Critical observation on three work pieces concerning cultural memories

Manifesto of futurism by Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Merinetti and The love song by T.S. Eliot are great example of cultural memory. Both of the workpieces hold two different approaches towards cultural memory, one is destructiveness and another one is preservation. For instance, In the Manifesto of Futurism, Filippo Tommaso supports the rejection of the past stating that " Time and space died yesterday" and finding no relevance future onwards. Instead of it, they like the rapid expansion of Industrialization, using guns, violence, machinery. According to the futurists, war is the only cure of the world. Filippo Tommaso mentioned that "Gun fire is more beautiful than the victory of Samothrace '' and it’s evident that he believes the more you create destructiveness, the more you will make progress. They have kind of mentality to demolish everything which are beneficial for human beings. For example: Libraries, Museums and all the beautiful ideas and create militarism, patriotism and the destructive gesture of anarchists. For them, more aggressiveness will bring prosperity. They think every masterpiece has an aggressive character which shows their destructive nature.

On the other hand, on the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot, Prufrock was depressed and haunted by the societal expectations. He is concerned about every tiny thing for example, how he looks, how every person sees him. He is too confused to express his feelings because of these expectations and being judged at every moment. Which was appeared in a line " Do I dare?" "Should I presume?” He is lack of confidence. He suffers from loneliness, aimlessness and disillusionment. His indecisive nature makes him so anxious about everything. He is always concerned about his baldness and feebleness of his own body. These all are cultural conventions which causes a terrifying mental state in his head. In one point he tried to depict his irresistible fear quoting Lazarus from Bible, saying “ I am Lazarnus, come from the dead, come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”. He seeks confidences but fails to do so. He explains his distress mentioning the shared knowledge of days and night. "And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!” He beautifully captures the cultural memories and utilises them to present his own state of mind.

Warner/ Voss said the archive is placed in physical and imaginative spaces. It has a transformative nature which is pretty much dynamic. Archives are never constant, They are continuously changing. And those changes are influences on many factors such as internal and external. And archives are also changed by Politics, gender etc. Thus, it’s said that archives are not something that is neutral but rather it’s influenced by social factors. The futurists want to take a break from these archives and move forward. They love to challenge political notions and form new orders. But on the other hand, Alfred Prufrok poses the internal archive in his poem. He tries to convey the message that cultural memories and archives are reflected by one’s own memories.