Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2014 The mI agined After: Re-Positioning Social Memory Through Twentieth-Century Post- Apocalyptic Literature and Film Amanda Ashleigh Wicks Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Wicks, Amanda Ashleigh, "The mI agined After: Re-Positioning Social Memory Through Twentieth-Century Post-Apocalyptic Literature and Film" (2014). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 557. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/557 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. THE IMAGINED AFTER: RE-POSITIONING SOCIAL MEMORY THROUGH TWENTIETH-CENTURY POST-APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE AND FILM A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Amanda Ashleigh Wicks B.A. University of Florida, 2005 M.A. Florida State University, 2009 May 2014 For Mom and Dad, who gave me the words ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Five years ago, I nabbed the last open seat in Lauren Coats’ popular spatial theory course, “American Geographies: Spatial Theory and Cultural Criticism,” which introduced me to the possibilities bound up in new and exciting methods of critical theory. In that class, I began de- veloping the kernel that would go on to form the basis for this project. For that exposure, as well as for her time, consideration, conversations, and thoughtful close readings of my work, I thank Lauren. Without her guidance, this project would not be what it is today. I’m also indebted to Carl Freedman, whose generous feedback and thought-provoking discussions aided me in sharp- ening my theoretical work. Both of my co-chairs pushed me to think about this subject matter in theoretically rigorous and intellectually challenging ways; their direction prompted me to think bigger, write better, and fulfill this project’s potential. I would also like to thank my other committee members, Rick Moreland and Rosemary Peters, who helped me clarify the project’s scope and purpose during the earlier phases of its ex- istence. Their insight into the larger questions I hoped to raise and the questions they themselves asked were imperative. In addition to my immediate committee members, I would like to thank Elsie Michie, who served as a significant scholarly role model; her support and encouragement always came at just the right time. Additionally, Dan Novak’s feedback during my early attempts at job market materials helped me better hone this project and articulate my vision. My peers also provided their own form of encouragement, and for their input, advice, and company, I would like to thank Jaime Cantrell, Andrew Banecker, Kris Mecholsky, and “Petey Pete” Kunze. To my friends, Sarah Varnado and Drew Varnado, who knew the rigors of such a project and always managed to see the light on my behalf. Thank you also to Meghan Hardy, iii Melissa Legg, Lauren Fusilier, Sarah Ocmand, Jake Johansen, great friends all. And to Ben, who came along at the last and made me smile. Finally, I would like to thank my family. My mother and father provided the most im- mense support a young scholar could ever need; their excitement kept me going, while their love and encouragement helped me finish this project. And to my brother and oldest friend, Bobby, who serves as a consistent reminder that hard work, kindness, and laughter go a long way. These “social frameworks” have been instrumental in my finishing this project. Thank you, one and all. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………………iii LIST OF FIGURES..…………………………………………………………….…………….....vi ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………………..vii INTRODUCTION……………….………………………………………………………………..1 CHAPTERS ONE The Imagined After: Post-Apocalyptic Spaces……………….…………………...38 TWO From Sociality to Externality: The Changing Nature of Memory.……………….72 THREE New Forms of External Memory: The Dangers of Digital Memory.………....111 FOUR Future Social Spaces: Children as Living Memory-Narratives……...…………153 FIVE Forgettable Endings: Traumatic Memory as Destructive Memory……………...191 CONCLUSION…….…………………………………………………………………………...236 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………242 APPENDIX 1 Letter of Permission…………………………………………………………………..251 VITA…….………………………………………………………………………………….......252 v LIST OF FIGURES 1. Figure 3.1 from The Walking Dead: Book One…………………………………...…………135 2. Figure 3.2 from The Walking Dead: Book One……………………………………...………138 3. Figure 3.3. from The Walking Dead: Book One………………………………….……...…..139 4. Figure 4.1 from the film Children of Men (2006)………………………………………..….187 5. Figure 4.2 from the film Children of Men (2006)…………………………………………...188 vi ABSTRACT Maurice Halbwachs first proposed a collective approach to memory in the early twentieth centu- ry, but the vast majority of subsequent scholarship investigates memory’s social properties from a theoretical point of view. This project instead proposes that memory functions as a social phe- nomenon in significant and real ways, primarily understood through the social relations that arise within social frameworks, which provide a structure against which people’s memories come to- gether to form important memory-narratives that configure individual and social consciousness. Once people transform memory from individual thought-image into socially structured language, memory takes on social properties. Memory relies upon social frameworks to form and maintain memory-narratives, but also on sites and objects to create a more tangible connection to the past through such narratives. With the growth in such external memory in recent years, i.e. museums, memorials, etc., people cannot remember the past to the degree they once could. In other words, people have come to rely more on things than on people to reconstruct the past in the late twenti- eth and early twenty-first centuries. Consequently, people cannot remember the past to the extent they once did. Post-apocalyptic literature and film intervene by addressing the heightened anxie- ty people feel regarding the changing experience of memory. This project examines how such unique narrative provide the necessary spaces through which to better understand the social na- ture of memory, as well as the threat external memory imposes upon acts of remembering and forgetting. They utilize the imagined future space, one often devoid of people (social frame- works) and places (geographical signifiers) to show memory’s underlying social characteristics and how changes to social frameworks occasion changes to people’s mnemonic capability. vii INTRODUCTION “What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder.” – Plato, Phaedrus Where once theory reigned supreme in understanding memory, neurological research can now pinpoint the distinct parts of the brain involved in the numerous memory systems that com- prise a person’s overall memory.1 Given that neuroscientists, psychologists, and others involved in cognitive research understand the biological process behind memory, they use that knowledge to assert how the act of remembering signifies a subjective experience.2 Such a claim makes sense considering how deeply memory is involved in constructing and sustaining a person’s identity.3 Without memories of the past, people would not possess any sense of their develop- ment over time, let alone their place in the world; as important as any initial experience may be, equally important is a person’s ability to remember that experience so they can maintain a time- line. Without an understanding of what happened yesterday, the present would be a continually confusing and even frightening experience. In light of the integral nature of memory and identity, as well as the brain’s role in that relationship, it comes as no surprise, then, that cognitive studies concentrates on the line of reasoning that memory occurs as an output of a single mind as op- posed to an assemblage of minds. For, even if two people share an experience, a simple verbal exchange reveals how their memories of the event will differ based on their individual perspec- 1 Daniel Gilbert explains, “In the nineteenth century, knowledge of brain function was based largely on observation of people…who were the unfortunate subjects of one of nature’s occasional and inexact neu- rological experiments.” Stumbling on Happiness (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), 12. 2 For a comprehensive explanation regarding the brain’s role in remembering, see “Introduction,” in The Memory Process, ed. Susan Nalbantian (MIT Press, 2012). 3 According to Maurice Halbwachs, “We preserve memories of each epoch in our lives, and these are continually reproduced; through them, as by a continual relationship, a sense of our identity is perpetuat- ed. On Collective Memory, trans. Lewis Coser (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 47. 1 tives. Memory appears to be such an intensely subjective action, because people cannot access another’s memories without first doing so through the social means of language. According to the