Cultural Memory: Performance, Repetition, Amnesia and Embodiment

MCC-UE 1413 002 01/23/2023 - 05/8/2023 (Credits: 4.0)

4:55 PM - 6:10 PM M W
Room: 253 Location: 181 Mercer Street
Maria Frederika Malmström
mfm359@nyu.edu

Course Description

This course examines the performance, politics and poetics of memory in visual, historical,
literary and corporeal settings. It interrogates monumental history through terrains of socially
and culturally constructed, gendered, racial, colonial and coercively privatized memory. The
course will attempt to probe the following: how are socio-cultural memories privileged and
preserved by regimes of control and secrecy? How do violent conflict and historical
transformations or permutations reshape and reconfigure societal and everyday recollections?
What political and philosophical implications might be drawn from the concepts of the uncanny,
the anachronic and the imperishable to enable a critical reading of the cultural histories of the
present? We will address the tensions between history and memory by identifying formations
and figurations of embodiment including the memory of memory, total recall, archivization,
media transmission and repetition, counter-memory, subjugated knowledge, fragments, ruins,
material artifacts, inscriptions, minoritized narratives and memories consigned to precarity. The
course will rely on a range of genres including film and literature and across fields of
deconstructive theory, continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, anthropology, art history, critical
race theory, Afropessimism, gender & sexuality studies, visual culture and theories of media.

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the course will be able to demonstrate:

A) Advanced understanding of research methodologies, vocabularies and procedures appropriate to

undergraduate work in Visual Culture and the Archeology of Media.

B) Developing evidence-based research, writing and communication skills.

C) Socio-cultural and historical self-reflexivity as a research practitioner.

D) Developing ability in identifying and addressing research objectives.

E) Knowledge of a range of specific critical vocabularies and concerns focused philosophy of

media, violence, society-technology studies and visual culture.

F) Comparative analysis theoretical frameworks and evidence-based research.

 Readings/Texts

1. Syllabus and all course readings in Brightspace.

2. Films (homework).

3. Readings are meant to expand and enhance critical lexicon. Most readings will be discussed
but all readings are eligible to be used for the final paper whether discussed in class or not.

Evaluation and Requirements

Student oral participation in class discussions and breakout groups: 20%.

In-class dialogues with instructor, guest lecturers and fellow students based on talks, relevant
course readings and screenings are considered crucial to furthering student learning outcomes.
Students will be required to bring to class daily passages from assigned readings upon which
they will base the questions, comments and exchanges in class dialogues. The class will be
subdivided into smaller breakout groups as part of student-led discussions of relevant course
materials.

Midterm Exam: (03/4/2023) 30% 1000 words: will comparatively analyze 2 readings, and 1
film selected by the student.

Final Essay Proposal: (04/26, 05/1, 05/3/2023) 10% In class presentation.

Final Essay: (5/8/2023) 40% 3000 words: will comparatively analyze 3 readings, 1 film selected
by the student.

These response papers will be exercises in expositional (evidence-based writing) that will be
assessed on how the writer supports their perspectives with textual and visual evidence from the
course materials. Response papers will be submitted by email attachment to me on the assigned
dates listed in the syllabus. Please type and double-space your written work. Typing improves
the clarity and readability of your work and double-spacing allows room for me to comment.
Please also number and staple multiple pages. You are free to use your preferred citation style.
Please use it consistently throughout your writing. If sending a document electronically, please
name the file in the following format:
Your last name, Course number Assignment1.doc

Evaluation Rubric

A = Excellent
This work is comprehensive and detailed, integrating themes and concepts from discussions,
lectures and readings. Writing is clear, analytical and organized. Arguments offer specific
examples and concisely evaluate evidence. Students who earn this grade are prepared for class,
synthesize course materials and contribute insightfully.

B = Good

This work is complete and accurate, offering insights at general level of understanding. Writing
is clear, uses examples properly and tends toward broad analysis. Classroom participation is
consistent and thoughtful.

C = Average

This work is correct but is largely descriptive, lacking analysis. Writing is vague and at times
tangential. Arguments are unorganized, without specific examples or analysis. Classroom
participation is inarticulate.

D = Unsatisfactory

This work is incomplete, and shows little understanding of the readings or discussions.
Arguments demonstrate inattention to detail, misunderstand course material and overlook
significant themes. Classroom participation is spotty, unprepared and off topic.

