Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire / Pierre Nora

"Nora begins with a basic distinction: between memory and history. He suggests that we
have arrived at a juncture at which history - cold, distant, critical - is taking the place of, and
hence largely eradicating, collective memory."

Memory - Traditional, peasant, lived, vibrant, collective
History - Modern, cold, distilled, belongs to no one and everyone

"Nora argues that the form of memory prompted by and reflected in lieux de memoire is fundamentally different from ''traditional memory''. It is ''modem memory'', memory "seized by history." Where traditional memory is unmediated, unconscious, and passed down through unspoken traditions, modem memory has been transformed by history: it is deliberate, voluntary, and, most importantly, always indirect - mediated by self-consciousness and awareness of the distance of the past."

"Modern Memory is archival: Here Nora brings in the preoccupation with conservation and preservation. Archives, museums, data banks, oral history projects, even photo albums exemplify "modem memory'', since they have "become the deliberate and calculated secretion of lost memory. [They] add to life...a prothesis-memory .... Even as traditional memory disappears, we feel obliged. .. to collect remains, testimonies, documents, images, speeches, any visible signs of what has been. .. " (13) That is, we hold on to pieces of the past because we think they will enable us to remember or re-encounter that which we know to be irretrievably lost We have forgotten how to remember, so we keep everything. The things we keep become lieux de memoire.

The bungalow: The production of a global culture/ Anthony King/ 1984

King presents a cultural history of the Bungalow. He traces its growth and movement from its indigenous setting in India to the west primarily through the British. King writes that the idea of the Bungalow was modified by the British to suit their needs, and then exported to the colonized world in Africa and South East Asia. He ends the book with the coming of Bungalow to North America, and later being adopted in Australia.
King calls the omnipresence of the Bungalow all over the world as a 'global culture'.

In its original form, Bangala was a mud thatched hut in Bengal regions of India. Later on, the indigenous houses built in the region took on the same name. The British, however, modified the scale of the house, and set it in a different social and political setting to house their officials. During the later years of colonization, upward social mobility of the colonial elite allowed them to occupy similar houses "Bungalows" as the ones in which British officials lived. A large number of Bungalows were built to house both the growing colonial elites and the British officials.

This Indo-British product was exported to London, where there was excess capital and shortage of land in the city. The Bungalows came to occupy seaside locations, and emphasized a Bohemian lifestyle of the owner. With a demand for Bungalows, they started being prefabricated. With the advent of prefabricated  Bungalows at seaside locations,  zoning and land-use regulations were modified to accommodate them in London countryside. These dwellings came to represent working class British homes.

As British officials travelled to other colonies,  this Europeanized Bungalow form was exported to other British colonies like North Africa. King argues the widespread construction of Bungalows in Africa (Western Africa) changed the familial and social structure of the society forever. During urbanization, working class Africans who could not afford to live in Bungalows were forced to have nuclear families. This arrangement did not change after the independence.

In North America, the Bungalow appealed to reformers, bohemians, feminists given its history with being one with nature, and being more individualistic as opposed to community living and apartments. But post ww2 wealth and ostentatiousness made the Bungalow appear too austere and simple. But the California Bungalow gained attention all over the world.

The California bungalow became popular in Australia post 1920's. Since there was no prior indigenous urbanization, the form of the bungalow was adopted and modified to suit regional needs.

Orientalism/ Edward Said/ 1978

School of thought: Postcolonial

Historiography of Scholarship: Foucault (Discipline and Punish), Gramsci (Consent and Hegemony)

Said argues the 'orient' to be an European invention, and presents three meanings of his term 'Orientalism'. First, in the academic world, Orientalism apples to everyone who studies, writes, teaches about the Orient. Second, it is style of thought based upon an ontological difference created between the 'Occident' and the 'Orient'. Third, in a larger sense, Orientalism can be thought of as a corporate institution of the west, for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the orient.

By employing Foucault's notion of discourse, Said argues Orientalism to be a discourse through which the Europe created a a systematic discipline (myth turned into a discipline) through which they managed and produced the 'orient'. Second, by using Gramsci's idea of hegemony, or rather cultural hegemony, he argues by orientalising, Europe established its identity as being far superior to all other non-europeans. The west was defining itself by defining the 'Other'. (Ex: because the religion of Christ is called Christianity, they termed the religion following Muhammed as Muhammedism")
A dichotomy was constructed with the west being civilized, hygienic, intellectual, rational world; and the oriental world being uncivilized, unhygienic, mysterious, esoteric, superstitious etc. This construction of the orient was eventually employed for political dominance.

