Remediating transcultural memory : documentary filmmaking as archival intervention

265 Pages·2016·1.89 MB·English

by  Dagmar Brunow

Dagmar Brunow
Remediating Transcultural Memory
Media and Cultural Memory/
Medien und kulturelle
Erinnerung
Edited by
Astrid Erll ‧ Ansgar Nünning
Editorial Board
Aleida Assmann ‧ Mieke Bal ‧ Vita Fortunati ‧ Richard Grusin ‧ Udo Hebel
Andrew Hoskins ‧ Wulf Kansteiner ‧ Alison Landsberg ‧ Claus Leggewie
Jeffrey Olick ‧ Susannah Radstone ‧ Ann Rigney ‧ Michael Rothberg
Werner Sollors ‧ Frederik Tygstrup ‧ Harald Welzer
Volume 23
Dagmar Brunow
Remediating
Transcultural
Memory
Documentary Filmmaking as Archival Intervention
DE GRUYTER
ISBN 978-3-11-043762-1
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-043637-2
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-043452-1
ISSN 1613-8961
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A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Acknowledgements
During the writing process I have felt privileged to be part of a wonderful net-
workofcolleagues,friendsandfamilywhohavesupportedmeinsomanyways.
Firstofall,IowetremendousthankstomysupervisorJohannN.Schmidtfor
his patience, generosity and intellectual rigour; to my second supervisor Astrid
Erllforherenthusiasmforthisprojectaswellastheinspirationandvastknowl-
edgeshewillinglyshares;toJoanBleicherforprovidingpromptadvicewhenever
I needed it.
Fortheirvaluablefeedbackandfortheirinspiringscholarshipmygratitude
goes to Vanessa Agard-Jones,Ulrike Bergermann,Tim Bergfelder, Stella Bruzzi,
EricaCarter,SimonDickel,JanDistelmeyer,GayatriGopinath,LizGreene,Judith
Keilbach,AnnetteKuhn,MichaelRothbergandAlexandraSchneider.Thankstoo
to my film theory reading group in Hamburg: Malte Hagener, David Kleingers,
Skadi Loist, Katja Schumann and Senta Siewert.
Anumberofinvitationshelpedmetodevelopandtestoutsomeofmyargu-
ments.IfeelgratefultoGunlögFur,UllaMannsandTyttiSoilaforinvitingmeto
talk about my workat the seminarof postcolonial studies at Linneaeus Univer-
sity,attheGenderStudiesresearchseminaratSödertörn,andattheFilmStudies
research seminar at Stockholm University respectively. Thanks to Christine
Achinger for inviting me to Warwick and to Heidrun Führer for inviting me to
her seminar on intermediality studies at Lund University. A big thank you also
goes to Ylva Habel for being a discussant at an early stage of writing and for
co-chairing a panel with me at the CAAR conference in Bremen. I would also
liketotakethisopportunitytothankJohnSundholmandLarsGustafAndersson
fortheirinvitationtocontributetoaspecialissueofStudiesinEuropeanCinema
and to their panel at the MAGIS Spring School in Gorizia.
Aspecialthanksgoestothefilmmakers,artists,curatorsandarchivistswho
generouslygaveoftheirtimeduringconversationsorinterviews.Theirworkand
experiences have been fundamental for shaping my ideas: John Akomfrah
(Smoking Dogs Films), Kodwo Eshun, at the mpz: Ulrike Gay and Olaf Berg; at
bildwechsel: the one and only Durbahn; and at die thede: Christian Bau, Maria
Hemmleb, Barbara Metzlaff and Alexandra Gramatke. Thanks too to the late
Harun Farocki, to Hito Steyerl, Thomas Tode, Sandhya Suri and Ulrike Schaz.
The chapter on the Hamburg video collectives is dedicated to the memory of
Jens Huckeriede (1949–2013), member of the collective die thede,whose films
andartprojectsexplorethedialecticsofforgettingandremembrance,especially
inrelationtotheculturalmemoryoftheHolocaust,andwhichdeserveabookon
their own.
VI Acknowledgements
DuringthecreationofthisstudymycolleaguesatLinneaeusUniversityhave
been the most wonderful colleagues anybody could wish for: Anna Sofia Ros-
sholm, Ingrid Stigsdotter, Tommy Gustafsson, Anna Arnman and Anders
Åberg. For their collegiality and hospitality I would like to thank Anna Bach-
mann, Sofia Bull, Laura Horak, Anu Koivunen, Jakob Nilsson, Ingrid Ryberg,
Nadi Tofighian, Patrick Vonderau, Malin Wahlberg, Eirik Frisvold Hansen, Åsa
Bergström,AndersMarklund,SanjinPejkovic,MichaelTapper,Ann-KristinWal-
lengren and Jonnie Eriksson. My fabulous colleagues at Södertörn University
have been a constant source of inspiration: Jenny Sundén, Helena Hill, Ulla
Manns, Ulrika Dahl, Katarina Mattson and Ann Werner. An extra “tack” goes