F = Failed

This grade indicates a failure to participate and/or incomplete

A = 94-100
A- = 90-93
B+= 87-89
B = 84-86
B- = 80-83
D = 60-64
F = 0-59

Course Policies

Absences and Lateness

More than two unexcused absences will automatically result in a lower grade. Chronic lateness
will also be reflected in your evaluation of participation. Regardless of the reason for your
absence you will be responsible for any missed work. Travel arrangements do not constitute a
valid excuse for rescheduling exams. There are no extra credit assignments for this class.

Format
Please type and double-space your written work. Typing improves the clarity and readability of
your work and double-spacing allows room for me to comment. Please also number and staple
multiple pages. You are free to use your preferred citation style. Please use it consistently
throughout your writing. If sending a document electronically, please name the file in
the following format Your last name Course number Assignment1.doc.

Grade Appeals

Please allow two days to pass before you submit a grade appeal. This gives you time to reflect on
my assessment. If you still want to appeal your grade, please submit a short but considered
paragraph detailing your concerns. Based on this paragraph I will review the question and either
augment your grade or refine my explanation for the lost points.

General Decorum

Slipping in late or leaving early, sleeping, text messaging, surfing the Internet, doing homework
in class, eating, etc. are distracting and disrespectful to all participants in the course. SMS
messaging/email devices, or other portable communication devices are not to be used during the
class. Voice recordings via digital/portable platforms will not be allowed. Exceptions will be
made in response to documented disability and illness.

Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism

http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/policies/academic integrity

The relationship between students and faculty is the keystone of the educational experience at
New York University in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
This relationship takes an honor code for granted and mutual trust, respect, and responsibility as
foundational requirements. Thus, how you learn is as important as what you learn. A university
education aims not only to produce high-quality scholars, but to also cultivate honorable citizens.

Academic integrity is the guiding principle for all that you do, from taking exams to making oral
presentations to writing term papers. It requires that you recognize and acknowledge information
derived from others and take credit only for ideas and work that are yours.

You violate the principle of academic integrity when you cheat on an exam, submit the same
work for two different courses without prior permission from your professors, receive help on a
take- home examination that calls for independent work, or plagiarize.

Plagiarism, one of the gravest forms of academic dishonesty in university life, whether intended
or not, is academic fraud. In a community of scholars, whose members are teaching, learning,
and discovering knowledge, plagiarism cannot be tolerated.
Plagiarism is failure to properly assign authorship to a paper, a document, an oral presentation, a
musical score, and/or other materials that are not your original work. You plagiarize when,
without proper attribution, you do any of the following: copy verbatim from a book, an article, or
other media; download documents from the Internet; purchase documents; report from other’s
oral work; paraphrase or restate someone else’s facts, analysis, and/or conclusions; or copy
directly from a classmate or allow a classmate to copy from you.

Your professors are responsible for helping you to understand other people's ideas, to use
resources and conscientiously acknowledge them, and to develop and clarify your own thinking.
You should know what constitutes good and honest scholarship, style guide preferences, and
formats for assignments for each of your courses. Consult your professors for help with problems
related to fulfilling course assignments, including questions related to attribution of sources.

Through reading, writing, and discussion, you will undoubtedly acquire ideas from others, and
exchange ideas and opinions with others, including your classmates and professors. You will be
expected, and often required, to build your own work on that of other people. In so doing, you
are expected to credit those sources that have contributed to the development of your ideas.

Avoiding Academic Dishonesty

• Organize your time appropriately to avoid undue pressure, and acquire good study habits,
including note taking.

• Learn proper forms of citation. Always check with your professors of record for their
preferred style guides. Directly copied material must always be in quotes; paraphrased
material must be acknowledged; even ideas and organization derived from your own
previous work or another's work need to be acknowledged.

• Always proofread your finished work to be sure that quotation marks, footnotes and other
references were not inadvertently omitted. Know the source of each citation.

• Do not submit the same work for more than one class without first obtaining the
permission of both professors even if you believe that work you have already completed
satisfies the requirements of another assignment.

• Save your notes and drafts of your papers as evidence of your original work.

