Syllabus

Syllabus of Course

Collective Memory and Narratives

in Identity-Based Conflict and Cooperation

Course Number: TBA

  

Dr. Rafi Nets (-Zehngut) 

 

Year: 2018, Semester: Summer, Location: TBA, Number of credit hours: 2, Office hours: by appointment (via email or in person), as well as before or after class, Email address of the lecturer: rafi.nets@gmail.com.

 

1. Description of the Course

This course deals with an enigmatic phenomenon: collective memory (CM), namely, the way a society views its past events. Specifically, it will address the CM of inter- (civil wars) and intrastate conflicts, in addition to that of genocide, despotic regimes, the Holocaust and colonialism (hereafter “conflicts”). CM is an important socio-psychological phenomenon because it significantly influences the psychological reactions of people (e.g., their emotions and stereotypes), and consequently their behavior. The official memory is also important because it influences the positions of nations in peace negotiations and their status in the international arena.

The course will address, inter alia, the main theories of CM (including the factors that shape it), the different types of CM (e.g., official, autobiographical, cultural and popular), its main individual and collective functions (e.g., creating a feeling of attachment and the mobilization of society members), the institutions that shape it (e.g., the academy, the media, and the educational system), and the impact of the CM on the psychological reactions of people. Other aspects to be addressed are narratives (as the content of the CM), individual psychological aspects (e.g., the accessibility of the CM and the extent of certainty in holding the narratives), and various major phenomena such as: the impact of the passing of time on the CM, historical controversies, the impact of present interests, and lingual phenomena (e.g., euphemism, framing and metaphors). Moreover, various collaborative measures that can and has been used between the rival parties in order to promote peace and reconciliation between them will be addressed such as: apologies of nations, Truth and Reconciliation Committees (TRCs), and negotiating the narratives of the past through historical commissions. Due to the focus of the summer program on identity-based conflicts, the concept of identity will also be discussed in the course.

All this will be done while referring to major case study examples, with an emphasis on the Israeli and (Palestinian) CMs of the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict.The course uses: lectures, two films, video clips, discussions, and power point presentations. Students will also be encouraged to visit on their free time the Palmach (Jewish elite fighting force in the pre-Israel period) unique experiential museum in Tel Aviv. In summary, students will discover how CM and its narratives are often sources of conflict but can also become collaborative sources of peace. 

 

1. The course program, by sessions (titles only, two sessions per day, each session containing  2 classes - total of 4 days and 8 classes):  

1. The relevance of CM, its characteristics and basic terms  
2. Collective amnesia, narratives, and social identity
3. The functions and influences of CM as well as its process of transformation 
4. Film: Waltz with Bashir + discussion; and the factors that shape the CM (including the impact of the passage of time)   
5. The politics of CM, its shaping institutions and major events 
6. historical controversies as well as collaborative measures: apologies of nations 
7. More collaborative measures: Truth and Reconciliation Committees and Historians Commissions 
8. Film: Izkor: Slaves of the Memory + discussion; the Israeli CM of 1948, and summary of the course 

 

1. The Course Requirements and Grade

1. Attending all classes and active participation in class - students are expected to complete all mandatory readings before class (15% of the grade).
2. Final test (85%).  

 

1. Bibliography 

4.1. General:

Mandatory readings are marked with an asterisk. At the end of each class there is a publication which deals with a specific case study of conflict. Students are encouraged to read as much as possible of the mandatory readings of the classes (those included in section 4.3) before the beginning of the summer program (in addition to the pre summer program mandatory readings listed in section 4.2). All the below bibliography will be available online full text for download.

