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Sites of Memory in U.S.-American Histories and Cultures

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Cultural Memory Studies
This chapter is in the book Cultural Memory Studies
Sites of Memory in U.S.-American Histories and Cultures UDOJ. HEBEL 1. Conceptual Frameworks and American Memory Studies U.S.-American cultures of memory reverberate with the particular con-texts and developments of North American histories since the colonial period. The proverbial newness of the so-called New World, the defini-tional projection of the U.S.-American republic as an unprecedented promise of universal redemption, and the manifold conflicts within the multiethnic societies of the North American continent and the United States have supported rather than limited the emergence, purposeful con-struction, and ongoing revision of a multivocal network of sites of mem-ory. Theoretical approaches to interpret the political, social, and cultural power of imagined communities and invented traditions in processes of nation-building and community preservation offer the conceptual frame-work to assess the significance of cultural memories and collective com-memorations for the formation and stabilization of a U.S.-American na-tion that was created rhetorically and in historical acts of political and cultural opposition. At the same time, archaeological remains of precon-tact achievements of the indigenous peoples of North America and traces of pre-Columbian European travelers in the Western Hemisphere serve as lasting reminders that American cultural memories do not begin in 1492 and should not be reduced to Anglocentric sites. The multidisciplinarity of American Studies and the discipline’s multicultural agenda and prominent involvement in recent theoretical turns—visual, performative, spatial, virtual, transnational—provide American Studies scholars with a compre-hensive vision to account for the heterogeneity of the discursive and non-discursive manifestations of American cultures of memory and to explore the political and economic competition for commemorative participation and authority in a democratic and pluralistic society. Well-established con-cepts of U.S.-American cultural history and American Studies scholarship such as Henry S. Commager’s stress on the specific U.S.-American search for a usable past and Robert Bellah’s notion of American civil religion, as well as the New Historicist understanding of U.S.-American culture as a rhetorical battlefield, connect well with sociocultural and constructivist approaches in memory studies.

Sites of Memory in U.S.-American Histories and Cultures UDOJ. HEBEL 1. Conceptual Frameworks and American Memory Studies U.S.-American cultures of memory reverberate with the particular con-texts and developments of North American histories since the colonial period. The proverbial newness of the so-called New World, the defini-tional projection of the U.S.-American republic as an unprecedented promise of universal redemption, and the manifold conflicts within the multiethnic societies of the North American continent and the United States have supported rather than limited the emergence, purposeful con-struction, and ongoing revision of a multivocal network of sites of mem-ory. Theoretical approaches to interpret the political, social, and cultural power of imagined communities and invented traditions in processes of nation-building and community preservation offer the conceptual frame-work to assess the significance of cultural memories and collective com-memorations for the formation and stabilization of a U.S.-American na-tion that was created rhetorically and in historical acts of political and cultural opposition. At the same time, archaeological remains of precon-tact achievements of the indigenous peoples of North America and traces of pre-Columbian European travelers in the Western Hemisphere serve as lasting reminders that American cultural memories do not begin in 1492 and should not be reduced to Anglocentric sites. The multidisciplinarity of American Studies and the discipline’s multicultural agenda and prominent involvement in recent theoretical turns—visual, performative, spatial, virtual, transnational—provide American Studies scholars with a compre-hensive vision to account for the heterogeneity of the discursive and non-discursive manifestations of American cultures of memory and to explore the political and economic competition for commemorative participation and authority in a democratic and pluralistic society. Well-established con-cepts of U.S.-American cultural history and American Studies scholarship such as Henry S. Commager’s stress on the specific U.S.-American search for a usable past and Robert Bellah’s notion of American civil religion, as well as the New Historicist understanding of U.S.-American culture as a rhetorical battlefield, connect well with sociocultural and constructivist approaches in memory studies.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Table of Contents vii
  3. Cultural Memory Studies: An Introduction 1
  4. I. Lieux de mémoire–Sites of Memory
  5. Loci memoriae–Lieux de mémoire 19
  6. Italian luoghi della memoria 27
  7. Mitteleuropa as a lieu de mémoire 37
  8. Sites of Memory in U.S.-American Histories and Cultures 47
  9. Sites of Memory and the Shadow of War 61
  10. II. Memory and Cultural History
  11. Memory and the History of Mentalities 77
  12. The Invention of Cultural Memory 85
  13. Canon and Archive 97
  14. Communicative and Cultural Memory 109
  15. Generation/Generationality, Generativity, and Memory 119
  16. Cultural Memory: A European Perspective 127
  17. III. Social, Political, and Philosophical Memory Studies
  18. Maurice Halbwachs’s mémoire collective 141
  19. From Collective Memory to the Sociology of Mnemonic Practices and Products 151
  20. Memory in Post-Authoritarian Societies 163
  21. Memory and Politics 173
  22. Social Forgetting: A Systems-Theory Approach 181
  23. Memory and Remembrance: A Constructivist Approach 191
  24. Memory and Forgetting in Paul Ricoeur s Theory ofthe Capable Self 203
  25. IV. Psychological Memory Studies
  26. Psychology, Narrative, and Cultural Memory: Past and Present 215
  27. Against the Concept of Cultural Trauma 229
  28. Experience and Memory: Imaginary Futures in the Past 241
  29. A Cognitive Taxonomy of Collective Memories 253
  30. Language and Memory: Social and Cognitive Processes 263
  31. Cultural Memory and the Neurosciences 275
  32. Communicative Memory 285
  33. V. Literature and Cultural Memory
  34. Mnemonic and Intertextual Aspects of Literature 301
  35. Cultural Memory and the Literary Canon 311
  36. Life-Writing, Cultural Memory, and Literary Studies 321
  37. The Literary Representation of Memory 333
  38. The Dynamics of Remembrance: Texts Between Monumentality and Morphing 345
  39. VI. Media and Cultural Memory
  40. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials in History 357
  41. The Photograph as Externalization and Trace 367
  42. Journalism’s Memory Work 379
  43. Literature, Film, and the Mediality of Cultural Memory 389
  44. Memory and Media Cultures 399
  45. Backmatter 409
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110207262.1.47

