Dialogues of Memory. Reflections around the Reception of Collective Memory

Abstract

The significance of collective remembering is denied by artists and writers, as well as by historians, who cite hard facts from the history of events (l’histoire événementielle). Politicians, by contrast, fetishize collective memory as vital to the implementation of their historical policy. A further source of diffi culties is the fact that memory comprises both remembering and forgetting, and this leads to the dilemma of how much remembering/forgetting a society needs in order to be able to function within the paradigm of democratic rules. If we treat our “own” memory (whether individual or collective) as the one true memory, we are paving the way for constant conflicts. I shall draw on a few examples of clashes of diff erent memories in order to attempt, in my conclusion, to demonstrate the practical sense of polyphony in memory or, as Aleida Assmann has defined it once again in her recent book, dialogic culture in remembering.