Sunday 30 October 2011

Media and Memory as Tools in Interpreting history.



History as a narrative

History is a narrative which is an interpretation of the time-space in a certain perspective. In general a prevalent or powerful group in the society may have sentiments associated to this narrative. The narrative gains currency and is passed over generations through its amalgamation into everyday activities in forms of music, arts, literature, rituals, myths etc. Such histories are tend to erase the cultural symbols which may represent another cultural strain which might have co-existed during the development. 

Need for re-reading, re-creation and deconstruction of History

The predominant historic narrative after a period may be challenged by a group who come up to the power position. As in case of the colonised world this phenomenon occurred when the natives came into power overthrowing the coloniser. This power shift also began the urge to re-interpret the history of these nations. Nazi regimes which controlled Germany too had faced a defeat leading to such mass re-interpretations of written history. The re-interpreted version of history was immediately locked down as new historic narrative through literatures, arts and creation of cultural symbols which soon began to emerge.
In the case of Nazi regime which was overthrown by The Allies' Potsdam Conference in August 1945, it had created arrangements for the Allied occupation and denazification of the country, as well as war reparations involving the removal of war-related factories. This included capturing of former Nazi soldiers, people who were employed under them and put in front of the newly encoded legal system. In South Africa the colonial powers had taken immense interest in destroying indigenous cultures so an emergency was seen under the new government to create a historic space where there divisions of tribal cultures could be easily accommodated. 

Reconciliation as a mode of healing the past

In the case of both South Africa and Germany the range of destruction was extensive and physical.  From the very earliest speeches and writings of Hitler it was clear that the Jewish community in Germany were an object of hatred, together with gypsies, the mentally disadvantaged or the handicapped. The Nazi ideology laid down strict rules about who was or was not a 'pure German' and actions were set into motion to 'purify' the 'German race' soon after the Nazi takeover. This regime after its abolishment was confronted with hatred and the newly formed government decided to channel this through the legal system they had established. Rage was the after-effect of South African independence too. With Apartheid abolished and equality restored the former persecutors were physically confronted in streets. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was the choice of South Africa to deal with the rage. Witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations were invited to give statements about their experiences, and some were selected for public hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution.
In both the cases the urge for the human beings to establish a new historic narrative and erase the symbols of the previous one is well visible. Also rage had to be controlled through amnesty or punishment. Germany took the path of punishment while South Africa included  a clause of amnesty. 

History as an attempt to achieve ‘Liveness’
Writing of history itself is an attempt to attain liveness. As memory is non-standardised and dynamic, written histories which resembled stories or narratives soon took up the position of authorised historical accounts. This was mainly due to the technological handicap of the times and as photography came into existence, pictures had a hand in historic narrations. Soon it was found, a picture can tell a hundred stories not one. Audio recorder came into existence and transcription was considered an authentic capture of history. Now with all the same limitations the previous mediums shared filming is also a part of historical narration.
Once the history is created then it is open for further interpretations Thus the urge for liveness expands from ‘Ubu and the Truth Commission’ in 1997 interpreting the attempt of reconciliation in South Africa to ‘The Reader’ in 2008 about the lawsuits on Nazi soldiers.
Media and Memory in Interpretation of History
Media and Memory are two interpreters of Historic accounts which are considered as acceptable versions. Memory plays a major role in the new born histories of South Africa as the victims and others gave first-hand accounts of the incidents, which was recorded or transcribed mechanically. But Germany uses a legal system which has pre-defined notions of wrong and right to generate history. As we are taking into account the representation of the historic accounts through Ubu and the Truth Commission by Jane Taylor who used the transcripts as a major source. The transcripts or the audio recordings were the first-hand accounts of the incidents which occurred. Memory is thus the source for jane Taylor. Bernhard Schlink who wrote the book ‘The Reader’ is a german but born only a year before the end of Nazi rule familiarized with the oppressions through Media representations. Thus media driven interpretation of history becomes the basis for the film “The Reader”.
Reconciliation or revenge
Both Ubu and Reader shows the sad ending of real persecutors escaping the law or achieving amnesty through unfair means.