Postmemory

There is so much going on that I can't begin to articulate it all. Semana Santa begins today (Sunday), and I've already noticed a difference in Córdoba's atmosphere. There are a lot more people in the streets, including lots of musicians and drunk teenagers. There's a sense of calm anticipation in the breeze here, and everyone is relaxed and happy.

I also took a wild hike today, and will describe it more at a later date when I have time to sort through the photos.

Now to the point of this post: the idea of "postmemory."

For some context, I am working on a senior thesis proposal right now. My idea is to write a collection of poetry about my father's experiences and how those have indirectly affected the person I've become and the life I've lived. I've grown up with an unusual, wonderful, intricate, resilient family, and I feel incredibly fortunate for that. With time, I've thought a lot about how every person is influenced by an inherited history, one which she never directly experienced. A lot of people grow up listening to their elders' stories, and--especially when one is young and impressionable--those stories can hugely impact a person's development and growth. In consideration of this, my advisor recommended that I look into "postmemory" in creating my outline.

The basic idea, as described by Marianne Hirsch, is below:

“Postmemory” describes the relationship that the “generation after” bears to the personal, collective, and cultural trauma of those who came before-to experiences they “remember” only by means of the stories, images, and behaviors among which they grew up. But these experiences were transmitted to them so deeply and affectively as to seem to constitute memories in their own right. Postmemory´s connection to the past is thus actually mediated not by recall but by imaginative investment, projection, and creation. To grow up with overwhelming inherited memories, to be dominated by narratives that preceded one´s birth or one´s consciousness, is to risk having one´s own life stories displaced, even evacuated, by our ancestors. It is to be shaped, however indirectly, by traumatic fragments of events that still defy narrative reconstruction and exceed comprehension. These events happened in the past, but their effects continue into the present.

This idea was initially born out of discussions with the children of Holocaust survivors, but (at least initially) it seems fairly widely applicable. I'm sure that it's much more pronounced on a cultural level, but I think that, in some sense, everyone carries "postmemories" that belonged to their ancestors. These "postmemories" can be expressed through all sorts of media, from oral folklore to photography to musical composition. To me, that is a hugely hopeful and adaptive idea.

I could write a much more involved and comprehensive post on this, but alas, it's time to sit down and revise a few things before I leave for Sarria on Tuesday. I will leave this idea right here, and if it sparks any major epiphanies or recollections for you, I'd love to hear about it. No matter, thank you for reading this!