Memory Cultures

Research Area 1: Memory Cultures

Before and Beyond Theory Formation:
The Conceptual Potential of Memory Culture Practices

Concepts of memory were (and are) not only explicitly formulated – as in, for example, theories of memory that have been developed in the last decades – but are also found in implicit forms on the “practical“ level of memory cultures: In addition to constituting memories themselves, texts, pictures, music and cultural practices continually explore and generate concepts of memory. During the winter semester, we will use our members‘ research sources (which include literature, film, photography, museum collections, historio-graphic and philosophical texts) to investigate memorial practices in historical depth with respect to their implicit expression of concepts of memory. In the course of this we will also explore if and to what extent the degree of self-reflexivity and explicitness of concepts of memory is subject to historical variation. Questions of separability, of the lines of demarcation, of symbioses and conflicts between theoretical and practical memory discourses should provide impetus for further work.

Cooperations

Forschungsgruppe “Geschichte + Gedächtnis.” [Universität Konstanz]

Participating scholars

• Bitter, Miriam
• Büschel, Hubertus Prof. Dr.
• Coburger, Antje
• Dayioglu, Lale (speaker)
• Faisst, Julia
• Fromm, Hans Christian
• Grasse, Manuela
• Gottschlich, Evelyn
• Holder, Daniel
• Hübner, Andreas (speaker)
• Inal, Benjamin
• Kiniorska-Michel, Anna
• Klemm, Friederike
• Körner, Birgit
• Mai, Daniel
• Müller, Angela (speaker)
• Nickel, Stephanie
• Petrova, Elena
• Rothauge, Caroline
• Schubert, Ines
• Schröder, Berenike
• Stock, Robert
• Struth, Christiane
• Uhr, Andreas
• Zierold, Martin Dr.

Next Meetings for the Winter Term 2011/12

• 6.12.2011, 16-18pm, room B 29
• 17.01.2012, 16-18pm, room B 25
• 31.01.2012, 16-18pm, room t.b.a.

Recent Work

Summer term 2011
In the summer term, the discussions on transnationalization and cosmopolitanization of memory cultures were continued. In the second half of the semester, the RA focused on visual and literary approaches to transnational memories of 9/11. Furthermore, the RA was engaged in planning a workshop with the research group “Poetics and Politics of National Commemoration in Africa” at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. The workshop will take place in Giessen on November 30th 2011 and concentrate on memory politics and the development of „national memories“ in Africa.

Literature:

• Schwelling, Birgit: Erinnerung als Medium der kulturellen Identität Europas?
• Beck, Ulrich, Daniel Levy und Natan Sznaider: Erinnerung und Vergebung in der Zweiten Moderne
• MacDonald, Sharon: Unsettling Memories: Intervention and Controversy over Difficult Public Heritage
• Langenohl, Andreas und Kerstin Schmidt-Beck: Wenn Erinnerungsfilme scheitern - filmische Erinnerungen an den 11. September
• Däwes, Birgit: On Contested Ground (Zero): Literature and the Transnational Challenge of Remembering 9/11

Winter term 2010/2011
In an introductory meeting, the RA discussed recent debates on memory culture in media, society and science. In the following sessions, the new members presented their research projects with a focus on literary approaches to memory. The following projects were introduced and discussed:

• Angela Müller: Life Writing Inbetween Cultures – A Study of J.M. Coetzee’s Autre-biography
• Lale Dayioglu: Genderaspekte in Gedächtniskonstellationen Eine vergleichende Untersuchung zu neueren deutschsprachigen und türkischen Familienromanen

In November, the RA participated in a workshop at the University of Konstanz. The workshop was part of a cooperation initiated by the RA Memory Cultures with the research group “History + Memory” at the University of Konstanz and focused on film and memory. Besides a keynote lecture by Moshe Zimmermann (Tel Aviv) on “’The Good German‘ – German History in Film,” doctoral students from the GCSC presented their projects.
(For more information see: http://gcsc.uni-giessen.de/wps/pgn/news/det/cultdoc/544/)

In preparation for a second workshop with the University of Konstanz, which will take place in spring 2012, the RA was centered on aspects of transnationalization and cosmopolitanization of memory cultures.

Literature:

• Berliner, David C.: The Abuses of Memory - Reflections on the Memory Boom in Anthropology
• Beiner, Guy: In Anticipation of a Post-Memory Boom Syndrome
• Jeffrey K. Olick: Turning Points and Myths of German Memory
• Zimmermann, Mosche: Die Transnationale Holocaust-Erinnerung

Summer term 2010
The RA continued its discussions on the methods, theories, and concepts of cultural memory studies. It specifically turned to sociological, literary, and media approaches and further developed its interests in the political dimensions of representations of memory, places of remembrance, and the entanglements of history and memory politics. Thus, the RA read and discussed texts by Aleida Assmann, Mathias Berek, Katharine Hodgkin, and Susannah Radstone. It also proceeded to connect these texts and the corresponding discussions to the respective projects of its members. Among the projects discussed were:

• Benjamin Inal: The Bombardment of Guernica: Literary Representations of a Cosmopolitan Place of Remembrance
• Literature:
• Assmann, Aleida: Der lange Schatten der Vergangenheit. Erinnerungskultur und Geschichtspolitik
• Berek, Mathias: Kollektives Gedächtnis und die gesellschaftliche Konstruktion der Wirklichkeit. Eine Theorie der Erinnerungskulturen
• Katharine Hodgkin and Susannah Radstone (eds.): The Politics of Memory. Contested Pasts
• Martin Zierold: Gesellschaftliche Erinnerung. Eine medienkulturwissenschaftliche Perspektive

Winter term 2009/2010
The RA focused on the various research projects of its members. It particularly aimed at debating different approaches to the field of cultural memory studies from interdisciplinary perspectives. Consequently, the RA reviewed methods, theories, and concepts deriving from the fields of history, literary studies, films studies, and organizational cultural studies. Among others, the following projects were discussed:

• Mirjam Bitter: Memory and Gender in Contemporary German-Jewish and Italian-Jewish Literature
• Andreas Hübner: Political Perspectives on Remembering the Creoles, the Créolité, and the Creolization of Colonial Louisiana
• Friederike Klemm: Coming to Terms with the Past: Representations of Occupation and Collaboration in French Films
• Daniel Mai: Towards an Organizational Culture of Remembrance: Collective Memory in Organizations – Between Identity Management and History Politics