In Michaelmas Term, 2007 (ie, Fall 2007 to those not on the Cambridge system) I started a reading group dealing with issues of memory and narrative. What follows is a brief description of the reading group and its aims, following by a list of the readings.
Telling memories is a bi-weekly reading group on memory and narrative in the context of anthropology and related fields. Building upon recent cross-disciplinary interest in both memory and narrative, the intent of the reading group is to explore the intersection of these fields in a variety of contexts. One of the areas of interest will be the implications and uses of memory and narrative in the political realm, broadly conceived. How have recent political changes, including globalisation, affected the way people recount memories and past event? But we are also interested in more general issues as well: How and to whom are certain memories important, and why these memories? How do the meanings people give to memories influence their recounting, and how do narratives not only recount important memories, but shape their selection in the first place? We are also happy to include other topics, and encourage people to suggest other avenues of exploration.
Readings, Easter 200829 April, 2008
Humphrey, Caroline, 2003. "Stalin and the Blue Elephant: paranoia and complicity in post-communist metahistories" in Transparency and Conspiracy, Harry West and Todd Sanders, eds., pp. 175-203. Durham: Duke University Press.
13 May, 2008
Wertsch, James, 2008. "The narrative organization of collective memory" Ethos. 36(1): 120-135.
27 May, 2008
Fabian, Johannes, 2007. "Forgetting Africa" and "Memory and counter-memory" in Memory against culture. Durham: Duke University Press.
10 June, 2008
Kaplonski, Christopher, 2008. "Neither truth nor reconciliation: political violence and the singularity of memory in post-Socialist Mongolia" Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 9(2): 371-388.
Readings, Lent 20088 January, 2008
Briggs, Charles, 2007. "Mediating infanticide: theorizing relations between narrative and violence" Cultural Anthropology. 22(3): 315-356.
22 January, 2008
Hirsch, Marianne , 2007. "Past Lives: postmemories in exile" Poetics Today. 17(4): 659-686.
5 February, 2008
Akyeampong, E., 2001. "History, memory, slave trade and slavery in Anlo (Ghana)" Slavery and Abolition. 22(3):1-24.
19 February, 2008
Taylor, Julie, 1993. "Remembering to Forget: identity, honor and mourning among the Jivaro" Man.28(4): 653-678.
4 March, 2008
Empson, Rebecca "Enlivened Memories: recalling abscence and loss in Mongolia" in Ghosts of memory: essays on remembrance and relatedness, Janet Cartsen, ed. pp.58-82. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Readings, Michaelmas 200716 October, 2007
Todorov, Tzvetan, 1980. "The two principles of narrative," Chapter 3 from Genres in discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Supplemental reading:
White, Hayden, 1987. "The question of narrative in contemporary historical theory," Chapter 2 from The content of the form: narrative discourse and historical representation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press
30 October, 2007
Nora, Pierre, 1996. "General Introduction: Between Memory and History," from Realms of memory: the construction of the French past, vol. I Conflicts and Divisions. New York: Columbia University Press.
13 November, 2007
Lambek, Michael, 1998. "The Sakalava Poiesis of History: Realizing the Past Through Spirit Possession in Madagascar" American Ethnologist. 25(2): 106-127.
4 December, 2007
Connerton, Paul, 1989. How Societies Remember (Focusing on Part III: Bodily Practices"