Towards an Understanding of Kurdistani Memory Culture: Apostrophic and Phantomic Approaches to a Violent Past (Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict)

This book presents a thorough analysis of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq’s memory culture, focusing particularly on commemorations and representations of the Anfal and Halabja atrocities. The author employs a transdisciplinary approach that draws on Memory Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Heritage Studies, Kurdish Studies, Literary Studies and Trauma Studies, to analyze cultural objects such as Kurdistani literary novels, museums, and school curricula. The book introduces two key concepts: the "phantomic museum" and the "apostrophic museum." The former explores the fragile and politicized nature of memories of missing individuals who disappeared during Saddam Hussein's genocidal campaigns and who have never been found, primarily as they return in the Halabja Monument and Peace Museum. The latter examines how the addressing – apostrophizing – of Kurdistan, in and by the Amna Suraka museum in the city of Sulaymaniyah, institutionalizes “official” and highly politicized versions of the past. Note on Transcription and Translation Acknowledgments Contents List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction: Kurdistani Memory Culture 1 The KRI’s Memory Struggle 2 The Apostrophic and the Phantomic 3 Memory Studies 4 Trauma Studies 5 Kurdish Studies 6 Methodology and Positionality 6.1 Methodology 6.2 Fieldwork and Interviews 6.3 Positionality 7 Levels of Witnessing Chapter 2: Master Narratives: Kurdistani Memory Culture and Educational Textbooks 1 Education and Ideology 2 Struggles for Identity in the Iraqi Education System 2.1 Education Policies Before and During the Ba’ath Regime 2.2 Education and the Hegemony of ‘the’ Arab Identity 2.3 The Kurdistan Region Education System Between 1991 and 2003 3 Education After 2003 3.1 Education Reform and Foreign Donors 3.2 The Textbook Quality Improvement Programme 4 Kirmanj’s Analysis 4.1 The Second Generation of Textbooks 4.2 ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ 4.3 International Forces 4.4 Exclusion 5 Humiliated Silence 5.1 Halabja and Anfal 5.2 Forgetfulness 6 Interlude: The Problematic Position of Jash 7 Forgetfulness and Reconciliation 7.1 Disarming the Mind 7.2 Family and Collectivity 7.3 Forgiveness and Human Rights 7.4 Democracy and Future Hope 7.5 Postmemory 8 Two Narratives Chapter 3: Resisting Master Narratives: Kurdistani Memory Culture and Two Literary Texts by Bachtyar Ali 1 A Utopian Place 2 Literature and Identity 2.1 Literature, Oppression and Nationalism 2.2 Allegorical Approaches to Kurdistani Literature 2.3 A Novel Telling Us Who the Kurds Are 2.4 ‘A Hasty Flight to (Allegorical) Meaning’ 3 My Uncle Jamshid Khan 3.1 A Summary of the Story 3.2 An Allegorical Reading of JM 3.3 An Affective Reading of JM 3.4 Putting Experiences into Words 3.5 A Plethora of Meanings 3.6 Art and Escape 4 The City of White Musicians 4.1 Mourning and Disappearance 4.2 Magical Realism 4.3 Messianic, Biblical and Cyclic Temporalities 4.4 Third-Time and the Unraveling of the Self 4.5 Us Versus Them 4.6 Ghosts and Phantoms 5 Different Forms of Escapism Chapter 4: The Apostrophic: Amna Suraka, in Order Not to Forget 1 No Friends but the Mountains: The Referendum and an Apostrophizing of Kurdistan 2 The Material 2.1 Nora’s Three Aspects 2.2 A Brief History of the Building 2.3 The Building Itself 2.4 The Prison Cells 3 The Functional 3.1 In Order Not to Forget 3.2 Interlude: Historical Context 3.3 Detailing the Anfal Campaign 3.4 Detailing Rakrdn 3.5 Mourning and Sharing 3.6 Recognizing the Present 4 The Symbolic 4.1 Kurdistani Culture and Folklore 4.2 Kurdistani Heroes 5 An Entwinement of History and Memory 5.1 ‘Our true history’ 5.2 Manipulation and Appropriation 6 Material, Functional and Symbolic Chapter 5: The Phantomic: The Halabja Monument and Peace Museum 1 The Phantomic 2 Museums and Prosthetic Memories 2.1 Holocaustal Events 2.2 History, Memorial and Memory Museums 2.3 Prosthetic Memory 2.4 Milieux and Lieux de Mémoire 3 The Material 4 The Functional 4.1 In Order Not to Repeat 4.2 In Order to Mourn 4.3 In Order to Document and Convince 4.4 Photographs and Dioramas as Prosthetic Memory 4.5 Prosthetic Memories in a Phantomic Museum 4.6 A Political Function 4.7 Politicizing Prosthetic Memories 4.8 The Prosthetic Replacing the Phantomic 5 The Symbolic 5.1 Symbols of Peace and Unity 5.2 Kurdistani Culture as a Symbol of Strength and Vulnerability 5.3 The Journalist as a Symbol of Justice and Heroism 5.4 The Garden: A Continuation of Symbolism 5.5 Replacing the Functional with the Symbolic 6 A Struggle for Meaning Haunted by Ghosts from the Past Chapter 6: Conclusion: Memory as an Agent of Change 1 Synthesizing Overview 2 Parki Azadi 3 Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches 4 A Scholarly Contribution Works Cited Reports Textbooks Film Material Index