Cultural memory

Astrid Erll

pp. 238-242

in: Martin Middeke, Timo Müller, Christina Wald, Hubert Zapf (eds), English and American studies, Stuttgart, Metzler, 2012

Abstract

Cultural memory is a theoretical perspective which links English and American Studies closely to interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences. Memory studies is a broad convergence field, with contributions from cultural history, social psychology, media studies, political philosophy, and comparative literature. With the term "cultural memory," scholars describe all those processes of a biological, medial, or social nature which relate past and present (and future) in socio-cultural contexts. Cultural memory entails remembering and forgetting. It has an individual and a collective side, which are, however, closely interrelated (see Erll, Memory in Culture).