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PP 510 Mourning to Fail, Failing to Mourn: A Derridean Approach to the Archivology of Mourning on Digital Media
T. Koulouris1
1 University of Brighton, Media, BRIGHTON, United Kingdom
This aim of this paper is two-fold: first, to offer a fresh, theoretical approach to the important contemporary work on death, loss and mourning on social and
digital media (Walter, 2015, Graham et al., 2013; Lingel, 2013; Church, 2013, Brubaker et al., 2012; Pantti and Sumiala, 2009); second, to instigate discus‑
sion – at least at this stage – on the need for a philosophical framework in social media theory informed by Jacques Derrida’s work on‘mourning’(Mémoires,
1989; The Work of Mourning, 2001) and on the concept of the ‘archive’(Archive Fever, 1995). Existing work on digital mourning tends to draw a distinction
between the real (offline) and the digital (online), whilst conceptualising mourning mainly as a private and/or public process which nevertheless begins
after the coming of physical (offline) death. However, I argue that, following Jacques Derrida’s work on the topo-nomological nature of the archive (1995),
social actors who subscribe to the various digital platforms we have come to call social media and social network sites (SM/SNSs) (boyd and Ellison, 2008),
enter into a consignatory relationship with said platforms, at the very heart of which lies an all-encompassing yet seemingly unconscious reconciliation
with mourning as an absolute condition of participation. In other words, the conceptual and performative parameters of mourning on SM/SNSs ought to
be theorised not only in the realm of contingency, but as an absolute condition which, as Derrida would say, always already structures the relationship
between social actors and SM/SNSs. Beyond the obvious designation of the relationship between archive and subject as one in which the former ineluctably
survives the latter, in Derridean terminology consignation specifies the absorption of social actors’ relation to the archive – here, to SM/SNSs – into an at
once ‘sequential’ and ‘jussive’ order where the law of the archive – the archontic prerequisite – holds sway not only, and simply, over social actors’ public
and private lives but, to be sure, over the political, constitutional and onto-theological dimension of their social existence. This presents a number of im‑
portant problems which my paper proposes to scrutinise; if the consignation of our so called archontic identity rests entirely with (and within) the bounds
(and boundaries), laws, regulations and (why not) convergent capabilities of the archive, where does that leave the question of agency, citizenship and/
or dissent? How do we reconcile liberal democracy’s fascination with autonomy with the ostensibly digitally determined (convergent) notion of self? And,
more pertinent to my thematic preoccupation here, if ‘successful’ mourning is that which, according to Derrida, ultimately ought to fail, and if memory
(anamnesis) permeates the process of mourning with the more often than not violent transcendence qua introjection of the lost subject (1989), how do we
then reconcile the inevitable continuation of archontic ‘life’with the deeply human need for grief (when faced with the end of physical life)? Reflecting on
these questions, my paper sets out to formulate a theoretical framework predicated on what I propose to call the ‘archivology of digital mourning’.
PP 511 Online Tributes to Greek Popular Fiction of the 20th Century: A Plexus of Childhood Memory and Digital Public History
N. Filippaios1
1 University of Ioannina, Fine Arts and Arts Sciences, Ioannina, Greece
1. the beginning of the 2010s, a new and increasingly spreading phenomenon had been observed in the Greek-speaking websites. A
growing community of webpages, blogs, social media groups and fora are dedicated to the recollection and revival of Greek popular literature of the 20 th
century, namely the prosperous tradition of pulp magazines and dime novels, especially the ones that were directed exclusively to children and teenagers
. These internet gatherings have been created and are being operated by amateur researchers, old writers, publishers and even more by old readers, who
nowadays are on the average age of 45 to 65 years. Thus, most of these internet communities focus on the popular literature from 1950s to 1970s. How‑
ever, it is very interesting that Greek academia still shows a remarkable indifference or even more an underestimation for this rich material of indigenous
popular literature of the 20th century, especially for its second half. More specifically, Greek academics seem to leave these current internet communities
underutilized.Therefore, in my announcement I would like to discuss the diverse and sometimes contradictory role of these online communities dedicated
to popular literature in Greece. More particularly, my aim is to present and interpret this plexus between childhood nostalgia and amateur historiography,
a representative phenomenon not only of digital public history, but also of current popular culture. 2. various webpages, blogs, fora and social
media groups and pages dedicated to the past periods of Greek popular literature and Press.b. Interviews with people who participate on these internet
communities. They can be classified in three categories: - Amateur scholars and journalists - Retired professionals in the field of popular publishing industry
(writers, translators, publishers) - Old readersc. The publishing revival of popular literature magazines and books, which is carried out during the last five
years. 3. Theoretical Framework:a. The concept developed by Svetlana Boym, about the contradiction between two types of nostalgia, the restorative and
the reflective one. Although the nostalgia in our occasion contains the idealization of the restorative type, is mainly reflective, because“this type of nostal‑
gic narrative is ironic, inconclusive, and fragmentary”(Boym, 2007)b. A combination between oral history and digital history studies. These two academic
fields focus on the idea of the expansion of the formal and academic historical sources, which can be achieved both by oral testimonies and the internet.
(Thompson, 2000). In particular, this phenomenon of Greek websites dedicated to popular fiction is a depictive paradigm of Segre Noiret’s term “Digital
History 2.0” (Noiret, 2013)c. A sociological view on popular culture studies, which suggest that via the circle of production, distribution and consumption
of popular literature, we can perceive the ideology and mentality of a historical era (Eco, 1976) and finally approach the certain“structure of feeling”, which
RaymondWilliams quotes as“this felt sense of the quality of life at a particular place and time”(Williams, 1961).
- Boym Svetlana, “Nostalgia and its Discontents ”, The Hedgehog Review, summer(2007): 7–18- Eco Umberto, The Superman of The Masses (Greek
translation byKallifatidi Efi), Athens (Gnosi) 1988 (first Italian edition, 1976)- Filippaios Nikos, Greek popular literature magazines for children and teen‑
agers(1950–1968), 2015. Available at:
ers_1950–1968_- Noiret Serge,“Digital History 2.0”, C lavert, Frédéric&Noiret, Serge (dir./eds.):L'histoire contemporaine à l'ère numérique - Contemporary
History in the DigitalAge, Bruxelles, Bern, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford (PeterLang) 2013, 155–190.- Thompson Paul, The Voice of The Past,
Oral History, (3d ed.) Oxford (OxfordUniversity Press) 2000- Williams Raymond, The Long Revolution, Cardigan (Parthian) 2013 (first edition,1961)