Prosthetic memory: Re-creating the experience of trauma in Iñárritu’s 11'09''01

9/11 will always be a traumatic experience not only for Americans but also for the rest of the world. This trauma has been re-articulated in a number of mass culture or popular culture products, such as novels or films. As argued by Landsberg (2004), mass culture could be used to attract the public in making sense of history, memory, politics and identity, including traumatic moments. In this article, the chosen case, a short film by Iñárritu’s entitled 11'09''01 shows how a cultural product intended for the masses has the potentials to change the structure of memory construction. The film has been criticized to be focusing on the traumatic aspect and do not highlight the heroic discourse, which was the most celebrated notion of the 9/11 tragedy. As the most experimental entry, this article argues that the short film among the others in the same project represents an effort to empathize with the pain felt on that day by utilizing ‘authentic’ materials, such as segments of media broadcasts from all over the world and recordings of the victims’ last phone calls to their loved ones. It also uses the images of people falling or jumping from the two towers leading into the ethical challenges for the cinematic documentation of a traumatic event, which will also be discussed in this article. The main method of analysis is textual analysis and Landsberg’s conceptualization of Prosthetic Memory is used to interpret the data. The article concludes that the short film could be seen as a Transferential Space in transferring memories of 9/11 to the audience who might not have experience it directly.

(De)Constructing the Self and Other in Veer Zaara

Films as cultural texts articulate the politics of everyday lives and one of the issues often depicted is on nationalism. The chosen case study for this article is Veer Zaara (2004), a romantic Bollywood movie telling us the story of two lovers from India and Pakistan who have to undergone multiple challenges to be together. The conflicts represent the ongoing and completely unresolved sibling rivalry between the two countries particularly after the partition in 1947. The main research question is how the film depicts the process of self-identification from the Indian characters by looking at the “cultural similarities and differences” compared to the Pakistani character while representing the effort of drawing a boundary between India and Pakistan? Research findings who that there are three dominant representational elements (space, religion and gender) in which the film with its authority select what forms of representation it would present concerning each country. In doing so, the film is making sure that India is identifying itself as a nation which is different from Pakistan or by drawing the boundary of India as the self and Pakistan as the other

Intra-Asia cultural traffic: transnational flow of East Asian television dramas in Indonesia

East Asian television dramas have crossed the threshold of Indonesian mediascapes since the 1990s. This transnational product offers new resources for the work of imagination within the rapid flow of cultural products in Asia. By focusing on the Network Flows and Reception Theory models in the approaches to cultural globalization, the project asks how the process of intra-Asia cultural traffic mediates and is mediated by gatekeepers/intermediaries and by the ordinary experience of the contemporary Indonesian audience. East Asian television dramas have nurtured a process of transnational imagination and self-reflexivity in the Indonesian audience\u27s everyday life. Furthermore, the Indonesian cultural, political and social specificities have created significant distinctions on how these television dramas reconstruct the shared imagination of(East) Asia in Indonesia compared to how it is in other locales. The main question of the research would be on the circulation network and the reception context of the East Asian television dramas in Indonesia with an aim to understand the complexity of the cultural globalization process in Asia. The research concerns a multi-layered analysis that draws on the methodological resources of textual analysis, institutional research and audience study. The multiple methods have contextualized the objects of study culturally, historically and geographically. For the audience study, throughout the research, the methods have been chosen reflexively and recursively resulting in a triangulation of data from the Focus Group Discussions, Interviews and Diary Study. In conclusion, the research findings have extended the discussion of geocultural/linguistic regions and also the cultural proximity thesis. It echoes that the Asian case should be analyzed in a distinctive framework compared to other regional case studies. Furthermore, I argue that the circulation and reception of East Asian television dramas in Indonesia has constructed an imagined unitary Asia while at the same time orientalise the notion of Asia. As a result, the intra-Asia cultural traffic, which has intensified the process of cultural globalization in Asia in the last decade, does not indicate a geocultural approximation between the Asian countries. The regional dynamics occur because \u27Asia\u27 has been appropriated as a depository of in-betweenness

REPRESENTATION OF MARRIED YOUNG WOMEN IN “A DAY IN MY LIFE”: AFFIRMATION AND NEGOTIATION OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF FEMININITY IN TIKTOK

A Day in My Life (ADML) videos are TikTok contents that describe what the TikTokers do in their everyday lives. This research aims to explore how femininity is constructed through ADML videos. By utilizing textual analysis methods, this article highlights how Indonesian female TikTokers affirm or negotiate with the dominant ideology in the society, in this case patriarchal ideology. Research findings reveal that in their content, @sindisafitrii and @gelialinda affirm the patriarchal ideology by constructing the notion of marrying at such a young age due to social factors and culture constructions. Furthermore, they also construct the idea of marriage as “halal” or lawful or permitted under Islamic law. On the other hand, ADML videos by both TikTokers are also ambiguous in portraying the domestic role divisions between husband and wife. On one side, husbands are portrayed to have a balanced gender role with their wives. However, in some videos, the narratives showcase how uncommon it is for husbands to be involved in domestic roles and how they are glorified for doing their chores in the domestic area. Research findings also uncover that these ADML videos portray how women should gain personal financial security; even though they also depict that the reason why the two TikTokers choose to get married at a young age is for financial security. The ambiguous portrayal of how femininity is constructed in both TikTok accounts through their A Day in My Life videos represents how they affirm yet negotiate with patriarchal ideology.&nbsp

