Everyday Representations of War in Late Modernity (Identities and Modernities in Europe)

This book analyses photographic and cinematographic representations of war and its memorialisation rituals in the period of late modernity from the perspectives of cultural sociology, philosophy, art theory and film studies. It reveals how the experience of war trauma takes root in everydayness and shows how artists try to question the normality of the everyday, to actualise the memory of war trauma, to rethink the contrasting experiences of the time of war and everydayness, and to oppose the imposed historical narratives. The new representations are analysed by developing theories of war as a magic spectacle, also by using such concepts as spectres, triumph and trauma, collective social catastrophes, forensic architecture and others. Nerijus Milerius, Professor at the Institute of Philosophy, Vilnius University, Lithuania Agne Narusyte, Professor at Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania Violeta Davoliute, Professor at Vilnius University, Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Lithuania Lukas Brasiskis, Adjunct Professor and Associate Curator for e-flux, Video & Film, NYU and CUNY, New York, USA Contents About the Authors List of Figures 1: Introduction References 2: Cold War Cinema and the Traumatic Turn in Europe Introduction Social Trauma and the Memory of the Second World War The Canon of the Holocaust Film Conclusion References 3: The Holocaust and Screen Memories of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Cinema Introduction De-Stalinisation and the Traumatic Turn The Soviet Trauma Drama: The Destruction of Ethnic Lithuanian Villages Facing the Perpetrator in Post-Soviet Cinema Conclusions References 4: The Conflict of Photographic and Cinematographic Representations of War in Soviet Lithuania The Empty Battlefield of the Cold War The Photograph as a Dislocating Counter-Memorial Us, an Army of the Past: Film Choreography of the Crowd ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: Film Dislocating Monuments and Ideological Signs: Photography Counter-Memorialisation Now A Lost Memorial Conclusions References 5: The Architecture of Lingering War in Everyday Life: Photography and the Double Time of Military Apparatus The Event of Photographing and the Event of Architecture The Lingering Environments and Military Structures The Eroding Everyday as a War Zone Trauma Lost in the Everyday and Detected Again as the Architecture of War Conclusions References 6: The Erasure of War Crimes and their Visualisation in Post-Soviet Eastern European Cinema Introduction Arendt and Bauman: Unmasking the Invisible Destruction System Arendt and the Unmasking of the Extermination System Onstage Visualising Death: László Nemes’ Son of Saul Visualising Crime and Guilt: Matulevičius’ Izaokas Conclusions References 7: In Between Hauntology and Representation: Spectres of War in Sergei Loznitsa’s Reflections and Deimantas Narkevičius’ Legend Coming True Introduction Hauntology and Film as Practice and Method Traumatic Events: The (Un)representable Double Impositions: War and Everyday Aural Evidence and Ghostly Space: Then and Now Conclusions References 8: Vision Machine and Modern Warfare: Visualising Invisible Powers of Images in Harun Farocki and Hito Steyerl’s Films Introduction Vision Machine: From Paul Virilio to Harun Farocki War at Distance: Operational Images and Sightless Vision in Harun Farocki’s Films How Not to Be Seen: Digital (In)Visibility in Hito Steyerl’s Work In Lieu of a Conclusion. Understanding Modern Warfare References Films 9: From Sites of Atrocities to Films of Death and Vice Versa Introduction Cinema as Virtual Dark Tourism Touristic Experience as a Target and Device for Criticism Auschwitz and Austerlitz: The Paradoxes of the Mistake Genocide: What Has Already Happened and Is Yet to Happen Another Disaster Site: From Auschwitz to Chernobyl Chernobyl Zone: Political Context (Fig. 9.1) The Chernobyl Disaster: A Threat That Could Occur Again (Fig. 9.2) References Index