Handbook

This course will introduce students to the key concepts from the booming field of memory studies that allow us to explain why debates about the past can be so heated – what is at stake in these discussions? What enables, and indeed compels, us to “remember” conflicts that we did not experience personally? What are the ethical limits of such memorialisation? How do memories change across time? And what is “forgotten” in this process? In pursuit of answers to these and many other questions, we will pair our theoretical readings with a range of materials that memorialise some of the key moments of the 20th and 21st centuries, for example: the First World War; the Holocaust; the Cold War; and the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Materials studied may include novels, memoirs, anthologies of soldiers’ writings, documentaries, feature films and websites.