H005: "Infrastructures" of Memory in Literature, Performance and Museums: Narrating Violence in Modern Japan and Taiwan

Organizer(s)

• 

  Linshan Jiang

  University of California, Santa Barbara, United States

Chair(s)

• IY

  Isaac Yue

  University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Paper Presenter(s)

• 

  Linshan Jiang

  University of California, Santa Barbara, United States
• 

  Melody Yunzi Li

  University of Houston, United States
• 

  Naomi Ellis

  University of California, Los Angeles, United States

Discussant(s)

• IY

  Isaac Yue

  University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Session Abstract: The primary interest of our panel lies in examining the role of memory in creating complex relationships between events in the past and their narratives in the present. How do memories of political violence, in particular, become the subject of a narrative while also re-shaping the subjectivities of those who narrate these memories? Our panel addresses this question by focusing on the different “infrastructures” of memory, which we locate in literary works, theatrical performances and museums that deal with memories of war and colonization in Japan and Taiwan. Approaching the ways in which conceptual and material fragments –words, movements, and artifacts– are collected, connected, and structured into forms of memories, our panel aims to illuminate the process in which different codes of language and practice come to be embodied in these memories, creating a field of force that re-/configures the boundaries in which experiences of destruction and loss become “narratable”. By focusing on the organic structure of such assemblages, we also ask what constitutes the “human” as the narrating subject of these memories. Can we recognize a surplus of affects that exceeds the structural limitations of a memory, complicating the relationship between objects, bodies, and voices involved in a narrative? Adopting methods from literature, performing arts and museum studies to examine the “infrastructures” of memory, our panel provides a unique perspective for considering vestiges of political violence in the modern history of Japan and Taiwan. The papers will be pre-circulated and Melody will give a performance related to her presentation.