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Literature and Cultural

Memory

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Cultural Memory

How we create an image of the past,How we make sense of our past from our

present,

How we understand ourselves and our past,What stories we tell to ourselves about

ourselves,What we choose to remember or forget,

How we explain the reasons why we rememberor forget something,

How we make sure that we hand over thememories that matter to us

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Cultural Memory as aconcept

• introduced to the archaeologicaldisciplines by Jan ssmannssman!s de"nition# the $outer

dimension of human memory$• $memory culture& 'Erinnerungskultur (• $reference to the past&

'Vergangenheitsbezug(https#))tspace*library*utoronto*ca)citd)holtorf)+**html

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$memory culture$

the way a society ensures culturalcontinuity by preserving, with the helpof cultural mnemonics, its collective

knowledge from one generation to thenext, rendering it possible for latergenerations to reconstruct  their

cultural identity*

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+**html

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 $reference to the past$

•  reassure the members of a society of theircollective identity and supply them with anawareness of their unity and singularity in time andspace-i*e* an historical consciousness-bycreating a shared past  

• can involve rituals and ceremonies at specialoccasions such as commemoration days, and atspecial places such as ancient monuments, whichfunction as timemarks and sites of memory

https#))tspace*library*utoronto*ca)citd)holtorf)+**html

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/holtorf/2.7.htmlhttps://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/holtorf/2.7.htmlhttps://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/holtorf/2.7.htmlhttps://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/holtorf/2.7.html

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.orms of Cultural Memory

.ormal / institutional / private / personal• History• 0chools, sub1ects, syllabi, exams• 2eligion• Holidays 'public, national, religious, private

rituals(

• necdotes• Memoires• Controversial, minority views, counter3narratives

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Cultural Memory andLiterature

Literary works / popular, canonicalHistory of literature 3 of a language

3 of a nation2epresentation of a literature or culture

in another literature or culture#stereotypes

  popular image  history of their literature

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Cultural Memory at 450,050

6ritish Literature in the Hungarian CulturalMemory pro1ect at the 4epartment of5nglish 0tudies, dir* 7rof* 8gnes 79ter

Cultural Memory and Literature

n international conference '+:/+; 0ept,

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Literatures in 5nglish

7ostcolonial 0tudies• explores the various facets-textual,

"gural, spatial, historical, political and

economic-of the colonial encounter,and the ways in which this encountershaped the West and non3West alike

•

investigations from many disciplines, aswell as a theoretical perspective fromwhich to view a variety of concerns

http#))www*tandf*co*uk)1ournals)titles)?@@AB*as

p

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Literatures in 5nglish

5nglish literary textsrepresenting

other cultures

/ the living conscience and publicdepository of the cultural memories ofthe world,

telling the story,incorporating the way of thinking,

and mirroring the language

of other cultures

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0ome examples

• 0alman 2ushdie, Midnight's Children '