Memory Politics and Peacebuilding
Les 1: Introduction
Why is the study of memory important, and how do we understand it?
- Michael Rothberg paraphrases Richard Terdiman’s definition of memory as
“the past made present”.
o Memory is a contemporary phenomenon, something that, while
concerned with the past, happens in the present; and second, that
memory is a form of work, working through, labour, or action.
- Memory studies can be interdisciplinary.
o Sociology, psychology, literature studies, anthropology, history
- Scholars agree memory is dynamic, ever changing and shaped by various
agents of memory
- It interplays between individual and collective processes, collectively
constructed. (Halbwachs)
- Dissenting narratives
o Dissenting = disagreeing or pushing back against commonly
accepted ideas
o EG whiteness created / constructed as normal in the US through
colonization
- Active agents of memory include
o Culture, institutions, media, literature, rituals, monuments,
narratives, art
o Narrators: creators of memory
Disciplinary perspective on memory
- Different methodologies per discipline
o Psychology
Focus on individual memory, especially trauma
Uses brain studies to see how trauma affects memory storage
Clinical interventions (eg trauma sessions) show intensity of
processing
o Sociology; collective level
Family = key link between personal and collective memory
Family memory can support or challenge public
narratives
Shows unified vs divergent narratives within families
Gender shapes how memory is told and preserved
o Political Science;
Studies how states build and control official memory
Focus on power, national identity, and post-conflict memory
Political actors select what is remembered or forgotten
Looks at cross-border effects in memory politics
o Anthropology; Different methodological approaches
- Memory studies are inherently interdisciplinary
- While commemorations have always been part of societies, memory
studies emerged in the 20th century
Memory of Trauma (Short Summary):
- Trauma memories vary across groups, with gendered differences (e.g.,
Congo conflict: women emphasize rape, men focus on escape).
, - History focuses on official accounts; memory studies emphasize family and
community memories, often contested.
- Colonial thinkers: Archives are politicized and selective, challenging the
validity of official histories
Politics of memory
- Powerful institutions shape memory through museums, literature, images,
commemoration rituals, artefacts
- Silencing memories is very important (Eg collaborators)
- Forgetting is also very important (Collaborators etc.)
- Memory is an individual perception, always shaped through social
structures
- More often studying arts; studying musicians etc.
Construction of history
- History is constructed. It’s not just what happened but also what is said to
have happened, and what is left unsaid (Trouillot)
- Narrative control lies with key memory agents; silences reveal power
dynamics
- Testimonies offer personal perspectives but are often filtered by power
- Temporalities of memory highlight how cultures experience time
differently: dominant linear views can hinder reconciliation
- Contested memories influence present conflicts (eg Israel-Palestine),
showing how past and present are deeply intertwined
- Appeals to the past are among the most common strategies in
interpretations of the present.
Academic Concepts & Knowledge Production
- Memory is actively constructed by institutions, reflecting power dynamics
and serving present interests.
- Academic concepts (like collective memory) help understanding but can
oversimplify, be Eurocentric, and politically co-opted.
o Critical use of concepts is needed; they’re not the only knowledge
forms.
o Non-Western memory often transmits through poetry, rituals, music,
and folklore, highlighting the limits of Western frameworks.
- Memory carries, especially migrants, transmit memory across borders, with
gendered differences in focus.
Core Theoretical Frameworks
Cultural Memory Theory
- Focuses on how societies remember through structured, collective
processes
- Memory is maintained across generations via:
o Institutionalized memory practices (eg museums, education
systems)
o Cultural symbols and traditions (eg flags, holidays, rituals)
o Formalized commemoration rituals (eg national ceremonies,
anniversaries)
o Transmission mechanisms within cultural institutions (eg media,
religious institutions)
- Emphasizes how historical consciousness is socially constructed and
preserved
,Post-Memory theory (Marianne Hirsch)
- Focuses on the next generation’s relationship to traumatic pasts
(intergenerational)
- Key elements:
o Children of trauma survivors inherit memories they didn’t directly
experience
o These inherited memories shape their identity and emotional
understanding
o Family narratives and stories act as the main vehicle for transmitting
trauma
o Post-memory influences how later generations engage with history
and politics, even if they didn’t live through the events
- Explains the emotional and political legacy of events like genocide, war, or
displacement
Agents of Memory – Bin Laden Letter Case
- Social Media as Memory Agents
o Viral spread of bin Laden’s 2002 Letter to America (40M+ views)
shows how platforms reshape historical narratives.
o Marks a shift from institutional control to grassroots memory
formation.
