Readings and Response Questions

1. The Introduction, second chapter ("Cultural Roots"), and last chapter ("Memory and Forgetting") from Benedict Anderson's book Imagined Communities.
- What roles does monumentality play in the narratives of nationhood?
- Compare and contrast the formation of identity in modern nations and modern persons.

2. Gregory Ulmer's essay "Abject Monumentality", from the volume of Lusitania entitled "The Abject America."
- How does sacrifice function in monumentality and how do Ulmer's proposed monuments recognize sacrifices? Additionally, define Ulmer's use of the word "abject."

3. Michel Leiris' essay "The Sacred in Everyday Life" from the book The College of Sociology 1937-39, Denis Hollier, ed.
- How does the personal sacred differ from the official sacred?

4. Chapter One, pages 1-16, from Frances Yates' book, The Art of Memory.
- What were the functions and methods of artificial memory in Greek society?

5. Sergei Eisenstein's essay, "Word and Image."
- Discuss the principles of montage.

6. Robert Ray's essay "The Culmination of Classical Hollywood: Casablanca" in the book, Textbook.
- What are the preferred ideological values in Casablanca? How are they represented visually?

7. Russell Banks' essay "Bambi: A Boy's Story" from Textbook.
- How does Banks see Bambi as an allegory about preferred gender values? How do particular characters come to represent ideological concepts?

8. Alain Resnais' film, Hiroshima, Mon Amour.
- How do the characters' personal understanding of historical events differ from the cultural understandings of those same events?