Syllabus
Class Schedule:
Week 1: Introduction, Course Expectations, Discussion of Some Basic Theories and Concepts in the Field of Memory Studies, Definitions of Various Types of Memory.
Readings: No Readings
Week 2: The Recent Memory Boom, The Role of Memory in Social Sciences and Theoretical & Methodological Challenges
Required Reading:
Kerwin Lee Klein, "On the Emergence of Memory in the Historical Discourse", Representations , Winter 69, 2000, pp.127-150
Recommended Reading:
Jeffrey K. Olick and Joyce Robbins, "Social Memory Studies: from" Collective Memory "to Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices", Annual Review of Sociology , 24, 1998, pp. 105-40 (Jstore)
David Berliner, "The Abuses of Memory: Reflections on the Memory Boom in Anthropology", Anthropological Quarterly , Vol. 1, 2005
Week 3: Social Memory: Individualistic and Collectivistic Understandings of Social Memory.
Required Readings:
Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory , Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992, 37-51
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Annotation
Theorizing Memory: Social and Cultural Memory
Course General Description:
It is often claimed that "memory is everywhere around us". At the same time the concept of "memory" appears to be used in a variety of contexts in the intersection of psychology, history, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies. This course attempts to critically survey the main theories and practices of social and cultural remembering. As Alon Confino posits, although the richness of memory studies and the topics of inquiry are incontestable broad, the very notion of "memory" seems to be "more practiced than theorized" (Collective Memory and Cultural History: Problems of Method, 1997). We will try to survey and critically examine various empirical and theoretical approaches to memory in social sciences. Who is the carrier of memory?What are the adequate methods of social and cultural memory approach in empirical research? What does it mean to remember something you did not experience firsthand?
Teaching Format: mixture of lecture and seminar