Abstract
Forchtner starts by emphasising the significance of claims to know the lessons from the past in our current memory landscape. Arguing that such claims do not only differ in their content, he contends that there is a need for developing a taxonomy of such claims. The latter consists of both past wrongdoing from which one is supposed to learn (whether wrongdoing is attributed to the in-group or an out-group) and the present-day wrongdoing to which lessons are linked (whether wrongdoing is attributed to the in-group or an out-group). Based on this, he suggests four rhetorics of learning (the rhetorics of judging, failing, penitence and judge-penitence), four types of claiming to know the lessons from the past which narrate different collective or individual subjectivities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
I am thinking here especially of movements for historical justice and the related rise in public or official apologies in the latter half of the twentieth century. See writings on ‘reparation politics’ (Torpey, 2006), ‘the politics of regret’ (Olick, 2007) and an ‘age of apology’ (Gibney et al., 2008), as well as, among many, Cuypers et al. (2013), Lind (2008), Barkan and Karn (2006) and Brooks (1999). See also Chap. 5. For shifting regimes of temporality more generally, see Hartog (2015) and Assmann (2013).
- 2.
Speaking of ‘old Europe’ is an intertextual reference to a comment made by then US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It was widely perceived as derogative and aiming for delegitimising France and Germany which opposed an attack—though for many, it became a badge of honor (for more on this remark, see Sect. 6.2).
- 3.
Following contemporary conventions, I use ‘story’ and ‘narrative’ interchangeably (see Riessman, 2008, p.7).
- 4.
This includes Der Standard, Salzburger Nachrichten, Kurier and Die Presse in Austria; Dagbladet Information, Politiken, Berlingske Tidende and Jyllands - Posten in Denmark; Frankfurter Rundschau, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Welt in Germany; as well as the New York Times and the Washington Post in the USA.
- 5.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Day takes place on 27 January in most countries but has also been appropriated on other dates. For example, Austria’s main commemoration takes place on 5 May, the day the concentration camp Mauthausen was liberated (National Day Against Violence and Racism in Memoriam of the Victims of National Socialism). In Denmark, I have considered speeches given in the context of both January 27 (Auschwitz Day) as well as Liberation Day (5 May). Besides 27 January (Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism), Germany has other prominent commemoration dates though, due to the abundance of data, I only also consider speeches commemorating the end of the Second World War in the German parliament. With regard to the USA, I draw on contributions made during the event held in the Capitol Rotunda during the Days of Remembrance for the Victims of the Holocaust. In addition, and due to its seminal influence on the transnational flow of these memories, I include relevant texts from the The Stockholm International Forum on Research, Remembrance and Education on the Holocaust in 2000.
- 6.
These concepts, internalisation and externalisation, go back to Lepsius’ (1993) ideal typical categorisation of ways in which successor states of the ‘Third Reich’ have appropriated their pasts.
References
Albrich, T. (1997). Holocaust und Schuldabwehr. Vom Judenmord zum kollektiven Opferstatus. In R. Steininger & M. Gehler (Eds.), Österreich im 20. Jahrhundert. Band 2 (pp. 39–106). Wien: böhlau.
Alexander, J. C. (2002). On the social construction of moral universals: The Holocaust from war crime trauma to drama. European Journal of Social Theory, 5(1), 5–85.
Aristotle. (1982). The ‘art’ of rhetoric. London: Heinemann.
Assmann, A. (2010). The Holocaust – a global memory? Extensions and limits of a new memory community. In A. Assmann & S. Conrad (Eds.), Memory in a global age. Discourses, practices and trajectories (pp. 97–117). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Assmann, A. (2013). Ist die Zeit aus den Fugen? Aufstieg und Fall des Zeitregimes der Moderne. München: Hanser.
Assmann, A. (2015). Shadows of trauma. Memory and the politics of postwar identity. New York: Fordham University Press.
Barkan, E., & Karn, A. (Eds.). (2006). Taking wrongs seriously. Apologies and reconciliation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Booth, W. C. (1988). The company we keep: An ethics of fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Brooks, R. L. (Ed.). (1999). When saying sorry isn’t enough: The controversy over apologies and reparations for human injustice. New York: New York University Press.
Bruner, L. M. (2011). Rhetorical studies and national identity construction. National Identities, 13(4), 403–414.
Bryld, C., & Warring, A. (1999). Besættelsestiden som kollektiv erindring. Roskilde: Roskilde Universitetsforlag.
Cicero, M. T. (1959). De Oratore. Book II. London: Heinemann.
Cuypers, D., Janssen, D., Haers, J., & Barbara, S. (Eds.). (2013). Public apologies between ritual and regret. Symbolic excuses on false pretenses or true reconciliation out of sincere regret? Amsterdam: Radopi.
