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Memory before Modernity: Practices of Memory in Early Modern Europe
Most scholars who study memory believe that people in different cultures have different ways of remembering. this assumption implies that
it should be possible to write a history of memory. outlines of such a
history can be found in various modern theories of memory, which often
contain a macro-historical component. Jacques le Goff distinguished
five phases in the history of memory in the West, in which ‘free, creative
and vital’ memory over time became ‘exteriorised’.1 Pierre nora famously
argued that ‘milieux de mémoire’ had given way to ‘lieux de mémoire’.2
aleida and Jan assmann have connected media revolutions to the emergence of new forms of cultural memory, while students of nationalism
like Benedict anderson and eric hobsbawm saw the combined forces of
literacy, political change, mass media, secularization and capitalism as the
motor behind the emergence of new approaches to the past.3 Increasingly, memory theories also have a ‘futurist’ component—it is alleged that
postmodernity, globalization and/or the information revolution are creating changes that might lead to a new transformation of memory as we
know it.
it should be possible to write a history of memory. outlines of such a
history can be found in various modern theories of memory, which often
contain a macro-historical component. Jacques le Goff distinguished
five phases in the history of memory in the West, in which ‘free, creative
and vital’ memory over time became ‘exteriorised’.1 Pierre nora famously
argued that ‘milieux de mémoire’ had given way to ‘lieux de mémoire’.2
aleida and Jan assmann have connected media revolutions to the emergence of new forms of cultural memory, while students of nationalism
like Benedict anderson and eric hobsbawm saw the combined forces of
literacy, political change, mass media, secularization and capitalism as the
motor behind the emergence of new approaches to the past.3 Increasingly, memory theories also have a ‘futurist’ component—it is alleged that
postmodernity, globalization and/or the information revolution are creating changes that might lead to a new transformation of memory as we
know it.
425 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 18, 2025
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