Communicative and Cultural Memory

Assmann, Jan

doi:10.1515/9783110207262.2.109

Cited by 397 publications

(32 citation statements)

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“…Maurice Halbwachs (Halbwachs, 1925), the foremost contributor to memory discourse, understood collective memory as jointly shared representations of the past. For the French sociologist, memory was strictly a result of socialization and communication: one’s individual remembrance depended on his or her participation in social groups (Assmann, 2008).…”

Section: Cultural Memory and Cultural Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite that, it is entirely shaped by sociocultural contexts, namely, interactions with other humans and external symbols. “Things do not ‘have’ a memory of their own,” Jan Assmann states, “but they may remind us, may trigger our memory, because they carry memories which we have invested into them, things such as dishes, feasts, rites, images, stories and other texts, landscapes, and other ‘lieux de mémoire’” (Assmann, 2008: 111). At the symbolic level, those external objects take on importance.…”

Section: Cultural Memory and Cultural Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cultural memory, on the other hand – in all types of societies, whether oral or literate – has specialized carriers of memory, such as shamans, bards, priests, teachers, artists, clerks, scholars, etc. (Assmann, 2008: 114), but also libraries, monuments, archives, etc.…”

Section: Cultural Memory and Cultural Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since then, almost every year around April 24 th , both newspapers have published editorials addressing the massacres. 19 The editors can be seen as peculiar “specialized carriers of memory” (Assmann, 2008: 114), who, by virtue of their position, can be considered sufficiently qualified to transfer knowledge on the Medz Yeghern.…”

Section: S: Educate the Community – Memory As A Moral Obligationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…That notwithstanding, this decade was not a total loss as it resulted in the progressive development of an intellectual base taking place backstage. Armenian programs at US universities, as well as grassroots educational, cultural, and research associations (among other things), contributed to the rebirth of the Armenian intelligentsia and simultaneously provided the diaspora with specialists for knowledge transfer about the Medz Yeghern (Assmann, 2008).…”

Section: S: Need For Restitution Claimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nascent narratives of Armenian remembrance: The Armenian genocide reflected in the Armenian-American press

Diłanian-Pinkowicz

2022

Ethnicities

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This article explores the cultural memory of the Armenian genocide archived, to a major extent, in non-digitized form. In the initial decades following the genocide, the memory of the crimes committed against Armenians in 1915 was almost non-existent in the public space of America. Monuments, demonstrations, state, and international resolutions, and other instruments of memorialization did not materialize until the 1960s when, as a result of worldwide Armenian mobilization ahead of the 50th anniversary, traces of genocide remembrance were gradually brought to life. Analyzing two Armenian newspapers from the United States – Hairenik Weekly (HW) and The Armenian Mirror-Spectator (AMS) – this paper reveals how Armenians recollected the genocide in the decades preceding the emergence of subsequent lieux de mémoire. What evoked their memories before 1965? And how did narratives change over time, eventually leading to the “exteriorization of Armenian memory”? The case of the Armenian genocide shows that memories of a traumatic event can quickly penetrate the cultural sphere, but remain closed for longer in the narrow framework of a specific community. This had consequences, including an almost complete lack of representation of the genocide in the public domain – one that would be designed by Armenians for non-Armenians. The process of meaning-making (traced through editorials from the two Armenian-American newspapers) influenced a gradual bridging of the representation gap in the American public space, beginning in 1965.

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Section: Cultural Memory and Cultural Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cultural Memory and Cultural Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cultural Memory and Cultural Traumamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: S: Educate the Community – Memory As A Moral Obligationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: S: Need For Restitution Claimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Nascent narratives of Armenian remembrance: The Armenian genocide reflected in the Armenian-American press

Diłanian-Pinkowicz

2022

Ethnicities

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From the Collapse of the Mycenaean Palaces to the Emergence of Early Iron Age Communities

Lemos¹

2019

A Companion to the Archaeology of Early Greece and the Mediterranean

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Literacy in the ancient Near East

Michałowski¹

2015

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History

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Writing and literacy are often associated with the rise of highly complex societies and the state and as such are generally considered to be a hallmark of ancient Near Eastern societies. While such correlations are indisputable, there is little agreement on matters of causality, process, and function, or on the status of literacy in ancient polities. In the ancient Near East literacy was always restricted, and its scope and power were in constant flux. It was an established factor in economic and social interaction. As a marker of status, authority, and control it was embedded in the omnipresent displays of royal writing that were there for all to see, most significantly by illiterates.

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Communicative and Cultural Memory

Cited by 397 publications

References 0 publications

Nascent narratives of Armenian remembrance: The Armenian genocide reflected in the Armenian-American press

Nascent narratives of Armenian remembrance: The Armenian genocide reflected in the Armenian-American press

From the Collapse of the Mycenaean Palaces to the Emergence of Early Iron Age Communities

Literacy in the ancient Near East

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