Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

206 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
When the constructivist model of individual memory is applied to cultural
history, the implications are profound. Like individual memory, collective
memory is continuously recreated, supplanting original memories with later
versions. Cultural memory thus becomes self-referential: it feeds on itself
and recollects its own recollections. the more a particular society or group
remembers an event, the more intensely collective memory is at work, the more
we mythologize and the more we forget. remembering and mythologizing are
the same thing. Just like false private memories reinforce the continuity of the
individual self, cultural myths shore up national or group identity.
taking seriously the view that culture is the myths we live by, historians
have focused on the cultural functions of collective myths—to structure and pass
on historical memory, to create the basis for a dominant “master narrative,” and
to shape social identities. In this context, whether the myth is literally true or
not is not particularly signifcant. What is important is the political and cultural
force of collective myths—ethnic, religious, ideological—their ability to act,
to create a public appeal, to tell a story to identify with and an ideal to imitate.
Most recent studies have shifted the focus toward the historical origins—the
genealogy—of myths, their deliberate construction by political elites, and their
repressive power to marginalize alternative stories and identities. 14
the institutionalization of memory by nation states—the establishment
of national archives, the public celebrations of various anniversaries, the
dissemination of favorable historical narratives—often serves the political
purpose of reinforcing national identity and marginalizes individual memories
and other social identities. private memories become “contaminated by
national projects of remembrance,” writes the historian peter Fritzsche. 15 the
French cultural historian pierre Nora even argues that the old age of memory
and tradition gave way to the new age of history and conscious narrativeconstruction.
“Memory is constantly on our lips,” he writes, “because it no
longer exists.” 16
Space history has its own recurrent myths. the historian asif Siddiqi has
identifed four cultural archetypes, or “tropes,” structuring master narratives
of space exploration in diferent countries: the myth of the founding father,
representations that a particular culture produces based on these norms.the most authoritative
texts function as instantiations of the “master narrative,” setting an efective norm for a wider
discourse of remembrance.the term “collective” here does not imply uniformity of individual
memories or a monolithic character of culture. Diferent groups within a larger society may have
distinct collective memories that reinforce their group identities; narratives produced by these
groups may come into confict with the “master narrative” prevalent in larger culture.
14. peter Fritzsche,“the Case of Modern Memory,” The Journal of Modern History 73 (March 2001):
87–117.
15. Ibid., 107.
16. pierre Nora, “General Introduction: Between Memory and history,” in Realms of Memory,
vol. 1, p. 1.