Said uses 19th century novels by Stacy and Renan where they romanticized the East, as being an entirely different place from the west. Said argues that earlier European novels depicting the East as esoteric created a bias and prejudice for further writers and visitors who encountered the orient with a colored lens.

He argues that today (post WW2) the center of orientalism has shifted from Europe to the USA. While earlier oriental studies were undertaken to understand the colonial populace, make policies for them, and rule them; the independence of European colonies put an end to such a discourse. Later, orientalism has been occurring through western academic scholarship centered in the the US.

Said's final argument is that his primary contention is against the creation of boundaries of 'self' and 'other', rather than critiquing scholars who generalize an entire population or exclude the orient's perspective in their narrative.

Critique: Critiquing an entire scholarship created of the Orients by western scholars as Orientalism is in itself a sweeping generalization. 

Colonizing Egypt / Timothy Mitchell/ 1991

Mitchell argues that the British orientalized the Egypt in the process of colonizing them.

In the first chapter, he gives a textual tour of the Paris exposition in 1851 were British put up 'Egypt' on display. Winding roads and dirty houses were recreated in the exhibition, and dirty looking Egyptians were brought in to pose and dance for the visitors to the exposition. He argues that Egypt was made into an 'object' that was put on display. The group of Egyptians who were visiting were disgusted by this and kept themselves away. In this exhibition not even colonial elites (like the king of Egypt) was made an exception. When the rulers encountered British description of themselves they strategically decided to Europeanize themselves, and accept that Egyptians needed to embrace modernity.

The later chapter, discuss the 19th century colonial projects which were carried out in a system called 'new order'. The British created a new military framework by drafting Egyptian peasants, and to ensure the peasants stayed in the barracks they created a 'model village' of western-style houses. Concurrently the colonial elites who had encountered their constructed image in Paris, went about westernizing the streets of Cairo and introduced western style education in the schools to instill self discipline in students. He explaining the actions of both the British and the colonial elite, Mitchell employs Foucault's idea of 'institutional/ disciplinary power' to discuss the human agency in making 'objectness'. Mitchell argues that these processes of westernization were rationalized under Islamic traditions. In colonizing Egypt, Mitchell argues that British and colonial elites constructed a new Egypt.

Historiographical engagement: Foucault (Power), Said (Orientalism)

The Politics of Design in French Colonial Urbanism / Gwendolyn Wright / 1991

Wright argues that urban design was strategically used as a tool to make colonialism more tolerable for colonized and more popular among colonizers. Analyzing three cities in French colonized North Africa: Indochina, Madagascar, and Morocco, she argues that urban culture was used in political endeavor.

She argues that the French modernized certain sections of the city like public health, industries,  and supported certain other aspects (like building and maintaining opulent palaces for Sultans) so that the traditional values are preserved.

Main argument: French used the colonies as laboratories where they could experiment urban planning strategies that could be eventually implemented in the metropole: Paris, Lyon etc. They saw the colonies as tabula rasa. As administrators were seeking to maintain colonies without having to use military, they used architects, urban planners, geographers etc to introduce urban planning measures in the colonies. Through this they hoped that the colonized people would become loyal and appreciative of the French, and the French planners could test planning methods.

Contradictory methods were suggested in doing this. The early 19 century method called "assimilation" which was more heavy handed and hegemonic. French planners introduced standardized buildings, simplified geometric forms, and the city was imagined as a unified whole rather than as haphazard organic growth. French predominance in language, laws, and military dominance by destroying indigenous cities. As this process came under attack, primarily for moral reaons in the early 20th century, a  second process called "association", that tried to respect indigenous traditions and architecture, and aimed to maintain a balance between modernization and preservation was introduced -- "laboratory for colonial life and conservatory for oriental life".

Morocco: Herbert Luatey - association - dual city - preserving the indigenous city with mosques and winding streets, and constructing an outer neighborhood for colonial officials. There was a no-construction zone between the two settlements - "sanitary corridor". The French quarters had large roads, sanitation, zoning guidelines but used Moroccan motifs in design and used to indigenous climatological design solutions. Habous districts were newly created as harmonious districts to accommodate growing population. These provided some facilities that old Arab cities lacked like sanitation and thoroughfares, but were still inherently Moroccan in cultural form. This became the western setting for tourism.

Indochina (Vietnam): Here too they wanted to strike a balance between modernization and preserving local architecture and culture. But the architects and planners only had superficial knowledge of the cultural differences. Herbard outlined a zoning plan that restricted uses for different districts in the city. But here the restriction and segregation was not not based on military dominance but relied on modern industry, financial development, cultural tolerance.

