Theories about Social Forms of Remembering

1. Theories about Social Forms of Remembering

3. Presentation Dates for First Short Report

4. Required Readings for This Week Zerubavel, Eviatar, “Social Memories: Steps to a Sociology of the Past”, Qualitative Sociology, 19(3) 1996, pp. 283-299. Connerton, Paul. “Social Memory”, How Societies Remember. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 2006 (1989), pp. 6-40. Halbwachs, Maurice. “Preface” and “The Reconstruction of the Past” Maurice Halbwachs on Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp37-40, 46-51. (e) Schwartz, Barry. “Introduction. The Expanding Past”, Qualitative Sociology. 19(3) 1996, pp. 275-81.

5. Other « Homework » : Researching ideas for projects by 1-Viewing a documentary film a « fact-based » fictionalized film An archival collection of images Must be about past events (can be very recent past) or the history of a group, a place etc….something that involves sharing memories 2-Doing « fieldwork ». Visiting an historic site, reconstruction or public monument or building or event that is intended to commemorate or express memories of a group or event.

6. Early Interest in Collective Memory: Social Construction of ’Knowledge’ & Individual/Society Social origins of categories of though (Durkheim) Memory as a “social fact” (Schwartz, 1996) Social morphology, collective life & consciousness as clues to understanding « big questions » (like the persistance of class distinctions etc…)

7. Memory & Knowledge as social constructions Maurice Halbwachs Social Frames of Memory, On collective Memory Revolt against rationalism, promoted idea of contemplation Influences: Henri Bergson (importance of time as source of self-knowledge, immediate experience) Annales School of historiography (Marc Bloch, Lucien Febvre) « duration » (intuitive perception of innner time) Emile Durkheim (social morphology, search for causes and explanation)

8. Collective vs. individualistic memories? Contextualized: Social classes, families, associations, corporations, religious groups, linguistic groups etc. Constructed: Members construct collective memories in the context of the social group to remember, forget or recreate the past Social Communication : not individualistic consciousness or subjective time

9. Halbwachs on Collective Memory as a Social Process a reconstruction of the past in light of the present (Lewis Coser) depends on social environment & identification with groups Examine how we recollect things & make connections External prompting: Answering questions others ask us or that we suppose they have asked “Reconstruction” as part of participating in society placing ourselves in the perspective of a social group

10. Themes in Halbwach’s work on Memory Dreams & Memory Images Language & Memory Family, Religion, Class and Memory traditions

11. « Sites of Memory » (Pierre Nora) "where [cultural] memory crystallizes and secretes itself" (Nora 1989: 7) "A lieu de mémoire is any significant entity, whether material or non-material in nature, which by dint of human will or the work of time has become a symbolic element of the memorial heritage of any community…" (Nora 1996: XVII) (article by Hortloff)

12. Sites of memory: places archives, museums, cathedrals, palaces, cemeteries, and memorials;

13. concepts and practices commemorations, generations, Mottos rituals;

14. objects inherited property mementos monuments manuals, emblems, basic texts symbols.

15. Non-places, Silencing: Memories of Amish Schoolhouse Killings Site where children were killed Destruction of Amish Schoolhouse

16. Intangible Heritage as Sites of Memory Languages Practices, skills Traditions

17. Innovations as Rejection of Memories of the Past or revivals? Invention of new ceremonies new “fashions” (today could it be rejection of the burka?)

18. Typology of Memory Claims (Connerton) 1-Personal Memory Connections with individual’s life history 2-Cognitive memory Not necessary about the past but enabled by something we have learned to help us decipher past, present & future 3-Habit Memory Performative but not necessarily grounded in specific memories

19. Silencing: Memories of Amish Schoolhouse Killings Site where children were killed Destruction of Amish Schoolhouse

20. Censorship & Iconoclasm Censurship & Iconoclasm : deliberate destruction of images rooted in religious, political or other socio-cultural beliefs Ex. Destruction of 3rd c. A.D. Buddhas by Taleban in Afghanistan completed March 12, 2002

21. Problems in understanding how collective or individual “memories” originate & are used Difficult to link: “Grand Theory” & structural or contextual determinants (economy, politics, Zeitgeist or spirit of the times) Individual agency & cognition Observable practices

22. Example: Multiple Meanings of Same Site Visits to the “Holyland” connect pilgrims & the past in context of present (inspired Halbwachs) BUT vary with different generations, different groups (ex. Muslims, Christians, Jews, etc..)

23. Functions of social memories of the past (Connerton) Commonly legitimate a present social order Factors & issues Generational difference Experiences of the present depend on knowledge of the past Images of the past conveyed & sustained by ritual performances Recollection cultural rather than an individual activities of commemoration and performance

24. Changing visions of the past as a way to change the present (Connerton) Ex. Acts of repudiation, like the execution of leaders.: King of France during the French revolution (Connerton) Saddam Hussein in December 2006

25. Life (Personal) histories and collective memory Rescuing the lived experience of marginalized or subordinate groups ? Problems in confronting personal histories with “objective” records (ex. Connerton, Zerubavel)

26. Social Memory vs. Historical Reconstruction (Connerton) Historical reconstructions independent of social memory Historians, evidence & authority Traces of the past (documents, artifacts, first hand observations) Notions of “truth” Historical writing and politics (differing collective representations of memories of the past and its meaning for the present)

27. Historical reconstructions and the shape of shared memories of the past depends on group membership Belief & disbelief Survival of witnesses Context (village vs. urban)– different opportunities for deceit (film– the Return of Martin Guerre)

28. Memories as Habits Individuals (even bodily practices) “universal” or shared mental traditions or processes Conventions or norms or practices of “sameness” (rule-following behaviours like language systems or clothes)

29. What binds recent memories and distant ones? Groups provide frameworks to locate memories Different groups have different frameworks Collective memory about communication in specific contexts between group members

30. Collective Memory & Communication/Media Theory Entries on Transmission Models of Communication from the Communications, Cultural and Media Studies Infobase expecially: Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication, Lasswell Formula, Critique of Transmission Models James Carey Communication as Transmission and Ritual.

31. Lasswell Model Communication as transmission from source to receiver Research Uses: Study of Propaganda

32. Maletzke’s Model (Mass Media)

33. Communication as ritual (Carey) “Maintenance of a society in time” “Construction of an ordered and meaningful world” Not mutually exclusive-- how are “significant” forms created, apprehended and used?

34. Film Screening Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story