- Presentism in Memory
o Letter went viral during the 2023 Gaza conflict, showing how present
events reframe past narratives for political purposes.
- Institutional Response
o U.S. government and platforms (e.g., TikTok) intervened to preserve
traditional narratives and suppress reinterpretation.
o Reveals tension between top-down control and bottom-up memory
formation
- Generational Memory Gap
o Young users engage with history primarily through social media with
a present-day lens, diverging from older collective understandings of
9/11.
- Blurring of Vernacular & Official Memory
o Individual posts triggered a mass memory event, forcing institutions
to respond—highlighting tensions between bottom-up and top-down
memory.
- Theoretical Implications
o Demonstrates the complex interplay between memory, media, and
political dynamics in the digital age.
o Highlights social media as an active agent in constructing and
contesting memory.
Cultural Expression as Memory Vehicle – Short Summary
- Music (e.g. Nina Simone, Bob Marley) transforms personal trauma into
collective memory.
- Songs/art document and preserve vernacular memory and resist dominant
historical narratives.
- Artistic works resurface in new historical contexts with renewed meaning.
- Reggae and protest music embody anti-colonial and resistance memory.
Memory Processes: Different types of Forgetting
Paul Connerton’s theoretical framework on different types of forgetting
, - Emphasized that forgetting is not merely a passive process but often an
active and strategic one. Several forms:
o Deliberate forgetting:
Strategic erasure of certain historical events from official
narratives
Institutional processes of selective remembrance
Political decisions about which aspects of history to
emphasize or suppress
o Structural forgetting
Systematic exclusion of certain perspectives from historical
narratives
Unintentional loss of historical memory through generational
change
o Therapeutic forgetting
Collective/societal decision of deemphasizing certain
historical aspects, to move beyond traumatic event.
Memory as Active Labour
- Institutional:
o Archives, education systems, and official commemorations work to
preserve and transmit dominant narratives.
- Community:
o Grassroots and local efforts maintain alternative histories, resist
official versions, and pass memory intergenerationally.
- Individual:
o Personal efforts to maintain and transmit family histories
o People actively engage with collective memory, navigating between
institutional and vernacular narratives.
Les 1: Introduction
Why is the study of memory important, and how do we understand it?
- Michael Rothberg paraphrases Richard Terdiman’s definition of memory as
“the past made present”.
o Memory is a contemporary phenomenon, something that, while
concerned with the past, happens in the present; and second, that
memory is a form of work, working through, labour, or action.
- Memory studies can be interdisciplinary.
o Sociology, psychology, literature studies, anthropology, history
- Scholars agree memory is dynamic, ever changing and shaped by various
agents of memory
- It interplays between individual and collective processes, collectively
constructed. (Halbwachs)
- Dissenting narratives
o Dissenting = disagreeing or pushing back against commonly
accepted ideas
o EG whiteness created / constructed as normal in the US through
colonization
- Active agents of memory include
o Culture, institutions, media, literature, rituals, monuments,
narratives, art
o Narrators: creators of memory
Disciplinary perspective on memory
- Different methodologies per discipline
o Psychology
Focus on individual memory, especially trauma
Uses brain studies to see how trauma affects memory storage
Clinical interventions (eg trauma sessions) show intensity of
processing
o Sociology; collective level
Family = key link between personal and collective memory
Family memory can support or challenge public
narratives
Shows unified vs divergent narratives within families
Gender shapes how memory is told and preserved
o Political Science;
Studies how states build and control official memory
Focus on power, national identity, and post-conflict memory
Political actors select what is remembered or forgotten
Looks at cross-border effects in memory politics
o Anthropology; Different methodological approaches
- Memory studies are inherently interdisciplinary
- While commemorations have always been part of societies, memory
studies emerged in the 20th century
Memory of Trauma (Short Summary):
- Trauma memories vary across groups, with gendered differences (e.g.,
Congo conflict: women emphasize rape, men focus on escape).
, - History focuses on official accounts; memory studies emphasize family and
community memories, often contested.
- Colonial thinkers: Archives are politicized and selective, challenging the
validity of official histories
Politics of memory
- Powerful institutions shape memory through museums, literature, images,
commemoration rituals, artefacts
- Silencing memories is very important (Eg collaborators)
- Forgetting is also very important (Collaborators etc.)
- Memory is an individual perception, always shaped through social
structures
- More often studying arts; studying musicians etc.