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Table of Contents vii
  3. Cultural Memory Studies: An Introduction 1
  4. I. Lieux de mémoire–Sites of Memory
  5. Loci memoriae–Lieux de mémoire 19
  6. Italian luoghi della memoria 27
  7. Mitteleuropa as a lieu de mémoire 37
  8. Sites of Memory in U.S.-American Histories and Cultures 47
  9. Sites of Memory and the Shadow of War 61
  10. II. Memory and Cultural History
  11. Memory and the History of Mentalities 77
  12. The Invention of Cultural Memory 85
  13. Canon and Archive 97
  14. Communicative and Cultural Memory 109
  15. Generation/Generationality, Generativity, and Memory 119
  16. Cultural Memory: A European Perspective 127
  17. III. Social, Political, and Philosophical Memory Studies
  18. Maurice Halbwachs’s mémoire collective 141
  19. From Collective Memory to the Sociology of Mnemonic Practices and Products 151
  20. Memory in Post-Authoritarian Societies 163
  21. Memory and Politics 173
  22. Social Forgetting: A Systems-Theory Approach 181
  23. Memory and Remembrance: A Constructivist Approach 191
  24. Memory and Forgetting in Paul Ricoeur s Theory ofthe Capable Self 203
  25. IV. Psychological Memory Studies
  26. Psychology, Narrative, and Cultural Memory: Past and Present 215
  27. Against the Concept of Cultural Trauma 229
  28. Experience and Memory: Imaginary Futures in the Past 241
  29. A Cognitive Taxonomy of Collective Memories 253
  30. Language and Memory: Social and Cognitive Processes 263
  31. Cultural Memory and the Neurosciences 275
  32. Communicative Memory 285
  33. V. Literature and Cultural Memory
  34. Mnemonic and Intertextual Aspects of Literature 301
  35. Cultural Memory and the Literary Canon 311
  36. Life-Writing, Cultural Memory, and Literary Studies 321
  37. The Literary Representation of Memory 333
  38. The Dynamics of Remembrance: Texts Between Monumentality and Morphing 345
  39. VI. Media and Cultural Memory
  40. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials in History 357
  41. The Photograph as Externalization and Trace 367
  42. Journalism’s Memory Work 379
  43. Literature, Film, and the Mediality of Cultural Memory 389
  44. Memory and Media Cultures 399
  45. Backmatter 409
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