legitimacy. In this research, the question is analyzed how Persian memoirs by female authors on the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) have reflected the Iranian cult of martyrdom. Based on the scientific realm of (critical) memory studies, this study analyses the framing of martyrdom by investigating the Persian memoirs of Zahra Hoseyni: One Woman’s War: Da. In these memoirs, Hoseyni narrates how she grew up in the Iranian city of Khorramshahr amid the detrimental events of the Iran-Iraq war and how she participates in the war as a nurse and grave worker. This study suggests that the experiences of martyrdom by Persian women in their memoires are highly determined by their female perspective. In Da, Hoseyni alludes to Zaynab (626-682), the sister of the martyred imam Hoessein (626-68), as being an authority of morality. Though male narratives about the Iran-Iraq war would call upon the martyrdom of imam Hoessein himself, female memoirs imply that they feel more acquainted with the role of Zaynab. Besides, this study suggests that Da proves itself as an emancipatory publication, in which Hoseyni steadfastly objects to the conventional gender roles within the Iranian society. By portraying Hoseyni as an independent woman during the Iran-Iraq war, Da shows that conceptions of martyrdom in female Persian war memoires coincide with challenging views of women’s roles in public society.Show less
The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate how narration could be used as a way to reconstruct the identity, based on the premise that remembering is a condition of forgetting. This is...Show moreThe objective of this thesis is to demonstrate how narration could be used as a way to reconstruct the identity, based on the premise that remembering is a condition of forgetting. This is illustrated through the analyse of the book of Argentinian writer Laura Alcoba, La Casa de los Conejos.Show less
In deze scriptie wordt de herinneringsthematiek in drie werken van Cees Nooteboom - Rode regen, 's Nachts komen de vossen en Brieven aan Poseidon - onderzocht vanuit een mediatheoretisch...Show moreIn deze scriptie wordt de herinneringsthematiek in drie werken van Cees Nooteboom - Rode regen, 's Nachts komen de vossen en Brieven aan Poseidon - onderzocht vanuit een mediatheoretisch perspectief. Centraal staat de hypothese dat media in het latere proza van Cees Nooteboom een katalysator vormen voor herinneringen, en dat die media tegelijkertijd reflectie op herinnering en tijd mogelijk maken.Show less
Tussen 1575 en 1576 werd de lutherse stad Woerden belegerd door de Spaanse troepen. Veel belegeringen uit de Tachtigjarige Oorlog genieten een uitgebreide herinneringscultuur binnen de landelijke...Show moreTussen 1575 en 1576 werd de lutherse stad Woerden belegerd door de Spaanse troepen. Veel belegeringen uit de Tachtigjarige Oorlog genieten een uitgebreide herinneringscultuur binnen de landelijke herinnering. Dit lijkt echter niet het geval bij de belegering van Woerden. Dit onderzoek kijkt naar zowel de landelijke als lokale herinnering aan dit Beleg en welke elementen een rol speelden in de interactie tussen deze twee herinneringsculturen.Show less
Although trees are not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the Israel/Palestine conflict, the aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that specific trees play a significant and active...Show moreAlthough trees are not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the Israel/Palestine conflict, the aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that specific trees play a significant and active role in the conflict and in the construction of Israeli and Palestinian collective memories and identities. Beyond providing mere metaphoric expressions of Israeli and Palestinian rootedness, trees give material form to claims to the contested land of Israel/Palestine. Thus, the Israel/Palestine conflict is not merely a struggle over land, but also a struggle conducted and articulated through the land and through trees more specifically, as both Israelis and Palestinians invest memory in “their” trees, the pine tree and the olive tree respectively.Show less