Disciplinary Sanctions

When professors suspect cheating, plagiarism, and/or other forms of academic dishonesty,
appropriate disciplinary action may be taken following the department procedure or through
referral to the Committee on Student Discipline. The Steinhardt School Statement on Academic
Integrity is consistent with the New York University Policy on Student Conduct, published in the
NYU Student Guide.
 Student Resources

• Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

Students requesting reasonable accommodations due to a disability are encouraged to register

with the Moses Center for students with Disabilities. You can begin the registration process by
completing Moses Center Online Intake. Once completed, a Disability Specialist will be in
contact with you. Students requiring services are strongly encouraged to register prior to the
upcoming semester or as early as possible during the semester to ensure timely implementation
of approved accommodations.

• NYU Writing Center (Washington Square): 411 Lafayette, 4th Floor. Schedule an
appointment online at https://nyu.mywconline.com or just walk-in.

In class presentations, final paper proposal and summation: 05/1, 3 and 8, 2023.

Midterm deadline: 03/20, 2023

Final Paper deadline: 05/8, 2023

Course Readings

Week 1: 01/23 – 01/25 Fragments: The Memory of Memory

Malmström, Maria Frederika. 2019. “The Streets are Talking to Me”: Affective Fragments in
Sisi’s Egypt. University of California Press. Preface and Introduction.

Avital Ronell, “An Addictionary of Violence,” (November 2021) www.counterpunch.org

Andreas Huyssen. 2018. “State of the Art in Memory Studies: an Interview with Andreas
Huyssen” in Politika.

Malmström, Maria Frederika. 2021. “The Affects of Change: An Ethnography of the Affective
Experiences of the 2013 Military Intervention in Egypt”. In Methodological Approaches to
Societies in Transformation: How to Make Sense of Change. Aymon Kreil, Yasmine Berriane,
Annuska Derks & Dorothea Lüddeckens, eds. Springer International Publishing. Chapter 10.

Week 2: 01/30 – 02/1 Consigned to Precarity and Active Forgetting

Nascimento Araújo, Maria Paula and Myrian Sepúlveda dos Santos. 2009. “History, Memory
and Forgetting: Political Implications”, translated by Sheena Caldwell. RCCS Annual Revie. A
selection from the Portuguese journal Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 1: 77–94.

Monteil, Charlotte, Barclay, Jenny and Hicks, Anna. 2020. “Remembering, Forgetting, and
Absencing Disasters in the Post-disaster Recovery Process”, Int J Disaster Risk Sci, 11: 287–
299. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-020-00277-8.

Malmström, Maria Frederika. 2015. “Porous Masculinities: Agential Political Bodies among
Male Hamas Youth”, Etnográfica 19 (2): 301-322.

Week 3: 02/6 – 02/8 Minoritized Narratives: Inscriptions and Embodied Memories

Malmström, Maria Frederika. 2019. “The Streets are Talking to Me”: Affective Fragments in
Sisi’s Egypt. University of California Press. Chapter 1 and 2.

Malmström, Maria Frederika. 2013. “The Production of Sexual Mutilation among Muslim
Women in Cairo”, Global Discourse 3(2): 1–16.

Week 4: 02/13– 02/15 Material Artifacts and Media Transmission

Malmström, Maria Frederika. 2019. “The Streets are Talking to Me”: Affective Fragments in
Sisi’s Egypt. University of California Press. Chapter 3 and 4.

Bennett, Jane. 2004. “The Force of Things. Steps toward an Ecology of Matter”, Political
Theory 32(3): 347–372.

02/20

President’s Day No Class

Week 5: 02/22 Transmission of Affect and Inheritance

Malmström, Maria Frederika. 2019. “The Streets are Talking to Me”: Affective Fragments in
Sisi’s Egypt. University of California Press. Chapter 5.

Brennan, Teresa. 2004. The Transmission of Affect. Ithaka and London. Cornell University Press.
Introduction and Chapter 1, 2, 3.

Week 6: 02/27 – 03/1 Archivization, Affect and Humming History 1

Campt, Tina M. 2017. Listening to Images. Durham: Duke University Press. Introduction and
chapter 1 and 2.

Brennan, Teresa. 2004. The Transmission of Affect. Ithaka and London. Cornell University Press.
Introduction and Chapter 4, 5.

Week 7: 03/6 – 03/8 Archivization, Affect and Humming History 2

Campt, Tina M. 2017. Listening to Images. Durham: Duke University Press. Chapter 3 and 4.

Brennan, Teresa. 2004. The Transmission of Affect. Ithaka and London. Cornell University Press.
Introduction and Chapter 6, 7.

