Global memories beyond the Holocaust: The Construction and Resonance of the Cambodian Genocide

• In Event: 078 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 12. Narratives and Politics

Abstract

Is it possible to have global memories? Research on cosmopolitanism and memory has used the Holocaust to describe how a national tragedy has become part of a global consciousness around genocide. However, global memory scholars have yet to follow up on the consequences of this claim. Is the global memory model of the Holocaust applicable to other genocides? And how do global memories look at the level of the individual? This paper uses the case of Cambodia to see how non-Western genocides are both constructed and interpreted in light of post-Holocaust morality. I analyze museum material from Cambodia’s main two genocide sites and 40 interviews with young Western visitors to find that: 1) non-Western nations rely on the global genocide narrative to appeal to the international community, but also include narratives which advance domestic political goals; 2) Rather than expanding the global memory of genocide to include local particularities, these contending narratives may produce moral uncertainty among visitors. Thus, instead of moving toward universal global memories as previous research suggests, we might consider that the inclusion of unfamiliar details (and especially non-Western cases) in existing global memories creates new forms of relativism.

Author

• Lily Ivanova