Traumatic pasts, literary afterlives, and transcultural memory : new directions of literary and media memory studies

This article presents new directions of literary and media memory studies. It distinguishes between (1) the study of "traumatic pasts", i.e. representations of war and violence in literature and other media, (2) diachronic and intermedial approaches to "literary afterlives" and (3) recent insights into the inherent transculturality of memory and their consequences for literary and media studies. Keywords: cultural memory studies, literature and memory, media and memory, transcultural memor

Transcultural memory

“Transcultural memory” emerged in or around 2010 within the field of memory studies. The “transcultural turn” (Bond & Rapson 2014) describes the programmatic move away from the assumption that memory is the product of bounded “cultures”, often national cultures at that – an idea which had crept into a large section of memory research, especially in the wake of Pierre Nora’s lieux de mémoire. Proponents of transcultural memory studies criticize such “methodological culturalism”. They emphasize..

The impact of design aesthetics on willingness to pay for utilitarian products

In a world that is coined by fierce competition and a fast-paced life, companies need to think one step ahead of their competitors to succeedin the long-run. One growing driver for success has been the design of products(aesthetics)which can help to differentiate one’s products from others that contain the same core features. For a long time in research the importance of design appeal was only assumed for pleasure-related products (hedonic) and functional products (utilitarian) were often not taken into consideration. Thisleavesagap ofresearch focusing on utilitarian products which thereforebuilt the foundationofthis study. Using Hayes’ mediation model, insights into the relationship between design appeal and willingness to pay for utilitarian productswere provided. Thisquantitative study revealedthe significance of design appeal in utilitarian products thattriggers higherwillingness to pay. Furthermore, the objective was to get insights into the black box in consumer decision making processes.The literature review demonstratedan importance of status-seeking, self-expression and self-esteem enhancement in terms ofbuying decisions. These three emotional purchase motivations (mediators) were assumed to be impacting willingness to pay.Against the initial assumption, the study found that the relationship between design appeal and willingness to pay is not mediated by these three emotional purchase motivations

The Polish History of Literature as a Lieu de Mémoire

The article contains an analysis of the genealogy of 19th-century Polish research in the field of literary history. My inquiry contains a comparison between literary research in Germany and in Poland. From this point of view, literary history was an important factor in the process of building a modern nation. Furthermore, literary historians also played the role of indispensable authorities on the cultural past and present: in Germany as professors of universities, and in Poland during the partitions as intellectuals and writers

Pamięć, język a dyskursy medialne - rozmowa z prof. Astrid Erll, prof. Bożeną Witosz i prof. Robertem Trabą

Pamięć, język a dyskursy medialne – rozmowa z prof. Astrid Erll, prof. Bożeną Witosz i prof. Robertem Trab

Opioid peptides encrypted in intact milk protein sequences

peer-reviewedOpioid agonistic and antagonistic peptides which are inactive within the sequence of the precursor milk proteins can be released and thus activated by enzymatic proteolysis, for example during gastrointestinal digestion or during food processing. Activated opioid peptides are potential modulators of various regulatory processes in the body. Opioid peptides can interact with subepithelial opioid receptors or specific luminal binding sites in the intestinal tract. Furthermore, they may be absorbed and then reach endogenous opioid receptors

Collective Cultural Memory as a TV Guide:‘Living’ History and Nostalgia on the Digital Television Platform

Modern audiences engage with representations of the past in a particular way via the medium of television, negotiating a shared understanding of the past. This is evidenced by the increasing popularity of reboots, newly developed history and documentary programming, re-use of archival footage and nostalgia content. This article takes a closer look at television’s abilities to circulate and contextualize the past in the current era of convergence through narrowcasting or niche programming on digital television platforms, specifically via nostalgia programming. Such platforms exemplify the multifaceted way of looking at and gaining access to television programming through a variety of connected platforms and screens in the current multi-platform era. Since the way in which television professionals (producers, schedulers, commissioners, researchers) act as moderators in this process needs to be further analysed, the article places an emphasis on how meaningful connections via previously broadcast history and nostalgia programming are also curated, principally through scheduling and production practices for niche programming – key elements in television’s creative process that have received less academic attention. Furthermore, the article discusses to what extent media policy in the Netherlands is attuned to the (re-)circulation of previously broadcast content and programming about past events, and reflects on television’s possibilities for “re-screening” references to the past in the contemporary media landscape. The analysis is based on a combination of textual analysis of audio-visual archival content and a production studies approach of interviews with key professionals, to gain insight into the creators’ strategies in relation to nostalgia programming and scheduling. Subsequently, the article demonstrates how national collective memory, as understood by television professionals in the Netherlands, informs the scheduling and circulation of “living history” on the digital thematic channel – collective cultural memory hence functioning as a TV guide

Mobilized memories: deployments of the past in the present and the future

Coordinators: Francisco Ferrándiz Martín, (ILLA, CSIC), Reyes Mate Rupérez (IFS, CSIC).Memory processes —as selective displays of the past in the present— are an essential component of the configuration and development of all human societies and affect areas that range from everyday gestures to high-level politics. The unfolding of memory is especially important in the constitution of individual and collective identities, and its enormous potential for cohesion is only comparable to its great capacity to generate exclusion, difference, and dispute. It is impossible to understand historical or contemporary conflicts in depth without analyzing the memory processes in which they are or have been immersed. Hence the strategic importance of this challenge for an institution such as CSIC. The approach to memory and memory processes is necessarily interdisciplinary, as it can be analyzed through the scientific fields of neurobiology, philosophy, sociology, political science, psychology, literary studies, religious studies, cultural studies, historiography, social anthropology, archeology, or cultural geography, among others. By reviewing the main historical, theoretical and thematic anchors of memory studies –with a special emphasis on CSIC-based research–, as well as their prospects for the future, this challenge proposes to proactively foster this interdisciplinarity to build a common analytical language substantially richer and more sophisticated than each of its individual parts