On reflection on this piece of writing I initially struggled to link it to any one of the conceptual frames. However upon rereading and re-editing the blog a remembered an concept that Maureen Turim spoke about, she believes a juncture is wrought between present and past and two concepts are implied in this juncture: memory and history (Turim, Maureen, 1). Although she is speaking more specifically about film, in this circumstance I believe it applies to my blog; the current memory I have of the event is a positive and accurate representation of the actual historical event. My blog is a flashback – my own remembered interpretation of an historical event.
Turim goes on to say that in its most general sense, a flashback is simply an image that is understood as representing temporal occurrences anterior to those in the images that preceded it (1). In my ‘The Journey To Middle Earth’ blog I use a number of images that represent key moments in my memory, these images convey the thoughts and feeling I have both now, and during the time of the flashback. This is due to a number of factors; because the event was a widely publicized affair, many different forms of media (e.g. film footage, text articles, photos) are made readily accessible over the internet and each sharing a similar nostalgic significance. There was never any moment that implied any negative feelings in my memory, and no amount of research I did ever suggested that the accurate historical event was any different.
My flashback is constructed with two media formats: text and still images. The images in the blog serve as a representation of the accurate historical event, while the text represents the remembered experience from the point of view of me as an individual. This backs Turim’s idea that flashbacks often merge on two levels of remembering the past, giving large-scale social history (8); the images, and the subjective mode of a single individuals remembered experience; the text.
The narrative aspect of the text creates a less distinct or abrupt effect than that of the physical image, but it can ease the temporal shifts through the sustaining power of the narrative voice (7). In the blog the ‘pictures speak a thousand words’ but for those who are unable to relate to them on an intimate level because they are unfamiliar with the event, in order for them to fully appreciate the images they must first be ‘eased through the temporal shift’ of the narrative voice.
My blog is a good example of memory and narrative form. Using Maureen Turim’s theories of memory and history I have shown the links between images and text, and how they can be applied to my own personal flashback.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Turim, Maureen.. Flashbacks in Film: Memory and History. New York: Routledge, 1989.
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