Overview

This book provides an analysis of the forms and functions of Holocaust memorialisation in human rights museums by asking about the impact of global memory politics on how we imagine the present and the future. It compares three human rights museums and their respective emplotment of the Holocaust and seeks to illuminate how, in this specific setting, memory politics simultaneously function as future politics because they delineate a normative ideal of the citizen-subject, its set of values and aspirations for the future: that of the historically aware human rights advocate. More than an ethical practice, engaging with the Holocaust is used as a means of asserting one’s standing on ""the right side of history""; the memorialisation of the Holocaust has thus become a means of governmentality, a way of governing contemporary citizen-subjects. The linking of public memory of the Holocaust with the human rights project is often presented as highly beneficial for all members of what is often called the ""global community"". Yet this book argues that this specific constellation of memory also has the ability to function as an exercise of power, and thus runs the risk of reinforcing structural oppression. With its novel theoretical approach this book not only contributes to Memory Studies but also connects Holocaust memory to Studies of Global Governmentality and the debate on decolonising memory politics.

Full Product Details

9783110787979

Table of Contents

Reviews

This book is a tour de force critique of the ways in which in today's world memory has been institutionalized, instrumentalized, and optimized to neo-liberal effects. Antweiler clearly demonstrates that memory has emerged as a key technique of power and governance. Anyone in doubt about how our dominant cultural patterns of remembrance and commemoration produce political rationalities, shape norms of conduct, and influence cultural policy, should reach for this brilliant and masterful text.(Magdalena Zolkos, University of Jyväskylä)***Memorialising the Holocaust in Human Rights Museums offers an original view on the relationship between memory and politics by introducing the Foucauldian concept of governmentality to the field of memory studies. Through the study of three museums in Germany, Canada and South Africa, Katrin Antweiler redefines the nexus between Human Rights and memory as a technology of the self and, in so doing, opens a new path for understanding the nature of the impact of the transmission of violent pasts in contemporary societies.(Sarah Gensburger, French National Center for Scientific Research) This book is a tour de force critique of the ways in which in today's world memory has been institutionalized, instrumentalized, and optimized to neo-liberal effects. Antweiler clearly demonstrates that memory has emerged as a key technique of power and governance. Anyone in doubt about how our dominant cultural patterns of remembrance and commemoration produce political rationalities, shape norms of conduct, and influence cultural policy, should reach for this brilliant and masterful text. (Magdalena Zolkos, University of Jyväskylä) *** Memorialising the Holocaust in Human Rights Museums offers an original view on the relationship between memory and politics by introducing the Foucauldian concept of governmentality to the field of memory studies. Through the study of three museums in Germany, Canada and South Africa, Katrin Antweiler redefines the nexus between Human Rights and memory as a technology of the self and, in so doing, opens a new path for understanding the nature of the impact of the transmission of violent pasts in contemporary societies. (Sarah Gensburger, French National Center for Scientific Research)

This book is a tour de force critique of the ways in which in today's world memory has been institutionalized, instrumentalized, and optimized to neo-liberal effects. Antweiler clearly demonstrates that memory has emerged as a key technique of power and governance. Anyone in doubt about how our dominant cultural patterns of remembrance and commemoration produce political rationalities, shape norms of conduct, and influence cultural policy, should reach for this brilliant and masterful text. (Magdalena Zolkos, University of Jyvaskyla)

This book is a tour de force critique of the ways in which in today's world memory has been institutionalized, instrumentalized, and optimized to neo-liberal effects. Antweiler clearly demonstrates that memory has emerged as a key technique of power and governance. Anyone in doubt about how our dominant cultural patterns of remembrance and commemoration produce political rationalities, shape norms of conduct, and influence cultural policy, should reach for this brilliant and masterful text. (Magdalena Zolkos, University of Jyvaskyla) *** Memorialising the Holocaust in Human Rights Museums offers an original view on the relationship between memory and politics by introducing the Foucauldian concept of governmentality to the field of memory studies. Through the study of three museums in Germany, Canada and South Africa, Katrin Antweiler redefines the nexus between Human Rights and memory as a technology of the self and, in so doing, opens a new path for understanding the nature of the impact of the transmission of violent pasts in contemporary societies. (Sarah Gensburger, French National Center for Scientific Research)

Author Information

Katrin Antweiler, Universität Bremen.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available