Between collective amnesia and saturation of memory: Narratives compared

Authors

  • Claudia Gina Hassan Professor of General Sociology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata"

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12869/TM2018-1-01

Keywords:

Memory, Shoah, Oblivion, Remembrance

Abstract

In this paper the forms of memory concerning the Shoah - ranging from collective amnesia to saturation ofremembrance - are compared. The overload and excessive presence of the information, images and initiatives related tothe Remembrance Day results on the one hand in a sacralization of the message conveyed but also, on the other hand, inits hollowing out and trivialization. In relation to this media cacophony, education and appropriate curricula are arguedto deserve absolute priority in order to prevent memory from turning into a spectacular and self-referential fetish. Thedifferent ways of representing the Shoah - a theme linked with memory are then investigated. In contemporary culturetwo ways of representing and narrating Auschwitz can be distinguished: its theatricalization on one hand, andemphasizing its ineffability on the other. The question of ineffability constitutes a backdrop against which the constantneed for narrating, representing and commemorating can be understood. Relative to the end of grand narratives, theShoah seems to have remained the one and only epic worth narrating and a new absolute worth probing. In this context,literature plays a special role. Several narrative models about Shoah are compared

Downloads

Published

2018-05-22

Issue

Section

Articles