Social Memory

1
Social Memory

• By James Fentress and Chris Wickham
• Presented by Leslie Norman / Meghan Vacca

2
Chapter 1 Remembrance

• To explore how memory functions.
• To explore the way historians and social
  scientists have regarded memory and used it and
  to suggest different ways social memory can be
  better appreciated.

3

• Memory becomes social once structure has been
  given to it and it is articulated.
• Memory has a mixed character between personal and
  social thus it is social memory. As such it is
  more subjective because of the sharing factor
  involved.

4

• Knowledge vs. Remembering
• We can know something without being able to
  remember it. (pg. 4)
• We can know how memory facilitates knowledge by
  asking what constitutes the experience of memory.

5
Chapter 3 Class and Group memories in Western
Societies

• Peasant memories
• Working-class memories
• National memories in the modern period
• Womens memories

6
Chapter 5 The Mafia and the Myth of Sicilian
National Identity

• In preserving old forms, the mafia showed how
  the perception of the present can still be
  dominated by perspectives from the past. (pg.
  198)
• Family honor
• Vendetta

7

• After the 1860 unification of Italy the story of
  the 1282 Vespers became a standard concept in
  Sicily.
• Morte ai francesi, Italia anela!
• (Death to the French, Italy is yearning!)

8

• American mafia legitimized their actions by tying
  into the noble tradition of preserving family
  honor.
• The actions are validated by acting out its own
  myth.

9
Ordering and Transmission of Social Memory

• Oral Memory
• The memory of words
• Images and memory
• Narrative Memory
• Song of Roland
• Fairytales

10
Re-Reading the Text

• The authors project
• Theoretical background
• Achievement of goals/
• Reviews/Reception of the book
• Implications for Knowledge Structures