Maira Syed - IMP

AP Seminar

how Do views of the past affect Western Society?

Maira syed

Table of contents

Context

Culture

Ethics

Conclusion

The context

Context

Existence/Known

Nonexistence/Unknown

• "Souls"

• Existence

• Uncanny Valley *Liminality
• Uncertainty
• Displacement

• Bodies/Graves

• Memories

(Castano Et Al)

Context: Western MorTality Taboo

Somewhat Fear Death

Do Not Fear Death

Greatly Fear Death

11%

31%

58%

2019 U.S. Population Fear of Mortality Statistics

(Statista)

Culture

Culture

• Deduction: People Define Liminality

• Memory & Rite of Passage (McQuinn)

• Limitation: Lacks Empirical Data

• Counter: Sigmund Freud's Uncanny Valley Theory (Lydenberg)

Culture

• Rebuttal: Experiment With Creation of Traditions

• Further Research Warranted

• Stimulus: Healthy Approach, Unity (Powell)

• Implications: Societal Views Can Be Restructured

Ethics

Ethics

• Deduction: Media twists fear (Sacco 481)

• Consumption Versus Confrontation

• Limitation: Data is Correlational

• Counter: Pop Culture to Process Grief

Ethics

• Rebuttal/Stimulus: Perception Based On Clothing (Paredez 4)

• Calls for Further Research (Media & Memory)

• Implications: Societal Views Can Be Influenced By Media

Conclusion

Conclusion

• Experiments: Communities and Media - Traditions

• Reframe the Past More Introspectively

• Vague & Hard to Implement

• Collective Wellbeing

THANK YOU!

works cited

Castano, Emanuele, et al. “Ideology, Fear of Death, and Death Anxiety.” Political Psychology, vol. 32, no. 4, 2011, pp. 601–621. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41262882. Accessed 17 Feb. 2025.Lydenberg, Robin. “Freud’s Uncanny Narratives.” PMLA, vol. 112, no. 5, 1997, pp. 1072–86. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/463484. Accessed 17 Feb. 2025. McQuinn, Kristen. “Not at Home: Liminal Space and Personal Identity in The Hobbit and Coraline.” Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society, no. 60, 2020, pp. 14–18. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/48614899. Accessed 17 Feb. 2025. Paredez, Deborah. Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory. Duke University Press, Aug. 2009. Powell, Colin. Of Memory and Our Democracy. U.S. Department of State, 2 May 2004. Accessed 17 Feb. 2025. Sacco, Vincent F. “The Effects of Mass Media on Perceptions of Crime: A Reanalysis of the Issues.” The Pacific Sociological Review, vol. 25, no. 4, 1982, pp. 475–93. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1388925. Accessed 17 Feb. 2025. Statista Research Department. "Fear of Death in the U.S." Statista, 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/959347/fear-of-death-in-the-us/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2025.