Madagascar: This island had resisted colonization for 100 years by refusing to built inland roads. But French abolished slavery, and forcibly put former slaves who migrated to cities to build roads. Seeing the success of Morocco and Indochina they wanted to follow a balanced model without disturbing local traditions unnecessarily. But since malaria and plague were major concerns they built wide roads outside the native city - cordon sanitaire - to segregate the population. But this separation did not help prevent mosquitoes, and the next governor general implemented standardized building with concrete, and uniform buildings were built for both Madagascar workers and French officials in place of old indigenous buildings.

Comments: Local voice is lost as Wright only narrates the story of French colonial urbanism and politics using references from French architects and planners. Were the lessons learnt in the colonies used in the metropole? What was the fate of these colonial designs post the nations' independence? How did the dual city model affect the natives' lives?

The Edge of Empire: Postcolonialism and the City/ 1996

Jacobs book marks a critical move from earlier colonial discourses on urbanism by moving the spatial rhetoric to 'real' geographies. She studies four cities --two in London and two in Autralia -- to bring together the theories of colonial and postcolonial urbanism with studies of postmodern contemporary cities. She traces contemporary processes of urban redevelopment in postmodern cities which were previouslt the seat of Imperialism, to show how the relations of power and difference of colonialism still lingers on in first world cities, and is challenged through politics of identity and power that artculates itself through spaces.

By picking four cities - London, Spatialfields, Perth, Brisbane -- she destablises the edge and periphery model of postcolonial urbanism at the outset. These examples represent the presence of a third world inside the firest world (the aboriginal australia, disporic communities in London). By examining the local in the global city, Jacobs says, she unsettles the cultural geographies and politics of power and identity. Jacobs situates both the postcolonial and postmodern in the first world. If one followed, Anthony King and Brenda Yeoh, these cities can be termed "post-imperial"metropoles.

Colonialism/Imperialism: "Imperialism defined as the practice, the theory and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan centre ruling a distant territory. Colonialism, by his definition, is a specific

articulation of imperialism associated with territorial invasions and settlements." (Said)

Jacobs argues that term 'postcolonial' is prematurely celebratory since there still exists unresolved tensions and conflicts in the spaces of both the colonized and colonizer. Aboriginal in Australia are still fighting for their identity as indigenous/native, and Bangaladeshi immigrants in London are still victims of Xenophobia etc. Jacobs conceptualizes postcolonialism as "an historically

dispersed set of formations which negotiate the ideological, social and material structures of power established under colonialism."(p.25) Citing several postcolonial critics, she writes, by terming an entire set of nations postcolonial, there is generalization of diverse culture and geographies.

London: Bank Junction - Urban redevelopment struggles. Jacobs argues that imperialism, the power struggle is continuing even today in postcolonial cities.  People protested the re-development of heritage area of Bank Junction in London. The buildings and memorials here were considered to be reminiscent of the Imperial domination.
Spitalfields: Bengali immigrants were being driven out due to gentrification. 

The International Style/ Hitchcock and Johnson/ 1932

"Architecture is always a set of actual monuments, not a vague corpus of theory".

The 18th century was a time of revival, chief among which were styles of Classical Revival and Medieval Revival. But the stylistic confusion of combining the styles of revivalism with the new methods and technologies of construction was the

In the 19th century, the revival styles came to be used as decorative elements with no relation to interior space and function. The style of 'Eclecticism' created more chaos. The authors argue that one of the primary reasons that some architects revolted in the 20th century to these styles was that "eclecticism' had broken away from the disciplines of classical architecture, and was simply imitating them. They write that it is possible to imitate the essence of past styles, but imitating their surfaces is problematic.

In this context, they argue, a new style was born -- that which resembled Gothic in terms of structure, and resembled the classical in terms of handling problems.

International Style: Not international in the sense that buildings built in different countries look similar. Neither is it so prescriptive that works of different architects are indistinguishable. This has become distinguishable as a style only after different architects in different countries have carried out similar experiments which share characteristics.
Three characteristics:
conception of architecture as volume and not mass
regularity vs axial symmetry
Proscribing decorative ornamentation

Chapter 2:
The need to break away from existing architectural traditions:
1. availability of new building technologies
2. development of architectural design regardless of limitations

Beginnign of 19th century architects began to move away from revival styles. But stylistic integration did not happen until after world war. Although Industrial architecture of Germany, Berlage at Amsterdam, use of ferroconcrete at paris had initiated principles of International style independently before war.

But it was in America that the International style came into fruition. Walter Gropius, JJ Oud, Mies Van Rohe, Le Corbusier can be considered to be the primary figures of International style.