Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance

Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture

Instead of compartmentalizing American experience, the technologies of mass culture make it possible for anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender to share collective memoriesâ€•to assimilate as personal experience historical events through which they themselves did not live. That's the provocative argument of this book, which examines the formation and potential of privately felt public memories. Alison Landsberg argues that mass cultural forms such as cinema and television in fact contain the still-unrealized potential for a progressive politics based on empathy for the historical experiences of others. The result is a new form of public cultural memoryâ€•"prosthetic" memoryâ€•that awakens the potential in American society for increased social responsibility and political alliances that transcend the essentialism and ethnic particularism of contemporary identity politics.
Country USA
Brand Columbia University Press
Manufacturer Columbia University Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 14 photos
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780231129275
ReleaseDate 2004-07-06

Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture