Projected Memory:

I find it interesting the way in which imagery is used to convey ideas constantly throughout the text. When speaking of Novack and the way in which she represents herself as “branded by the harrowing memory of Nazi genocide” (p 266) she could be taken quite literally because she body is “inscribed with the story of those other children”. By doing this the children loses their physical boundaries and “merge with one another”. I think this shows the way in which no one child stands alone but each one can be a representation for the other, “the faces are stripped of individuality” (p 271). The text goes on to say that by simply looking at the image, “we enter its space, the visual space of postmemory”. Postmemory is described as a powerful form of memory because of its connection with objects. Perhaps this gives readers some insight as to why or even how people in general and those in holocaust can be attached to objects even after something tragic has taken place. Postmemory is further described as “The relationship of children of survivors of cultural or collective trauma to the experiences of their parents, experiences that they 'remember' only as the stories and images with which they grew up, but are so powerful, so monumental, as to constitute memories in their own right"(267). This reminds me of the discussion we had in class about the younger generations of Jews not fully understanding what the experience of the Holocaust was like. I think that its important that this generation continue to use imagery as we have been in museums and galleries to serve as our own form of post memory.