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Biography, Gender and History: Nordic Perspectives ed. by Erla Hulda Halldórsdóttir et al. (review)

Biography, Gender and History: Nordic Perspectives ed. by Erla Hulda Halldórsdóttir et al. (review) 416 Biography vol. 41, no. 2, Spring 2018 The final two chapters take up postmemory, a term applied most notably by Marianne Hirsch to the transmission of trauma and memory to the gen- eration subsequent to that of Holocaust survivors, and photographs, a subject to which Gudmundsdottir devotes a coda to the book. In both cases, Gud- mundsdottir attempts to complicate our ideas of the truth claims of inherited memories and also of photographs, which are only deceptively documentary and only deceptively cues to memory. The photograph, she concludes, is a “zone where negotiation between present and past takes place, between re- membering and forgetting” (161). It is not a transparent window on the past, but in some sense a Rorschach for the present. This book is encyclopedic in its treatment of forgetting, despite restricting itself, for the most part, to the life writing and fiction of a single decade. It is theoretically sophisticated, invoking most important thinkers on the compli- cations of forgetting. It is a useful book for anyone researching this topic. It introduces readers to texts with national but not international prominence, including works from Iceland, Norway, and Spain. Its major flaw is organiza- tional. Each http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Biography University of Hawai'I Press

Biography, Gender and History: Nordic Perspectives ed. by Erla Hulda Halldórsdóttir et al. (review)

Yoken, Hannah
Biography , Volume 41 (2) – Jul 19, 2018
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Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © Biographical Research Center
ISSN
0162-4962
eISSN
1529-1456

Abstract

416 Biography vol. 41, no. 2, Spring 2018 The final two chapters take up postmemory, a term applied most notably by Marianne Hirsch to the transmission of trauma and memory to the gen- eration subsequent to that of Holocaust survivors, and photographs, a subject to which Gudmundsdottir devotes a coda to the book. In both cases, Gud- mundsdottir attempts to complicate our ideas of the truth claims of inherited memories and also of photographs, which are only deceptively documentary and only deceptively cues to memory. The photograph, she concludes, is a “zone where negotiation between present and past takes place, between re- membering and forgetting” (161). It is not a transparent window on the past, but in some sense a Rorschach for the present. This book is encyclopedic in its treatment of forgetting, despite restricting itself, for the most part, to the life writing and fiction of a single decade. It is theoretically sophisticated, invoking most important thinkers on the compli- cations of forgetting. It is a useful book for anyone researching this topic. It introduces readers to texts with national but not international prominence, including works from Iceland, Norway, and Spain. Its major flaw is organiza- tional. Each

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Biography – University of Hawai'I Press

Published: Jul 19, 2018

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