Type Time Memes, Emblems, History, and Liberation

• Published in: Representations (Berkeley, Calif.) Vol. 168; no. 1; pp. 55 - 87
• Main Author: Nelson, Jennifer
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berkeley University of California Press Books Division 01.11.2024
• Subjects: College students; Generational differences
• ISSN: 0734-6018; 1533-855X
• DOI: 10.1525/rep.2024.168.4.55

In academic fields of premodern history over the last ten years or more, scholars have often expressed their dismay at an increasing presentism, especially but not only in the context of engaging with college students and the public at large. For many people, including these latter groups, immersion in digital media has conditioned both intellectual formation and relation to the past, or pastness. This essay was born in part from the opportunity to critically discuss memes, a cultural format I have long enjoyed as someone who works on and teaches words and images. But it was also born from my conviction that dismay or even horror in response to younger generations’ differences from older ones is often misguided. What have my academic colleagues been missing in their anxieties about what appears to be pervasive presentism? How can they, or even we who read academic journals in the humanities, think about