Douglas, M. (2002). Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge.
Eder, K. (2006). Europe’s borders: The narrative construction of the boundaries of Europe. European Journal of Social Theory, 9(2), 255–271.
EP. (2003). Sitting of the European Parliament on 29 January 2003. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/seance_pleniere/compte_rendu/traduit/2003/01-29/P5_CRE(2003)01-29_DEF_EN.pdf. Accessed 24 Mar 2016.
Frye, N. (1957). Anatomy of criticism: Four essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Gallup, E. O. S. (2003). International crisis survey 21st–27th of January 2003—Report. http://paks.uni-duesseldorf.de/Dokumente/International-Crisis-Survey_Rapport-Final.pdf. Accessed 22 Oct 2010.
Gibney, M., Howard-Hassmann, R. E., Coicaud, J.-M., & Steiner, N. (Eds.). (2008). The age of apology. Facing up to the past. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press.
Giesen, B. (2004). Triumph and trauma. Boulder: Paradigm.
Greimas, A. J. (1983). Structural semantics. An attempt at a method. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Gumbrecht, H. U. (1997). In 1926. Living at the edge of time. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Halbwachs, M. (1992). On collective memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hartog, F. (2015). Regimes of historicity: Presentism and experiences of time. New York: Columbia University Press.
Huyssen, A. (2000). Present pasts: Media, politics, amnesia. Public Culture, 12(1), 21–38.
Jones, J. M. (2003). Public support for invasion of Iraq holds steady. http://www.gallup.com/poll/7891/public-support-invasion-iraq-holds-steady.aspx. Accessed 27 Feb 2016.
Kaae, M., & Nissen, J. (2008). Vejen til Iraq—hvorfor gik Danmark i krig? Copenhagen: Gads.
Karner, C., & Mertens, B. (Eds.). (2013). The use and abuse of memory. Interpreting World War II in contemporary European politics. New Brunswick: Transaction.
Koselleck, R. (2004). Historia magistra vitae: The dissolution of the topos into the perspective of a modernized historical process. In Future past: On the semantics of historical time (pp. 26–42). New York: Columbia University Press.
Lebow, R. N., Kansteiner, W., & Fogu, C. (Eds.). (2006). The politics of memory in postwar Europe. Durham: Duke University Press.
Lepsius, R. (1993). Das Erbe des Nationalsozialismus und die politische Kultur der Nachfolgestaaten des »Großdeutschen Reiches«. In Demokratie in Deutschland (pp. 229–245). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Levy, D., & Sznaider, N. (2006). The Holocaust and memory in the global age. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Lind, J. (2008). Sorry states: Apologies in international politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Nikolaev, A. G., & Hakanen, E. A. (Eds.). (2006). Leading to the 2003 Iraq war: The global media debate. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Novick, P. (2000). The Holocaust in American life. New York: Mariner Books.
Olick, J. K. (2007). The politics of regret: On collective memory and historical responsibility. New York: Routledge.
Pakier, M., & Stråth, B. (2010). A European memory? Contested histories and politics of remembrance. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Poulsen, H. (1995). Dansk modstand og tysk politik. Den Jyske Historiker, 71, 7–18.
Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2001). Discourse and discrimination: Rhetorics of racism and anti-semitism. London: Routledge.
Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2009). The discourse-historical approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (2nd ed., pp. 87–121). London: Sage.
Ricoeur, P. (1991). Narrative identity. Philosophy Today, 35(1), 73–81.
Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. California: Sage.
Schwab-Trapp, M. (2007). Kampf dem Terror. Vom Anschlag auf das World Trade Center bis zum Beginn des Irakkrieges. Eine empirische Studie über die politische Kultur Deutschlands im zweiten Jahrzehnt nach der Wiedervereinigung. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
Somers, M. (1994). The narrative constitution of identity: A relational and network approach. Theory and Society, 23, 605–649.
Toolan, M. J. (1988). Narrative. A critical linguistic introduction. London: Routledge.
Torpey, J. (2006). Making whole what has been smashed. On reparations politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Uhl, H. (2006). From victim myth to co-responsibility thesis: Nazi rule, World War II, and the Holocaust in Austrian memory. In R. N. Lebow, W. Kansteiner, & C. Fogu (Eds.), The politics of memory in postwar Europe (pp. 40–72). Durham: Duke University Press.
White, H. (1973). Metahistory. The historical imagination in nineteenth-century Europe. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.
White, H. (1980). The value of narrativity in the representation of reality. Critical Inquiry, 7(1), 5–27.
White, H. C. (2008). Identity and control: How social formations emerge. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Forchtner, B. (2016). Lessons from the Past? Introducing the Rhetorics of Learning. In: Lessons from the Past?. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48322-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48322-5_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-48321-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-48322-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)