“Cultural Memories”. A Presentation

A Series of the Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory, London

Katia Pizzi

Abstract

Cultural Memories is the publishing project of the Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory at the Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London. The Centre has an international role and visibility and promotes innovative research with a focus on interdisciplinary approaches to the theme of memory. This series supports the Centre by promoting original research in the global field of cultural memory studies. In particular, it seeks to challenge a traditional model of memory in favour of a more fluid and heterogeneous one, where history, culture and memory are seen as complementary and intersecting. The series embraces new methodological approaches, encompassing a wide range of attituted to memory in cognative fields, including comparative studies, cultural studies, history, literature, media and communication, and cognitive sciences. The aim of Cultural Memories is to encourage and enhance research in the broad field of memory studies while, at the same time, pointing in new directions, providing a unique platform for creative and forward-looking scholarship in the discipline.

Katia Pizzi and Marjatta Hietala (eds), Cold War Cities: History, Culture and Memory, Peter Lang: Oxford 2017

The Cold War left indelible traces on the city, where polarities on the global stage intersected with existing political and social dynamics. This collection taps into the rich fabric of memories, histories and cultural interactions of urban communities in thirteen cities worldwide, countering many myths about the Cold War era.

Stephen Wilson and Deborah Jaffé (eds), Memories of the Future: On Countervision, Peter Lang: Oxford 2017

What is a memory of the future? This book speculates on the connections between memory and future in a variety of fields, including counter-histories, women’s studies, science fiction, art and design, technology, philosophy and politics. This book reveals how these subjects regenerate at the intersections of vision, counter-cultural production and the former present.

Patrizia Violi, Landscapes of Memory: Trauma, Space, History, Peter Lang: Oxford 2017

What should we do with places that were theatres of mass suffering and atrocity? Should we keep them as they were, to remind us of the past, or transform them? This volume addresses these questions by discussing selected key trauma sites, analysed with an innovative semiotic methodology that sheds new light on the notions of trauma and memory.

Samuel Merrill, Networked Remembrance: Excavating Buried Memories in the Railways beneath London and Berlin, Peter Lang: Oxford 2018

Networked Remembrance is the first book to explore questions of urban memory in the underground railways of the contemporary city. Using London’s and Berlin’s underground railways as comparative case studies, this book reveals how social memories are spatially produced within the everyday and concealed places in these networks.

Clara Rachel Eybalin Casseus, Geopolitics of Memory and Transnational Citizenship: Thinking Local Development in a Global South, Peter Lang: Oxford 2018

This book offers new perspectives on transnational citizenship, memory and statehood. Drawing on case studies of Haitians and Jamaicans abroad, the book examines how citizens actively engage with their state of origin through narratives of remembrance. Memory is shown to play a key role in deconstructing citizenship and connecting beyond borders.

Pamela Krist, Memory and the Trevi Fountain: Flows of Political Power in Media Performance, Peter Lang: Oxford 2019

This book explores the Trevi Fountain through the prism of cultural memory to reveal the processes that make it so iconic and performative. Using a cross-disciplinary approach that includes imagery in art, literature, film, music and the e-Trevi of the internet, this volume looks at how memory travels between media.

Matteo Cassani Simonetti, Roberta Mira and Daniele Salerno (eds) The Heritage of a Transit Camp. Fossoli: History, Memory, Aesthetics, Peter Lang: Oxford 2021

Now maintained as a museum and memorial site, the former camp of Fossoli was a Nazi concentration and transit camp for political opponents, Jews and forced labourers. The essays in this volume analyse, from different disciplinary perspectives, the material and immaterial heritage that constitutes a rich and articulated memorial system today.

English abstract

This is the presentation of an editorial series where single researches on different subjects deal with the concept of Memory. Ranging from Architecture to Cognitive sciences, the aim of the project is to encourage the creation of a network of scholars that could lead Cultural studies off the beaten track and towards new interdisciplinary directions. 

Keywords | Memory; Heritage; Cultural Studies, Peter Lang.

Per citare questo articolo / To cite this article: K. Pizzi, “Cultural Memories”. A Presentation. A Series of the Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory, London, “La Rivista di Engramma” n. 191, aprile-maggio 2022, pp. 173-177 | PDF of the article