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On Collective Memory
1992 book From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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On Collective Memory is a book by French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, edited, translated and introduced by Lewis A. Coser and first published in English in 1992 by the University of Chicago Press in its "Heritage of Sociology" series.[1][2] The volume brings together substantial parts of Halbwachs's earlier French works Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire (The Social Frameworks of Memory, 1925) and La topographie légendaire des évangiles en Terre Sainte (The Legendary Topography of the Gospels in the Holy Land, 1941), providing one of the first comprehensive English-language presentations of his theory of collective memory.[1][3][4]
In On Collective Memory Halbwachs develops the argument that individual recollection is always organised within social frameworks, so that memories are reconstructed in the present through group norms, values and practices rather than preserved as fixed records of the past.[2][5][6] Since its publication the book has become a standard English-language reference on collective memory and has been widely cited in sociology, history and cultural studies.[4][6][7]
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Background and publication
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Halbwachs developed the concept of collective memory in a series of works written between the 1920s and the early 1940s, in dialogue with Émile Durkheim and other figures of the French sociological tradition.[4] His 1925 book Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire analysed how different social groups provide frameworks that structure what their members remember, while La topographie légendaire des évangiles en Terre Sainte examined the spatial organisation of Christian tradition in the Holy Land.[5][6] Most of these writings remained unavailable in English for decades, limiting their impact outside French-speaking scholarship.[4]
An earlier English selection of Halbwachs's work on memory, edited by Mary Douglas and published in 1980 as The Collective Memory, went out of print relatively quickly.[4] In 1992 Lewis A. Coser, a sociologist known for his work on social conflict and the history of sociology, prepared On Collective Memory for the University of Chicago Press.[1][2] The book forms part of the press's "Heritage of Sociology" series, which reissues classic sociological texts with new editorial apparatus.[2] Coser's volume includes an extended introductory essay on Halbwachs's life and intellectual context, a translation of most of Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire under the heading "The Social Frameworks of Memory", and a translation of the concluding chapter of La topographie légendaire des évangiles en Terre Sainte as "The Legendary Topography of the Gospels in the Holy Land".[2][3][4]
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The Social Frameworks of Memory
The first part of the book, "The Social Frameworks of Memory", presents Coser's translation of Halbwachs's 1925 study Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire.[2] It is preceded by a preface and divided into eight chapters that explore how social groups shape the content and structure of individual recollections.[2]
In the opening chapters Halbwachs contrasts dreams with waking memories, arguing that dreams lack the stabilising influence of social frameworks and therefore do not possess the coherence of ordinary recollection.[5][6] He then examines the role of language in memory, claiming that the use of shared linguistic categories allows individuals to situate their personal experiences within the common understandings of a group.[5][6]
Subsequent chapters analyse how people reconstruct the past in light of the present, emphasising that memories are continually reinterpreted as social conditions change.[5][2] Halbwachs discusses the localisation of memories in specific places, exploring how environments such as neighbourhoods or cities function as material supports for collective remembrance.[5][6] He then considers different "collective memories" associated with families, religious communities and social classes, arguing that each group sustains its own traditions and perspectives on the past.[5][2] The concluding chapter draws these strands together to advance the thesis that individual memory is always embedded in social relations and cannot be understood outside them.[5][6]
The Legendary Topography of the Gospels in the Holy Land
The second part of On Collective Memory consists of the concluding chapter of Halbwachs's study La topographie légendaire des évangiles en Terre Sainte, translated under the title "The Legendary Topography of the Gospels in the Holy Land".[2][1] Here Halbwachs applies his theory of collective memory to the case of Christian pilgrimage and biblical geography.[5][6]
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References
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