Hirsch, Sebald, and the Uses and Limits of Postmemory
In Russell J. A. Kilbourn & Eleanor Ty (eds.), The Memory Effect: The Remediation of Memory in Literature and Film. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. pp. 51-67 (2013)
Abstract
Marianne Hirsch’s influential concept of postmemory articulates the ethical significance of representing trauma in art and literature. Postmemory, for Hirsch, “describes the relationship of children of survivors of cultural or collective trauma to the experiences of their parents, experiences that they ‘remember’ only as the narratives and images with which they grew up, but that are so powerful, so monumental, as to constitute memories in their own right”. Through appeal to recent philosophical work on memory, the ethics of remembering, and Peter Goldie’s discussion of empathy, I explore the virtues and limitations of Hirsch’s concept of postmemory. I take particular issue with her recent attempt to place author W.G. Sebald in league with the postmemory generation.Author's Profile
My notes
Similar books and articles
Review of review of Marianne Hirsch, Family Frames: Photography, Narrative, and Postmemory.Patrick Maynard - 1999 - Biography 22 (1):118-121.
Scraping down the past: Memory and amnesia in W. G. Sebald's anti-narrative.Kathy Behrendt - 2010 - Philosophy and Literature 34 (2):394-408.
Marked by Memory: Feminist Reflections on Trauma and Transmission.Marianne Hirsch - 2002 - In Nancy K. Miller & Jason Tougaw (eds.), Extremities: Trauma, Testimony, Community. Illinois University Press.
Cultural Memory, Empathy, and Rape.Lisa Campo-Engelstein - 2009 - Philosophy in the Contemporary World 16 (1):25-42.
The Nature and Significance of Memory Disturbance in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.Chris R. Brewin - 2011 - Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 7.
Memory and Trauma: Examining disruptions in implicit, explicit and autobiographical memory.Melody D. Combs & Anne P. DePrince - 2010 - In Ruth A. Lanius, Eric Vermetten & Clare Pain (eds.), The Impact of Early Life Trauma on Health and Disease. Cambridge University Press.
‘Misery Loves Company’: Sexual Trauma, Psychoanalysis and the Market for Misery. [REVIEW]Victoria Bates - 2012 - Journal of Medical Humanities 33 (2):61-81.
Implicit Memory and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms.Amy S. Leiner, Nader Amir & Jessica Bomyea - 2010 - Cognitive Therapy and Research 34 (1).
The aesthetics of sense-memory: theorising trauma through the visual arts.Jill Bennett - 2005 - In Susannah Radstone & Katharine Hodgkin (eds.), Memory Cultures: Memory, Subjectivity, And Recognition. Transaction Publishers.
Between Death and Life: Trauma, Divine Love and the Witness of Mary Magdalene.Shelly Rambo - 2005 - Studies in Christian Ethics 18 (2):7-21.
From individual memory to collective memory: Theoretical and empirical perspectives.Amanda Barnier & John Sutton - 2008 - Memory 16 (3):177-182.
Analytics
Added to PP
2013-12-30
Downloads
27 (#434,094)
6 months
7 (#118,101)
2013-12-30
Downloads
27 (#434,094)
6 months
7 (#118,101)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
Scraping down the past: Memory and amnesia in W. G. Sebald's anti-narrative.Kathy Behrendt - 2010 - Philosophy and Literature 34 (2):394-408.
Literary work by Gerold Tietz – Literary Engagement of an expelled German.Jan Kubica - 2020 - Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Germanica 15:31-43.