Out now! “Rethinking Countermemory: Black-Jewish negotiations in rap music”, by Jarula M.I. Wegner (Goethe University, FMSP, IMSG) online first in the journal Memory Studies.
Article abstract: The concept of countermemory is frequently used in various, sometimes contradictory ways. This essay aims at further clarifying the concept of countermemory by highlighting its potentials and limits. After revisiting Michel Foucault’s initial use of countermemory, the concept is analysed in three case studies of Black-Jewish negotiations in US Rap music. The analysis shows that the discourse of Black-Jewish relations entered rap music in the 1980s and continues well into the twenty-first century. The concept of countermemory has at least four characteristics. It is necessarily related and in opposition to another memory. It employs two different time horizons and enables transcultural memory negotiations. Finally, there are instances of moderate and radical uses of countermemory. Some characteristics are essential to the concept, while others only occasionally appear. Countermemories can be reactionary or progressive, constructive or destructive, factual or fictitious.