Week 8: 03/13 – 03/19

Spring Break No Class

Week 9: 03/20 – 03/2 Sonic Memory and Repetition

Kapchan, Deborah. 2017. “Listening Acts: Witnessing the Pain (and Praise) of Others”, In
Theorizing Sound Writing, edited by Deborah Kapchan, 277–294. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan
University Press.

Haeri, Niloofar. 2013. “The Private Performance of Salat Prayers: Repetition, Time, and
Meaning”, Anthropological Quarterly 86 (1): 5–34.

Week 10: 03/27 – 03/29 Ruins: Herstory and Autobiography 1

Plath, Sylva. 2005 [1971] The Bell Jar. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Pages:
1–144.

Week 11: 04/3 – 04/5 Ruins: Herstory and Autobiography 2

Plath, Sylva. 2005 [1971] The Bell Jar. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Pages:
145–188.

Week 12: 04/10 – 04/12 Xenos, Memory Agents and Imagined Futures

Find the special issue here https://journals.openedition.org/ema/14724

Madbouly, Mayada and Aya Nassar. 2021. “Fragment(s) of Memor(ies): The Enduring Question
of Space and Storytelling”, In In Memory, Storytelling and Space. Égypte Monde Arabe, Eds.
Mayada Madbouly and Aya Nassar, 23: 13–26.

Khalil, Omnia. 2021. “The Afterlives of Cairenes: the Making of New Social Geographies from
Elsewhere than Bulaq Abule’lla”, In Memory, Storytelling and Space. Égypte Monde Arabe,
Eds. Mayada Madbouly and Aya Nassar, 23: 27–43.

T. Kosba, May. 2021. “… And Bid Him Sing: Egyptian Race Consciousness in African
Diasporic Memory”, In Memory, Storytelling and Space. Égypte Monde Arabe, Eds. Mayada
Madbouly and Aya Nassar, 23: 45–60.

Elsherif, Nermin. 2021. “The City of al-Zaman al-Gamîl: (A)political Nostalgia and the
Imaginaries of an Ideal Nation”, In Memory, Storytelling and Space. Égypte Monde Arabe, Eds.
Mayada Madbouly and Aya Nassar, 23: 61–79.

Abdelrahman Soliman, Nayera. 2021. “The Three Decisions of Umm Bîjû: Walking in Suez and
Seeing the Ghosts of 1967 War”, In Memory, Storytelling and Space. Égypte Monde Arabe, Eds.
Mayada Madbouly and Aya Nassar, 23: 81–103.

Higazy, Ingy. 2021. “The Violence of Memory and Movement: Reading Cairo from its Ring
Road”, In In Memory, Storytelling and Space. Égypte Monde Arabe, Eds. Mayada Madbouly and
Aya Nassar, 23: 105–120.

Week 13: 04/17 – 04/19 Counter-Memories and Afterlives

Ross, Kristin. 2002. May ’68 and Its Afterlives. Chicago: The Chicago of University Press.
Introduction and Chapter 1, 2.

Week 14: 04/24 Total Recall and Afterlives

Steffens, Melanie Caroline and Silvia Mecklenbräuker. 2007. “False Memories: Phenomena,
Theories, and Implications”, Zeitschrift für Psychologie/Journal of Psychology, 215(1):12–24.

Ross, Kristin. 2002. May ’68 and Its Afterlives. Chicago: The Chicago of University Press.
Introduction and Chapter 3, 4.

Week 14: 04/26 Final Essay Proposal: In Class Presentation, Final Paper Proposal and
Summation

Week 15: 05/1 – 05/3 Final Essay Proposal: In Class Presentation, Final Paper Proposal
and Summation
Week 16: 05/8 Final Essay Due

Suggested Reading

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.1997. “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life,” in
Untimely Meditations ed. Daniel Breazeale, trans. R. J. Hollingdale, Second Edition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press (Active Forgetting).

Sophocles. 1995. Antigone, trans. Dudley Fitts & Robert Fitzgerald. Caedmon (Historical
Theatres).

Jorge Luis Borges. 1954. “Funes the Memorious,” Avon Modern Writing 2 (Totall Recall).

Sigmund Freud. 1997. “A Note upon the “Mystic Writing Pad”, In Freud, General
Psychological Theory, Chapter XIII, Touchstone (Inscription and Transmission.

Jacques Derrida. 2005. “Paper or Me,” in Paper Machine, trans. Rachel Bowlby. Stanford:
Stanford University Press (Archive Fever).

