Memory Studies - Einzelansicht

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 The past is everywhere. This ‘memory boom’ (Huyssen) ranges from the restoration of old urban centres, the boom in retro fashions, the popular obsession with ‘self-musealisation’ on instagram or through autobiography, and the centrality of historical documentaries on television to the increasing number of controversies about divisive historical events and their commemoration.
The seminar examines this development by exploring the different ways in which individuals and societies (re)construct and represent the past. Students will discuss foundational readings that have become central to the discussion of memory. These will be employed to engage with a wide range of cultural forms that address the themes of memory and forgetting. Topics include: the (contested) link between memory and nationhood, the function of so-called ‘sites of memory’, the notion of heritage, the individual and collective nature of trauma and mourning, embodied practices of memory such as testimony and witnessing.