Memory of Place Dr.

Will Kurlikus
Look Over
Midterm
Requirements
 Midterm Requirements
• 6-8 pages double-spaced (not including works cited)
• Includes at least 4 quotes from academic readings about your topic (only 1 we’ve read)
• Includes numerous primary quotes and examples (they don’t have to be interview quotes)
• Identifies a key memory framework (nostalgia, advertising and memory, activist memory,
countermemory, sports traditions, etc.) you’re working in
• Topic: Describes how a community uses memory to rhetorically shape the world—looks at and
quotes actual memories not just vague assumed memories
• Scope: what artifacts are you going to analyze to represent your whole? You have to narrow it
down and you have to justify your narrowing. I’m going to focus on NBA memories (no, you’re
going to focus on GOAT memories comparing Jordan and James to see the types of
memories each cite and what arguments about the players’ skill compared to their character
each fan quotes).
• Analysis: How are these communities using memory? Your essay should be quote/example
driven not you musing but you analyzing actual examples.
Sample Student Intro

Introduction

“I like watching you sleep,” one-hundred-and-seven year old vampire Edward Cullen iconically reveals to seventeen year old Bella Swan in the first Twilight
movie. These characters come from a world where every obstacle is life or death, romance is fated, and supernatural creatures allow a place in their world for
an extremely average junior in high school. Hopelessly, and many times ridiculously, devoted to one another, Edward and Bella’s story made it to screens
across the world in 2008. The film is widely regarded as one of the cringiest of all time, with fans and critics alike quoting its bafflingly overdramatic lines,
citing its blue filter over every shot, and commenting on its notorious although self-indulgent indie-rock soundtrack. The wardrobe as well was remarkably
2008-esque, with Bella’s bowling shirt on the first day of school and Edward’s impeccably disheveled hair, or the lesser known snakeskin cowboy boots
Jasper dons. Despite the disparagement, Twilight was a global phenomenon, an outstanding pop culture moment of 2008. Although widely critiqued as
unfeminist, the film made it clear to Hollywood that there was a space for films marketed towards women, a genre previously thought to be nonexistent.
Kristin Stewart’s vapid character as well as her own acting abilities were mocked relentlessly for years, and yet without a Bella Swan there may never have
been a Katniss Everdeen, a Wonder Woman, a Hazel Grace Landcaster. Whether one looks at the box office record-breaking movie of Twilight as just a chick-
flick, a quintessential indie melodrama, “abstinence porn,” or the first installment of the budding YA movie genre, Twilight’s significance in the film industry
cannot be contested (Seifert).

Still, 12 years later a resurgence of Twilight has begun. An entire community of now grown-up fans connect on social media platforms that did not exist when
the series first began. This phenomenon labeled “The Twilight Renaissance” has grown so large that author Stephanie Meyer even released a new book in
August 2020, something she said she would never do. The renewed popularity of the series also led to Hulu nabbing the streaming rights to the film. These
instances showcase the power a memory community can have. How is it possible that the creators responsible for bringing this story to life are making a
profit again years after the age of Team Edward and Team Jacob t-shirts? A series that, despite its fan base and box office history, is now outdated in addition
to being cringey? Why now? Although commonly mocked and criticized, the Twilight series has experienced a notable rejuvenated interest through old fans
connecting on social media in the age of COVID-19, filled with uncertainty and nostalgia for simpler times. In order to study this, the following must be
examined: (1) nostalgia’s traditional re-emergence during precarious times, (2) what emotional ties brought this community together, and (3) how
commutative memory can lead to connections on social media.
Write Your
Intro
Point, Evidence, Analysis: Analyzing Your
Research

• Point: OU administrator’s back to school plan in response to COVID-19 privileged developing student nostalgia and maintaining
back-to-school traditions over the safety of faculty, staff, and students.

• Evidence/example that illustrates your claim (often starting with for instance/for example): For example, despite banning
large gatherings on campus and repeatedly claiming that such gatherings were dangerous, OU president Joe Harroz still excitedly held
the traditional freshmen welcome ceremony in Gaylord Stadium. At the event, though the over 5,000 student attendees were asked to
wear masks, none of the administrators did. Harroz said of the ceremony, “It’s important to get back to some sense of normalcy and the
Freshman welcome ceremony has been a tradition for over 50 years. The kids deserve this

• Analyze your claim and how it relates to your larger topic/other scholars research: In essence, Harroz uses the stability of
nostalgia (the known completed past as opposed to the uncertain future) both to calm fears of the pandemic but also to create what John
Balmer calls a “heritage brand” “a dimension of a brand’s identity found in its track record, longevity, core values, use of symbols and
particularly in an organizational belief that its history is important” that connects workers and companies across multiple generations
(Urde et al. 4).” Then I might go on to describe how this was a new kind of heritage brand because the ceremony did something other
writers hadn’t considered.
Discuss Your
Primary Research
Critical Regionalism

• Defined by scales, tensions, and relationships across space and time rather than any
true fixed reality: “senses of place and region are not so much essential qualities, imparted
by singular events, practices, or topographical features, as they are ongoing debates and
discourses that coalesce around particular geographical spaces” (14). What tensions and
debates over identity define Oklahoma?
• Like memory, when region is invoked it’s usually to make an argument about what we should
do, who belongs, who doesn’t (e.g., Oklahoma is oil—if you don’t support it, you’re not
Oklahoman. If you don’t eat meat, you’re not Oklahoman. Etc.).
• Asks who has the power to choose what stories and memories define us as a people (insider
and outsider narratives)
• Regional memories are sometimes passkey memories (if you hold this memory I know you’re
really from here—are there any defining memories that all Oklahoman’s have?)
What did you
discover last week
in examining the
OKC Memorial
Museum?
Oklahoma Memory Community:
What memories and stories define it?
What does it mean to be
authentically Oklahoman?
Space,
Memory, and
Nimbyism
How do you
describe where
you’re from to
outsiders?
Oklahoma
Food: What
community?
New Wave
Oklahoman Food
• Look at modern restaurants that claim to be a recovery
of Oklahoman local food: nonesuch, Packards, etc.
• How do chefs refer to the food and how do reviewers
refer to the food using memories of Oklahoma. What
traditions are included and which are left out?
• How do these chef’s generate a sense of Oklahoma’s
future—by drawing upon it’s past? Whose included and
excluded from that future?