to my inspiring teachers Karin Carsten Montén, Else Kjaer and Jahn Thon at
Hamburg University. A big cheers goes to Dorota Ostrowska and Christine
Achinger for tea time at the British Library. I am also highly grateful to Tytti
SoilaandtoStephKlinkenborgforencouragingmeatanearlystageofmywork.
The MYMEM research network (National Myths and Collective Memory in a
Transnational Age) and the COST-Action ISTME (In Search of a Transcultural
MemoryinEurope)havegenerouslysupportedmyparticipationatnetworkmeet-
ingsinStavanger(2012),Paris(2013),Krakow(2013)andBudapest(2014).Ifeel
grateful to be part of these transnational networks which are characterised by
intellectual curiosity, openness and excellent scholarship. For this I would like
tothankBarbaraTörnqvist-Plewa,BillSchwarz,SusannahRadstone,JohnSund-
holm and Alexandre Dessingué.
The Arts and Humanities Department at Halmstad University and its re-
search cluster “Kontext& Kulturgränser” have partlyfundedthis research,ena-
bling me to take time off teaching and travelling to conferences, among them
Screen,NECS,IAMHISTandCAAR.IfeelespeciallygratefultoKGHammarlund
for his support.
The staff at the Stuart Hall Library in London, at the British Library, at the
BFI and at Kungliga Biblioteket in Stockholm have been immensely helpful. A
big thanks to Jenny Helstad at Halmstad University Library, who managed to
get hold of basicallyevery title or article Iwished for.
For valuable feedback and comments I would like to thank Robin Curtis,
Skadi Loist, Sonja Majumder, Karen Schulz, Thorsten Stobbe and especially
Beeke Ropers, who edited and proof-read the bulk of the manuscript. I am
also grateful to Sonja Uhlendorf who was generous enough to help me with
thelayout.Myfamilyandfriendshaveremindedmebothoftheupcomingdead-
line and of life outside academia: Arne and Susanna Christensen, Manfred and
AngelikaKutsch,UrsulaWallin,TrautePeschel,thelateWernerPeschel,Mehmet
Kocaaga,UlrikeJensen,GabrielaPichler,TinnaHillerAndreasson&family,Britt-
Marie and Gillis Hiller, Emelie Karlsmo & family, Anna Viola Hallberg, Kerstin
Acknowledgements VII
Janssen, Christian Schneider, Andreas Stuhlmann, Rolf Uhlendorf, Ann Sofi
LindbergandMatsMyrstener.IwouldalsoliketothankFSKradiostationforof-
feringmeanoutletforthoughtsandideas,aboveallOleFrahmandTorstenMi-
chaelsen for never ceasing to inspire me, as well as myco-workers at my Ham-
burg office collective for being around. My London friends Beeke Ropers and
Giorgio Frare cannot be thanked enough: their hospitality during my stays in
London and their support on all levels have been beyond measure.
ThebiggestthanksgoestomyparentsHellaandGünterBrunowfor always
believinginme.ThisworkhasbeenwritteninfondmemoryofTinePleschand
MartinBüsser,whoseinspirationreachesbeyonddeath.Thisbookisdedicated–
as always – to my sisters Hülya and Meyrem, and to the younger generation:
Zuhal, Fatma, Narin, Berivan, Şevin, Ramia, Harun, Şilan, Rubar, Zülal & Elif
Nisa:you are the hope!

Contents
. Introduction 1
. Mediated memories: the transcultural turn and its epistemological
challenges 2
. Memory communities and the audiovisual archive: whose memory is
it? 6
. Aims – Methods – Structure 14
. Theory 21
. Conceptualising transcultural and transnational memory 21
.. The notion of transculturality 21
.. Transculturality and its discontents 24
.. Transnational memory: using the insights of transnational film
studies 27
.. Conclusion 32
. The Archive 34
.. The archive in memory studies 34
.. Archive theory: power, knowledge and materiality 37
.. Archival interventions: remediation and curatorship 38
.. Conclusion: the archiveas agent 40
. Remediation 41
.. Remediation within media studies 41
.. Remediation within memory studies 45
.. Remediation and intermediality 46
.. Remediation and its discursive frameworks 49
. Mediatized memories in a global age: the transcultural turn? 52
. Remembering Turkish-German labor migration (Fatih Akin’s We Forgot
to Go Back/Wir haben vergessen zurückzukehren) 53
.. Mediating the cultural memory of migration 57
.. Migrant memories and national frameworks 60
.. Countering essentialism: aesthetic strategies 62
... Transnational urban spaces 66
... Transnational sonic spaces 68
.. Migrant memories: transnational approaches 69