Construction of history
- History is constructed. It’s not just what happened but also what is said to
have happened, and what is left unsaid (Trouillot)
- Narrative control lies with key memory agents; silences reveal power
dynamics
- Testimonies offer personal perspectives but are often filtered by power
- Temporalities of memory highlight how cultures experience time
differently: dominant linear views can hinder reconciliation
- Contested memories influence present conflicts (eg Israel-Palestine),
showing how past and present are deeply intertwined
- Appeals to the past are among the most common strategies in
interpretations of the present.
Academic Concepts & Knowledge Production
- Memory is actively constructed by institutions, reflecting power dynamics
and serving present interests.
- Academic concepts (like collective memory) help understanding but can
oversimplify, be Eurocentric, and politically co-opted.
o Critical use of concepts is needed; they’re not the only knowledge
forms.
o Non-Western memory often transmits through poetry, rituals, music,
and folklore, highlighting the limits of Western frameworks.
- Memory carries, especially migrants, transmit memory across borders, with
gendered differences in focus.
Core Theoretical Frameworks
Cultural Memory Theory
- Focuses on how societies remember through structured, collective
processes
- Memory is maintained across generations via:
o Institutionalized memory practices (eg museums, education
systems)
o Cultural symbols and traditions (eg flags, holidays, rituals)
o Formalized commemoration rituals (eg national ceremonies,
anniversaries)
o Transmission mechanisms within cultural institutions (eg media,
religious institutions)
- Emphasizes how historical consciousness is socially constructed and
preserved
,Post-Memory theory (Marianne Hirsch)
- Focuses on the next generation’s relationship to traumatic pasts
(intergenerational)
- Key elements:
o Children of trauma survivors inherit memories they didn’t directly
experience
o These inherited memories shape their identity and emotional
understanding
o Family narratives and stories act as the main vehicle for transmitting
trauma
o Post-memory influences how later generations engage with history
and politics, even if they didn’t live through the events
- Explains the emotional and political legacy of events like genocide, war, or
displacement
Agents of Memory – Bin Laden Letter Case
- Social Media as Memory Agents
o Viral spread of bin Laden’s 2002 Letter to America (40M+ views)
shows how platforms reshape historical narratives.
o Marks a shift from institutional control to grassroots memory
formation.
- Presentism in Memory
o Letter went viral during the 2023 Gaza conflict, showing how present
events reframe past narratives for political purposes.
- Institutional Response
o U.S. government and platforms (e.g., TikTok) intervened to preserve
traditional narratives and suppress reinterpretation.
o Reveals tension between top-down control and bottom-up memory
formation
- Generational Memory Gap
o Young users engage with history primarily through social media with
a present-day lens, diverging from older collective understandings of
9/11.
- Blurring of Vernacular & Official Memory
o Individual posts triggered a mass memory event, forcing institutions
to respond—highlighting tensions between bottom-up and top-down
memory.
- Theoretical Implications
o Demonstrates the complex interplay between memory, media, and
political dynamics in the digital age.
o Highlights social media as an active agent in constructing and
contesting memory.
Cultural Expression as Memory Vehicle – Short Summary
- Music (e.g. Nina Simone, Bob Marley) transforms personal trauma into
collective memory.
- Songs/art document and preserve vernacular memory and resist dominant
historical narratives.
- Artistic works resurface in new historical contexts with renewed meaning.
- Reggae and protest music embody anti-colonial and resistance memory.
Memory Processes: Different types of Forgetting
Paul Connerton’s theoretical framework on different types of forgetting
, - Emphasized that forgetting is not merely a passive process but often an
active and strategic one. Several forms:
o Deliberate forgetting:
Strategic erasure of certain historical events from official
narratives
Institutional processes of selective remembrance
Political decisions about which aspects of history to
emphasize or suppress
o Structural forgetting
Systematic exclusion of certain perspectives from historical
narratives
Unintentional loss of historical memory through generational
change
o Therapeutic forgetting
Collective/societal decision of deemphasizing certain
historical aspects, to move beyond traumatic event.
Memory as Active Labour
- Institutional:
o Archives, education systems, and official commemorations work to
preserve and transmit dominant narratives.
- Community:
o Grassroots and local efforts maintain alternative histories, resist
official versions, and pass memory intergenerationally.
- Individual:
o Personal efforts to maintain and transmit family histories
o People actively engage with collective memory, navigating between
institutional and vernacular narratives.
