Memories in Context via Cyber Reminiscing: The Case of Marilyn Monroe

Abstract

This paper attempts to extend the various existing lieux de memoire available hitherto in the perpetuation and (re)construction of social memory by looking at the cyber landscape. Marilyn Monroe as an icon of American popular culture and thus of popular memory in this context, is explored, by looking at various select websites designed in commemoration of her stardom. Within this investigation, I also invoke the link between the production of social memory, with frames of remembrance and collective memory that therefore indicates memory as indubitably, a social phenomenon. The value of cyber reminiscing is also addressed briefly, by exploring how the cyber landscape offers as an additional outlet for the perpetuation and maintenance of fan discourse. A short section that ruminates upon the Internet as an entity of postmodernity with regards to the presentation of knowledge and information is also submitted.