 

4.2. Pre summer program mandatory readings:

1. Paez, Dario & Liu James. 2011. Collective memory of intractable conflict. In Intergroup conflicts and their resolution – A social psychological perspective, edited by Daniel Bar-Tal, 105-124. New York: Psychology Press. *
2. Olick, Jeffrey, Vinitzky-Seroussi, Vered. & Levy, Daniel. 2011. Introduction. In The collective memory reader, edited by Jeffrey Olick, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi & Daniel Levy, 3-39. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press. *

 

 4.3. The bibliography per each class:

1. The relevance of CM, its characteristics and basic terms 
   1. Tint, Barbara. 2010. History, memory, and intractable conflict. Conflict Resolution  Quarterly, 27, 239-252. *
   2. Devine-Wright, Patrick. 2003. A theoretical overview of memory and conflict. In The role of memory in ethnic conflict, edited by Ed Cairns and Michael Roe, 9-33. New York: Palgrave, MacMillan.
   3. Radstone, Susannah, & Schwartz Bill. 2010. Introduction: Mapping memory. In Memory: histories, theories and debates, edited by Susannah Radstone & Bill Schwartz, 1-7. New York: Fordham University Press.
   4. Jay Winter and Emanuel Sivan. 1999. Setting the framework. In War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century, edited by Jay Winter & Emanuel Sivan, 6-39. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
   5. Goltermann, Svenja. 2010. On silence, madness and lastitude: Negotiating the past in post-war West Germany. In Shadows of war, edited by Efrat Ben-Ze’ev, Ruth Ginio and Jay Winter, 91-112. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Case study.

 

1. Collective amnesia, narratives, and social identity  
   1. Auerbach, Yehudit. 2010. National narratives in a conflict of identity. In Barriers to peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, edited by Jacob Bar-Siman-Tov, 99-134. Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. *
   2. Bruner, Jerome. (1991). The narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18, 1-21.
   3. Wertsch, James. 2008. A narrative organization of collective memory. Ethos, 36 (1), 120-135.
   4. Winter, Jay. 2010. Thinking about Silence. In shadows of War, edited by Efrat Ben-Ze'ev, Ruth Ginio and Jay Winter, 3-31. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
   5. Sahdra, Baljinder, & Ross Michael. 2007. Group identification and historical memory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33 (3), 384-393.
   6. Assmann, Jan. 1995. Collective memory and cultural identity. New German Critique, 65, 125-133.
   7. Vincent, Mary. 2010. Breaking the silence? Memory and oblivion since the Spanish Civil War. In Shadows of war, edited by Efrat Ben-Ze’ev, Ruth Ginio and Jay Winter, 47-67. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. Case study.

 

    3. The functions and influences of CM as well as its process of transformation

1. Bar-Tal, Daniel & Salomon, Gavriel. 2006. Israeli-Jewish narratives of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Evolvement, contents, functions and consequences. In History's double helix: The inter-wined narratives of Israel and Palestine, edited by Robert Rothberg, 19-40. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. *
2. Liu, James, & Hilton, Denis. 2005. How the past weighs on the present: Social representations of history and their role in identity politics. British Journal of Social Psychology, 44, 537–552.
3. Wyer, R., & Albarracin, D. 2005. Belief formation organization and change: Cognitive and motivational influences. In: D. Albarracin, B. Johnson & M. Zanna (Eds.), The handbook of attitudes (pp. 273-313). New York, London: Psychology Press. 
4. Nets-Zehngut, R., and Bar-Tal, D. 2014. Transformation of the official memory of conflicts: A tentative model. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 27 (1), 67-91.
5. Waldman, Gilda. 2009. Violence and silence in dictatorial and post-dictatorial Chile: The noir genre as a restitution of the memory and history of the present. Latin American Perspectives, 36, 121–131. Case study.

 

     4. Film “Waltz with Bashir”, and the factors that shape the CM (including the impact of the passage of time)

1. Ben Ze'ev, Efrat. 2010. Imposed Silences and Self-Censorship: Palmach Soldiers Remember 1948. In Shadows of War – A Social History of Silence in the Twentieth Century, edited by Efrat Ben-Ze'ev, Ruth Ginio and Jay Winter, 288-314. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *
2. Langenbacher, Eric. 2010. Collective memory as a factor in political culture and international relations. In Power and the past – Collective memory and international relations, edited by Eric Langenbacher & Yossi Shain, 13-49. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.
3. Nets-Zehngut, Rafi. 2012. The passing of time and collective memory of conflicts. Peace and Change, 37 (2), 253-285. 
4. Hayashi, Hirofumi. 2008. Disputes in Japan over the Japanese military ''Comfort Women'' system and its perception in history. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 617, 123-131. Case study.

