INTRODUCTION TO MEMORY STUDIES in Fall 2019 (PY1091FB11)

This course will introduce students to the emerging interdisciplinary field of memory studies. Beginning from historical, psychoanalytic, and cognitive perspectives on memory and moving onto sociological and cultural perspectives, we will explore the powerful theoretical and applied implications of an approach to memory that breaks down the borders between persons and social groups. Through the close reading of cutting-edge social science texts, we inquire into the fundamental notions of collective memory, narrative, identity, time, and performance and their applicability to how personal and social meanings of the past are fashioned: What is memory? Where is memory? Is memory an individual or social phenomenon? Is all memory social? Is social memory subject to the same processes as individual memory? What are the politics of social memory? What is the relationship between truth and memory and between memory and history? What memories are concealed and why? Does commemoration serve its intended purpose to increase awareness and understanding? What are the cultural, social, political, and aesthetic reasons for how and why historical events are manufactured and represented? How do museums, monuments, and sites construct and tell a version of the past? We will have the opportunity to apply theory to a variety of representational forms, including film, museums, and monuments.