Revisionism and collective memory: The struggle for meaning in the Amistad affair

This essay problematizes "history" and "public memory" by examining their polysemic and polyvalent nature. Collective memories are selectively chosen and highlighted to fit the needs of a particular social group. Ownership of "history" then becomes a hegemonic device that controls our interpretation of the past and subsequent behavior in the future. In the case of the "Amistad Affair," the ramifications of these choices reached from the early nineteenth century court of law to the Hollywood studio of the late twentieth century. Thus, it serves as a paradigm case of the struggle over who controls the narrative possibilities of history and memory.