 

     5. The politics of CM, it shaping institutions and major events

1. Heisler, Martin. 2008. Challenged histories and collective self-concepts: Politics in history, memory and time. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,617, 199-211. *
2. Garde-Hansen, Joanne. 2011. Media and memory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 50-69.
3. Bilsky, Leora. 2012. The Judge and the Historian: Transnational Holocaust Litigation as a New Model. History and Memory, 24 (2), 117-156.
4. Nets-Zehngut, Rafi. 2013. Major events and the collective memory of conflicts. International Journal of Conflict Management, 24 (3), 209-230.
5. Wang, Zheng. 2009. Old wounds, new narratives: Joint history textbook writing and peacebuilding in East Asia. History and Memory, 21 (1), 101-126.
6. Schäuble, Michaela. 2011. How history takes place: Sacralized landscapes in the Croatian-Bosnian border region. History and Memory, 23 (1), 23-61. Case study.

 

     6. Historical controversies as well as collaborative measures: apologies of nations 

1. Schneider, Claudia. 2008. The Japanese history textbook controversy in East Asian perspective. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 617, 107-119. *
2. Dawson, Ashplant, & Roper, Michael. 2001. The politics of war memory and commemoration: Contexts, structures and dynamics. In The politics of war memory and commemoration, edited by Ashplant Dawson & Roper Michael, 16-32. New York: Routledge, 16-32.
3. Kampf, Zohar & Lowenheim Nava. 2012. Rituals of apology in a global arena. Security Dialogue, 43 (1), 43-57.
4. Negash, Girma. 2006. Apologia politica: States and their apologies by proxy. London: Lexington Books, 1-23.
5. Crenzel, Emilio. 2011. Between the voices of the state and the human rights movement: Never Again and the memories of the disappeared in Argentina. Journal of Social History, 44, 1064–1076. Case Study.

 

     7. More collaborative measures: Truth and Reconciliation Committees and Historians Commissions 

1. Hayner, Precillia. 2011. Unspeakable truths: Confronting state terror and atrocity. (TRCs). New York: Routledge, 7-26. * + if desired, not mandatory, also 27-44. *
2. Barkan, Elazar, 2009. Truth and reconciliation in history, introduction: Historians and historical reconciliation. The American Historical Review, 114 (4), 899-913.
3. Andrews, Molly. 2003. Grand national narratives and the project of truth commissions: a comparative analysis. Media Culture & Society, 25 (1), 45-63.
4. Karn, Alexander. 2006. Depolarizing the past: The role of historical commissions in conflict mediation and reconciliation. Journal of International Affairs, 60 (1), 31-50.
5. Cattaruzza, Marina and Zala Sacha. 2007. Negotiated history? Bilateral historical commissions in twentieth-century Europe. In Contemporary history on trail: Europe since 1989 and the role of the expert historian, edited by Harriet Jones, Kjell Ostberg & Nico Randeraad, 123-143. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.
6. Dixon, Jennifer (2010) Defending the nation? Maintaining Turkey's narrative of the Armenian genocide. South European Society and Politics 15: 467-482. Case study.

 

     8. Film: Izkor: Slaves of the Memory + discussion; the Israeli CM of 1948, and summary of the course 

1. Nets-Zehngut, Rafi. 2012. Overview of the Israeli memory of the Palestinian refugee problem. Peace Review, 24 (2), 187-194. *
2. Govier, Trudy. 2006. Taking wrong seriously. Amherst, MS: Humanity Books, 67-87.
3. Schwartz, Barry & Todd, Bayma. 1999. Commemoration and the politics of recognition: The Korean veterans memorial. American Behavioral Scientist, 42 (6), 946-964.
4. Macmaster, Neil. 2004. The torture controversy (1998-2002): Towards a 'new history' of the Algerian War. Modern and Contemporary France, 10, 449-459. Case study.