Walter Benjamin. 2014. “The Work of Art in the Age of its Technical Reproducibility,” In The
Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media
Walter Benjamin, eds. Michael W. Jennings, Brigid Doherty, and Thomas Y. Levin, trans.
Edmund Jephcott. Harvard: Harvard University Press (Repetition).

Toni Morrison. 1997. Beloved. Alfred A. Knopf Inc (Slavocratic Hauntology).

Jared Sexton. 2016. “The Social life of Social death: On Afro-Pessimism and Black Optimism”,
In
Time, Temporality and Violence in International Relations. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge
(Slavocratic Hauntology).

Savannah Shange. 2019. Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Anti-Blackness + Schooling in San

Francisco. Duke University Press (Slavocratic Hauntology).

Franz Fanon. 2008. “The Fact of Blackness”, In Black Skin White Masks, (Intro) Homi K.
Bhabha & Ziauddin Sardar. London: Pluto Press (Mimesis).

Jacques Lacan. 1977. “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I”, In Écrits. W.W.
New Yor: Norton and Company (Mimesis).

Johansen, Elise. 2002. “Pain as a Counterpoint to Culture: Towards an Analysis of the

Experience
of Pain in Infibulation among African Immigrants in Norway”, Medical Anthropology
Quarterly, 16(3):312–40 (Xenos and Inscriptions).

Malmström, Maria Frederika. 2021. “The Desire to Disappear in Order Not to Disappear:
Cairene Ex-Prisoners after the 25 Jan “Revolution”, Special Issue: Beyond Revolution:
Reshaping Nationhood through Senses and Affects, edited by Myriam Lamrani. The Cambridge
Journal of Anthropology, 39 (2): 96–111 (Xenos and Inscriptions).

Franz Kafka. 2008. “The Burrow”, In Metamorphosis and Other Stories. New York: Penguin
(Xenos and the Uncanny).

Judith Butler. 2006. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence, Chapter I,
“Explanation and Exoneration, or What we can hear” and Chapter II, “Violence, Mourning,
Politics”. Brooklyn: Verso (Xenos and the Uncanny).

Michel Foucault. 1986. “Of Other Spaces,” Diacritics, 16(1): 22–27 (Xenos and the Uncanny).

Boellstorff, Tom. 2005. “Between Religion and Desire: Being Muslim and Gay in Indonesia.”
American Anthropologist, 107( 4): 575–585 (Uncanny Lives and Socio-Cultural Taboos).

Kulick, Don. 1997. “The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes”. American

Anthropologist, 99(3): 574–585 (Uncanny Lives and Socio-Cultural Taboos).

Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak. 1988. “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, In Marxism and the
Interpretation of Culture, eds. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg. London: Macmillan
(Memories at Sovereign Disposal).

Arundhati Roy. 2017. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. New York: Knopf (Memories at
Sovereign Disposal).

Georges Didi-Huberman. 2008. Images in Spite of All: Four Photographs from Auschwitz, trans.
Shane B. Lillis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press ((Dis)imagination).
Ahmed Saadawi. 2018. Frankenstein in Bhagdad. New York: Penguin ((Dis)imagination).

Francoise Verges. 2019. “Capitalocene, Waste, Race and Gender”, e-flux journal 100 (Bearing
Witness: Testimony of Environments).

Amitav Ghosh. 2021. The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for A Planet in Crisis. New York: Penguin
(Bearing Witness: Testimony of Environments).

Dipesh Chakrabarty. 2018. “Anthropocene Time”, History and Theory 57(1): 5–32 (Bearing
Witness: Testimony of Environments).
Alexei Yurchak. 2015. “Bodies of Lenin: The Hidden Science of Communist Sovereignty”.
Representations 129 Pages: 116–57 (Dead Memory).

Bruce Lincoln. 1985. “Revolutionary Exhumations in Spain, July 1936”. Comparative Studies in
Society and History, 27(2): 241–260 (Dead Memory).

Suggested Film Screenings

The Battle of Algiers, Director: Gillo Pontecorvo. 1967.

Thirteenth, Director, Ava DuVernay. 2016.

Five Broken Cameras, Director: Emad Burnat & Guy Davidi. 2012.

The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer. 2012.

The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer. 2014.

See also:
https://www.nyu.edu/life/information-technology/teaching-and-learning-services/instructional-
media/nyu-stream.html

https://library.nyu.edu/locations/avery-fisher-center-for-music-media/