Genealogy of Memory Studies Cover Image

Генеалогія студій пам’яті
Genealogy of Memory Studies

Author(s): Eugenia Sarapina
Subject(s): Cultural history, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), History of the Holocaust, Politics of History/Memory
Published by: Національна академія керівних кадрів культури і мистецтв
Keywords: memory studies; collective memory; remembering; historicism;

Summary/Abstract: The article is dedicated to history of memory studies. This text aims to contextualise development of collective memory research in XX century. Social preconditions and intellectual forerunners of 20th and 80-th years of XX century that influenced academic framework of the time are discussed. Topics of social commemorative practices, working through of traumas caused by tragic past, debates about representations of certain historical events have been attracting attention of scholars all over the world during several last decades. This area of evoking the past is labeled "memory studies" in Western academic tradition. It is generally considered that this branch of humanities inquiry was formed in 80th years of XX century, but the roots of this approach go deeper. First works dedicated to collective memory in social perspective emerged earlier – in 20th years of XX century. That is why this paper argues that two ways of memory studies development took place. Each of them was determined by certain social conditions and general intellectual climate of time. So the article discusses genealogy of memory studies – a relatively new transdisciplinary paradigm of humanitarian research. The aim of this research is to establish social and intellectual preconditions that determined two waves of researches in the domain of collective memory. This topic is urgent, because, though Ukraine became a point of interest during the second wave of memory studies development, contributions in this academic field of study are not widely known in our country. The first wave of interest to the topic of collective memory emerged in 20th years of XX century together with the crisis of historicism as a result of totalizing aspects of historical discourse criticism. At that time A. Bergson publishes his works, where he rejects the dominant objectivist view of memory and makes a philosophical inquiry about individual perception of time. E. Durkheim changes approaches to memory yet in another new direction. He was the first to regard memory as a "social fact" introducing social dimension of temporality. First researches dedicated to analysis of commemorative rituals – a classical future topic for memory studies research – were also published at the beginning of XX century. Despite the importance of works and theories mentioned above, another researcher is credited as a founder of memory studies. That is Moris Halbwachs – a French sociologist and a student of both Bergson and Durkheim. As a result of critical combination of his teachers’ theories, Halbwachs created a highly original theory, which is still in use nowadays. His main emphasis is made on the processes during which individual memory is mediated and structured by social conditions. At the time of "Social Frames of Memory" publication in 1925 Freud’s approaches to memory prevailed, according to which individual unconscious was the only depository of past experiences, whereas for Halbwachs individual is not the sole source of his/ her own recollections. He considered collective memory as a living imagination that is in a constant state of reformatting by the social context to which it belongs. From that time on social frames of collective memory are considered to be the basis of memory studies research. Although almost fifty years of silence came, subject area of collective memory was not completely forgotten. It came back to life in 80th years of XX century as a result of urgent need to explore and work through traumatic experiences of so called short XXth century. It includes horrors of Second World War and Holocaust, as well as injustices of colonization, which reveled after formerly dependent states gained their freedom. In the academic perspective, the rise of collective memory studies in 80th was conditioned by a range of ongoing processes. These are, first of all, influences of multiculturalism, theory of hegemony, and postmodernism. Two most cited authors of 80th in memory studies are I. Yerushalmi and P. Nora. The former started the scholar tradition of reflections about peculiarities of Jewish collective memory. The later was a head of a team of historians, who worked on a project about French national memory. As a result, a three volume book entitled "Realms of Memory" appeared, and a concept of "realms" or "placed of memory" paraded western academic world. Though social and scientific background for the emergence of the first works devoted to collective memory formed at the beginning of the twentieth century, interest to this domain was limited to the narrow circles of professional scientists, psychologists and psychiatrists at that time. Then "memory boom" of 80-th makes mnemonic practices a public concern and frames memory studies as a research paradigm. To summarize, this article deals with history of memory studies in XXth century. It gives an overview of two waves of research development in the domain of collective memory. The author argues that social and intellectual conditions discussed, together with contributions of the most influential scholars in the field, shaped mnemonic theories which are considered to be classic ones nowadays.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 218-223
  • Page Count: 6
  • Language: Ukrainian