The role of popular culture in shaping our historical awareness is greater than we think, says Kees Ribbens in an interview with History Magazine. This year he has been appointed professor by special appointment of Popular Historical Culture and War. Films, websites and re-enactments are increasingly becoming the public's first acquaintance with, for example, the Second World War. The distinction between fact and fiction is often not clear, or everything is given a light or romantic sauce. Reflection in this area is therefore of social importance.
It is not only history itself, but also the image of that history that has always fascinated NIOD Kees Ribbens (1967). He obtained his doctorate for his research into everyday historical culture in the Netherlands, he published a study on history in comic strips and he contributed to an analysis of World War II museums in the Netherlands.
In publications and opinion pieces, he regularly points out the importance of a dynamic approach to the past. According to him, popular historical culture is part of this. A matter of personal interest but also of a professional sense of responsibility.
“Historians also have a social role to play in this,” says Ribbens. “They are there to show history, but they don't have a monopoly on society's image of that history. If you want to know how history lives on in society, you have to include those popular renditions. Imaging can also arise outside purely historical facts.”
In order to investigate how this image is formed and how it relates to official historiography, Ribbens was appointed professor by special appointment in Popular Historical Culture and War at Erasmus University Rotterdam in January. The chair is housed at the Center for Historical Culture (CHC) of the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication.
In the coming years, Ribbens and his collaborators will focus on the way in which war and war violence in the 20th and 21st centuries live on in popular historical culture. From films, games, comics, novels, reenactments and heritage tourism to exhibitions and internet forums. From World War I to the Syrian Civil War. That's quite a bit.
“We are faced with a mer à boire of research material, if only because of what can be found on the internet,” confirms Ribbens. “But the emphasis will be on the two world wars.” A number of themes have now crystallized. For example, there will be research into the image of the Second World War in the heritage sector. “The Anne Frank House sometimes uses comics and apps to appeal to new target groups. How are these media used, what stories do they tell and what recommendations can we make about this for the future?”
“Another theme is the Second World War on internet forums such as Wikipedia. I am curious how it is described in different countries, which definitions are used and to what extent contributions come from experts by experience and interest groups or from the more institutionalized angle.”
Ribbens will also conduct research with foreign partners into the war comics that were distributed from England on the European market in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and which were drawn in Italy and Spain. “Interesting about these comics, for example, is the focus on the struggle in Southeast Asia. They also appeared in the Netherlands, where the image of the Second World War was strongly determined by the European theater of battle and the German occupation.”
Graphic novels nuanced
An important reason for the establishment of the new chair is that the image of historical events such as the Second World War has changed considerably and has become more complex as a result of globalization and the (re)use of old and new media. More attention is being paid to the experiences and perceptions in non-Western cultures and countries.
And while the living memory of the war is slowly disappearing, popular adaptations such as films, websites or re-enactments are increasingly becoming a first acquaintance with this subject for new generations. Not infrequently it concerns a mixture of fact and fiction and a light-hearted or romantic presentation of things. Reflection in this area is therefore of social importance. Yet Ribbens is not so afraid of distortion of the historical image by popular media.
“It's a misconception that popular culture is by definition flat and oversimplified,” he says. "A well-known example is Art Spiegelman's strip Maus from 1972 on the Nazi death camps. There are also Belgian and French comics that denounce collaboration and feature films that seek the nuance. The Dutch cartoonist Peter van Dongen has made nuanced graphic novels about the police actions in Indonesia.
Educational games about the Second World War are now also being released. In the United States, for example, a game has been made about the internment camps for American Japanese. Of course there is the risk of stereotyping and myth-building, but to find out you first have to determine what those presentations look like. The discussions about this contribute to a more nuanced picture and bring it to the attention of a wide audience. I am also curious about the interaction with the official image. To what extent is popular culture fed by institutionalized images?"
The public should not be underestimated either, believes Ribbens. “It is better trained than it was fifty years ago and more critical. People are very good at making their own choices regarding the past and forming their own opinions beyond the story you tell in movies, museums, or education. Historians have little influence on this, but they can stimulate the development of critical skills through research in this area. They also have a social role to play in this.”
Reliving history through games, re-enactments or heritage tourism can also contribute to a better understanding of that history and the dilemmas people faced at the time, Ribbens suspects. “I'm curious what the effect of that will be. Apparently there is a need to get a grip on the past and to play a guiding role in it. In a sense, that doesn't differ much from the methodology of historians.”
Icons versus the B category
There are, of course, also popular adaptations that have contributed to a broader historical awareness. A classic example is the American TV series Holocaust (1978) who brought the Nazi past to the public's attention, especially in Germany. “However, such works are regarded as icons and become detached from the mainstream genre because they are singled out as the most appealing examples for research,” notes Ribbens.
“The stage adaptation of Anne Frank's diary from the 1950s is still regarded as leading, but it is far from the only war drama. Another problem in the existing research is that these works are usually judged on their artistic or literary merits, but are hardly tested against the historical image. Books are always about literature with the capital L. But you can only really appreciate their value, whether iconic or not, if you study them within the broader setting of the genre. I am therefore very interested in the B-category. So not so much Mulisch's novels as those of Jan de Hartog.”
National cadres
Popular historical culture as a research area in the Netherlands is still in its infancy. “In the United States, historical research into popular culture is already much further along,” says Ribbens. “By the way, communication scientists or anthropologists are often concerned with this, not so much historians. In the Netherlands, research is not highly organized and very fragmented, certainly in comparison with research into monuments, museums and education. There are indeed some studies into specific war films and novels, but these are often isolated cases.”
Does this lag also have to do with the disdain for popular culture? “That does play a role, but the current generations of historians are now fairly familiar with this culture. However, it is not customary to include them in research. The recognition of popular culture as a fully-fledged source or object of research has not yet dawned sufficiently. Movies, novels, comics:I call them the orphans of historical culture. However, the main reason for this backlog is the abundance and variety of sources, which are very difficult to get to grips with. Popular culture is also very transnational, which makes it interesting for a more dynamic view of the past. The official culture of remembrance is often locked into national frameworks or is linked to 'identity politics'."
Yet in recent years you have also seen changes in the traditional image in various countries. Consider, for example, the discussions about resistance and the persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands or the attention among our eastern neighbors for the ordinary German as a victim, something that is reflected in research but also in films and TV series. Do such shifts arise from popular historical culture or from institutionalized historiography?
“Germany is a less good example in that regard, because no film or series can be made there without a scientific advisory board behind it,” says Ribbens. “But you can never separate popular expressions from official historiography. There are always similarities and I am very curious about that overlap. Historians are usually used for their factual knowledge in popular cultural expressions. This sometimes creates tensions with the artistic freedom that makers want to afford. However, I consider the discussions that result from this to be a gain. And perhaps ultimately there is no coherent picture of the war at all. That can be quite frightening and that may also explain the reticence towards this type of research.”