CULTURAL HERITAGE AND IMAGES OF THE CITY: TRANSFORMATION OF SAWAHLUNTO IN INDONESIA

In order to be acknowledged as a World Heritage Centre by UNESCO in 2016, the city government transformed Sawahlunto, which used to be an old mining city, into what the government claimed as a culturally touristic mining city. The city had basically been declared as a dead city; however, the government has strategically increased its economics through tourism. This article focuses on the meaning-making process in the construction of the city image(s) basing the process in the discussion of the politics of collective memory and cultural heritage. Data, mainly findings from observations, interviews and textual analysis, were collected from two tourism sites namely Goedang Ransoem Museum and Lubang Tambang Mbah Soero. The aim of the research is to interpret how the people in Sawahlunto make sense of the image construction of the city or even contest it as the government conveyed particular meaning in redefining the city‟s identity. Abidin Kusno‟s conceptualization of collective memory in architecture is mainly used to analyze the architectural elements of the two tourism sites. Furthermore, the analysis also refers to Hobsbawn and Thompson‟s notion of cultural heritage and Leif Edvinson‟s images of the city. Research findings reveal that the city government constructs a dominant meaning of what they convey as cultural heritage by utilizing local laws and the authority from other regions which have more experiences in transforming their city into a city of cultural heritage. On the other hand, the people in Sawahlunto have their own understanding of what their city means for them in relation to their own cultural heritage. All in all, the complexity of the meaning-makitng process in the city‟s transformation between the government and the people could be read as a battleground of contesting discourses

Being Black and Queer in Pariah (2011) and Moonlight (2016)

The representation of race and sexuality particularly African Americans in Hollywood has always been problematic. In its development Hollywood has been including more representations of African-Americans. With New Black Realism, which started in the midst 90s, the African-American communities change the screen with a more empowering portrayal of the community. A common theme is usually focusing on African-American youth in surviving and negotiating with the current issues concerning race. The question to be asked is to what extent do these changes actually challenge stereotypes? By analyzing two Hollywood films, Pariah (2011) and Moonlight (2016), this article looks into the representation of African American LGBTQ characters to see how the films problematize or affirm stereotypes that have been constructed by mainstream Hollywood. By analyzing narrative elements and the cinematography elements, this research reveals even though the films try to negotiate with stereotypes, they eventually affirms how stereotypes of African Americans LGBTQ are still seen in negative way

MUSLIM DIASPORIC IDENTITIES IN KAMILA SHAMSIE’S HOME FIRE (2017)

Beside accepted with surprise across the world, the winning of Brexit referendum also brings up the tangled web into the United Kingdom’s political and cultural realms. Recent studies mention there is correlation between the voting behavior and issues of identity, immigration, and Islamophobia. Kamila Shamsie alludes these issues in her latest novel, Home Fire (2017). By focusing on three main protagonists, this close-textual analysis examines how Pakistani diasporic community construct their identities within the novel. To support the analysis, this article draws upon Hall’s identity theory (1990) and Bhabha’s Unhomely (1992). Research findings show how Shamsie’s novel represents heterogeneity within Pakistani Muslims diasporic identities, rather than frame them within single collective identity. Therefore, the novel criticizes Eurocentric biases point of view by portraying Muslim female protagonists’ fluid identities while defending their Muslimness by using veil and praying to God. On the other hand, the novel maintains established stereotype by drawing Muslim male protagonist’s affiliation with Daesh as representation of radical group to problematize the notion of radicalism

URBAN CULTURAL OMNIVORES, UPSCALING ETHNIC FOOD AND CULINARY REPRODUCTION IN MARCO AND SUNTIANG

Culinary practices have always been considered as social and cultural activities signifying ideas of continuity and transformation regarding one‟s culture and identity. As migration happens, people move from their hometown and recreate familiar food and flavors in their new home. Therefore, the study of culinary practices will reveal the dynamics of constant negotiation between having to trace back the familiar taste, for example by using inherited recipes, with the necessity to innovate and reproduce meals from their hometown with new ingredients and materials found in the new place. Furthermore, in an urban setting that has been heavily influenced with a variety of culinary practices from other locales in Indonesia or from other countries, culinary practices in Jakarta could no longer be analyzed as merely everyday activities as they have become an arena of contestation and negotiation. This research discusses how two up-scale restaurants, Suntiang (a Padangnese-Japanese fusion restaurant) and Marco (a self-proclaimed Padang peranakan restaurant), re-inscribe Padangnese cuisines and make new meanings on „old‟ traditional delicacies

PREFACE SPECIAL ISSUE OCTOBER 2019

PREFACE SPECIAL ISSU