Memory is an interpretive action
In this essay, I aim to shore up the epistemological foundations of memory studies so that it can more
productively fulfill its promise to understand the dynamics of shared meaning-making. I argue for theoretical and, hence,
methodological, advancement toward a more precise vocabulary for describing the movement of meaning over time and space and
between persons as they engage with resources and each other in order to fix and revise shared interpretations. Drawing on the
conceptual vocabulary of narrative, I describe some of the central tenets of this “back to the phenomenon” approach to social
memory.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Conceptualizing memory
- Back to the phenomenon
- Together-with others
- Resourcefulness
- On the ground floor
- Notes
-
References
References (50)
Assmann, J.
(
1995)
Collective
memory and cultural identity.
New German
Critique, 651, 125 – 133.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bamberg, M.
(
2004)
Form
and functions of ‘slut bashing’ in male identity constructions in 15-year-olds.
Human
Development,
47
(6), 331–353.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bamberg, M., & Georgakopoulou, A.
(
2008)
Small
stories as a new perspective in narrative and identity analysis.
Text &
Talk,
28
(3), 377–396.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Berger, P. L. & Luckmann, T.
(
1967)
The
social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Anchor Books.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brockmeier, J.
(
2015)
Beyond
the archive: Memory, narrative, and the autobiographical process. New York: Oxford University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bruner, J. S.
(
1978)
The
role of dialogue in language acquisition. In
A. Sinclair,
R. J. Jarvella &
W. J. M. Levelt (Eds.)
The
child’s conception of
language (pp. 241–256). Springer-Verlag.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cohler, B. J.
(
1982)
Personal
narrative and life course. In
P. Baltes, &
O. G. Brim (Eds.),
Life
span development and
behavior (Vol. 41, pp. 205–241). Academic Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Danziger, K.
(
2008)
Marking
the mind: A history of memory. Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Draaisma, D.
(
2000)
Metaphors
of memory: A history of ideas about the mind.
P. Vincent (Trans.). Cambridge University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Durkheim, E.
(
1912/1995)
The
elementary forms of religious life.
K. E. Fields (Trans.). New York: The Free Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fivush, R. & Nelson, K.
(
2006)
Parent-child
reminiscing locates the self in the past.
British Journal of Developmental
Psychology, 241, 235–251.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Freeman, M.
(
1984)
History,
narrative, and life-span developmental knowledge.
Human
Development,
27
(1), 1–19.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Freeman, M.
(
2010)
Hindsight:
The promise and peril of looking backward. Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gedi, N. & Elam, Y.
(
1996)
Collective
memory – What is it? History and
Memory, 8(2), 30–50.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gensburger, S.
(
2016)
Halbwachs’s
studies in collective memory: A founding work for contemporary “memory studies”? Journal of
Classical
Sociology. 16(4), 396–413.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Georgakopoulou, A.
(
2020)
La
small stories research: Une analyse narrative pour le XXI ͤ siècle essai de
cartographie. (Trans.
S. Patron). In
S. Patron (Ed.)
Small
stories: Un nouveau paradigme pour les recherches sur le
récit (pp. 17–53). Hermann.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hacking, I.
(
1999)
The
social construction of what? Harvard University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hajer, M. A.
(
1993)
Discourse
coalitions and the institutionalization of practice: The case of acid rain in
Britain. In
F. Fischer &
J. Forester (Eds.)
The
argumentative turn in policy analysis and
planning (pp. 43–76). Duke University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Halbwachs, M.
(
1925/1994)
Les
cadres sociaux de la mémoire. Paris: Albin Michel.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Halbwachs, M.
(
1950/1997)
La
mémoire collective. Albin Michel.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hammack, P. L.
(
2008)
Narrative
and the cultural psychology of identity.
Personality and Social Psychology
Review, 12(3), 222–247.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hegel, G. W. F.
(
1807/1977)
Phenomenology
of spirit.
A. V. Miller (trans.). Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hilberg, R.
(
1988)
Developments
in the historiography of the Holocaust. In
A. Cohen,
J. Gelber, &
C. Wardi (Eds.)
Comprehending
the Holocaust: Historical and literary
research (pp. 21–44). Verlag Peter Lang.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hirst, W., Coman, A., & Coman, D.
(
2014)
Putting
the social back into human memory. In
T. Perfect &
D. S. Lindsay (Ed).
Sage
Handbook of Applied
Memory (pp. 273–291). Sage Publications.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hirst, W. & Manier, D.
(
2008)
Towards
a psychology of collective
memory.
Memory, 16 (3), 183–200.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Holland, D. Lachicotte, Jr., W., Skinner, D. & Cain, C.
(
1998)
Identity
and agency in cultural worlds. Harvard University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kahneman, D.
(
2011)
Thinking
fast and slow. Penguin.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kansteiner, W.
(
2002)
Finding
meaning in memory: A methodological critique of collective memory studies.
History and
Theory,
41
1, 179 – 197.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Keightley, E. & Pickering, M.
(
2012)
The
mnemonic imagination: Remembering as creative practice. Palgrave Macmillan.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Keightley, E., Pickering, M., & Bisht, P.
(
2019)
Interscalarity
and the memory spectrum. In
N. Maurantonio &
W. Park (Eds.)
Communicating
Memory &
History (pp. 17–38). Peter Lang.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Klein, K. L.
(
2000)
On
the emergence of memory in historical
discourse.
Representations, 691, 127–150.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Labov, W., & Waletzky, J.
Labov, W.
(
1972)
Language
in the inner city. University of Pennsylvania Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Meretoja, H.
(
2018)
The
ethics of storytelling: Narrative hermeneutics, history, and the possible. Oxford University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Miller, P. J., Chen, E. C.-H., & Olivarez, M.
(
2014)
Narrative
making and remaking in the early years: Prelude to the personal
narrative. In
B. Schiff (Ed.),
Rereading
Personal Narrative and Life Course. New Directions for Child and Adolescent
Development, 1451, 15–27.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mishler, E. G.
(
1999)
Storylines:
Craftartists’ narratives of identity. Harvard University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Moscovici, S.
(
2000)
Social
representations: Explorations in social psychology.
G. Duveen (Ed.). Polity
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Olick, J. K.
(
1999)
Collective
memory: The two cultures.
Sociological
Theory,
17
1, pp. 333–348.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Olick, J. K., Vinitzky-Seroussi, V. & Levy, D.
(Eds.) (
2011)
The
collective memory reader. Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rothberg, M.
(
2009)
Multidirectional
memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the age of decolonization. Stanford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ryle, G.
(
1949/2009)
The
concept of mind: 60th anniversary
edition. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schiff, B.
(
2017)
A
new narrative for psychology. Oxford University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schutz, A. & Luckmann, T.
(
1973)
The
structures of the life-world.
R. M. Zaner &
H. T. Engelhardt, Jr. (Trans.). Northwestern University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wertsch, J. V.
(
2002)
Voices
of collective remembering. Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wiley, A. R., Rose, A. J., Burger, L. K., & Miller, P. J.
(
1998)
Constructing
autonomous selves through narrative practices: Comparative study of working-class and middle-class
families.
Child
Development (69) 31, 833–847.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vygotsky, L. S.
(
1930/1978)
Mind
in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Young, J. E.
(
1993)
The
texture of memory: Holocaust memorials and meaning. Yale University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zerubavel, E.
(
2004)
Time
maps: Collective memory and the social shapes of the past. The University of Chicago Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by 2 other publications
Berenson, Alonit & Inbar Ezra
Jeftic, Alma, Thomas Van de Putte & Johana Wyss
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.