Postcolonial Memory in the Netherlands

Meaningful Voices, Meaningful Silences
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-94-6372-617-7
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 19, 162 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Heritage and Memory Studies

This book is about postcolonial memory in the Netherlands. This term refers to conflicts in contemporary society about how the colonial past should be remembered. The question is often: who has the right or ability to tell their stories and who do not? In other words: who has a voice, and who is silenced? As such, these conflicts represent a wider tendency in cultural theory and activism to use voice as a metaphor for empowerment and silence as voice’s negative counterpart, signifying powerlessness. And yet, there are voices that do not liberate us from, but rather subject us to power. Meanwhile, silence can be powerful: it can protect, disrupt and reconfigure. Throughout this book, it will become clear how voice and silence function not as each other’s opposites, but as each other’s continuation, and that postcolonial memory is articulated through the interplay of meaningful voices and meaningful silences.

Autoren/Hrsg.

van Engelenhoven, Gerlov

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Postkoloniale Geschichte, Nationale Befreiung und Unabhängigkeit
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Geschichtspolitik, Erinnerungskultur
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Postcolonial memory in the Netherlands: Meaningful voices; meaningful silences

Chapter one

Two cases of Moluccan identity articulation: Deceptive voices and empowering silences in individual and collective self-representation

Chapter two

The case of the train hijackings: Appropriated voices and protective silences in media representation

Chapter three

The case of Jan Pieterszoon Coen’s statue: Repressive voices and resistant silences in public space

Chapter four

The case of De Grauwe Eeuw: Disruptive voices and silences in social activism

Conclusion

Beyond logocentrism

Epilogue

“East Indian deafness”

Works cited

Index

Über Autor(innen)

van Engelenhoven, Gerlov
Gerlov van Engelenhoven is an assistant professor at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), teaching courses on postcolonial memory, law & culture, and cultural interaction. From 2024-2028 he will run a new research project on Silence as Empowerment in Contemporary Dutch Postcolonial Memory, funded by NWO through a Veni-grant.