The aim of the conference is to draw attention to spheres of memory that exist apart from the grand (national) narratives and are more or less independent of them. The conference was inspired by a research project at the University of Luxembourg (in cooperation with the Center for Interdisciplinary Memory Research, KWI Essen) concerned with familial memory processes pertaining to the domains of war and occupation, and, equally important, to those of labour immigration and the transformation in the steel industry and the rural world.
After a period of intensive work on (European) national memory cultures, several disciplines have recently shown a growing interest in memory as a social and an individual practice. Striking in this latest research is its concentration on specific memory complexes, i.e., those connected with war, persecution and expulsion. In a sense, the “Holocaust memory”, i.e., the trauma, represents the paradigmatic phenomenon for the whole research endeavour. It is also progressively seen as constitutive of a global memory community and memory practice, transcending national memories and mediating universal values.
The conference diverges from this pattern by devoting itself explicitly to objects of memory that have been less prominent in research and in public discourse in general. This widening of perspective allows for a more complete view of the link between public and private memory. Of particular interest here are familial memory processes. Among the topics to be discussed in this perspective in an interdisciplinary frame (history, social and cultural sciences) are:
1. Objects of public and private remembering
The links, concordances and ruptures between public and private narratives will be envisaged in the context of different “memories”. Aside from the “major historical event”, these include above all the experience of change and the accompanying sense of loss or, conversely, social advancement and emancipation. By comparing these individual fields of memory we can identify the time substrata – historical and non-historical/familial – that co-exist in familial memory practice, and ask how their interplay is affected by more and more powerful public memory offerings.
2. Memory and generational relationship
The fact that research concentrates on traumatic memories and their familial formation suggests a specific conception of the "historical witness" – where historical authenticity is guaranteed, as it were, by virtue of participation in the traumatic event – and at the same time influences the notion of generational relationship and familial communication. Here too, the opening up of the research field for other memory complexes allows for a more multifaceted image of familial memory production. Among the more compelling topics are, for example, the relevance of shared memory horizons, intra-familial memory competition and memory loss in the grandchild generation.
3. The social constitution of memory communities
Peripheral memories also encompass narratives that are suppressed in public discourse. The history of women comes to mind. Another, perhaps more topical, example is migration memories and their non-integration into national narratives. However, efforts to make these memories “visible” – perhaps as elements of urban memory culture – are at the same time evidence that memory collectives are often created, perpetuated or revived by external forces, i.e., by (national) memory politics and the media (see, for example, the Deutsche Vertriebenen Museum/German Museum for Displaced Persons currently in planning). This leads to the question of how public identification and mediatization impact on processes of family tradition. Do family memories assimilate to the new or rediscovered collective identity? Or will communicative remembering gradually be replaced by cultural memory?
4. Research methods
Finally, the conference intends to encourage methodological reflections. Contributions containing research approaches on non-discursive modes of (familial) memory are particularly welcome.
Working languages: French, German and English (French and German presentations will be simultaneously translated into English).
Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the University of Luxembourg.
Potential contributors are invited to send an abstract of max. 500 words and a short CV to elisabeth.boesen@uni.lu, by 15 May 2009.