Remembering the Socialist Past - Bad request! - University of Exeter

society in each epoch, whose “cultivation” serves to stabilize and convey that
society’s self-image.’ 30 Aleida Assmann has studied the specific nature of texts
which play a role in cultural remembrance, categorising them as ‘kulturelle Texte’
(cultural texts). 31 In terms of literature (the term can also apply to visual and oral
media), these are canonical texts which have a special status within a given
culture. This status is indicated by the ‘reverence, repeated study, [and] solemnity’
which characterizes the way such texts are read and received. 32 These ‘cultural
texts’ are considered objects of remembrance in themselves as well as being the
means by which common values and identity are shared and passed on within a
cultural, religious or national community; the Bible and Shakespeare’s plays are
typical examples. 33 Jan and Aleida Assmann’s approach to cultural memory, based
primarily on the study of ancient societies (in Jan Assmann’s work) and on
canonical literature (in Aleida Assmann’s work), cannot be directly and
comprehensively applied to my own research. Their concept of cultural memory,
which, as Rigney explains, ‘is arguably always vicarious in the sense that it involves
memories of other people’s lives that have been mediated by texts and images’
may raise doubts about applying such theories to cultural representations of an era
which is still very much in living memory, as many readers will have first-hand
memories of the period. 34 Moreover, the texts studied for this thesis could not be
considered ‘cultural texts’ as Aleida Assmann defines them. Erll has, however,
proposed a broader approach to the study of cultural/collective memory and
literature advocating the consideration of textual mediation of memories still within
the realm of communicative memory as well as the study of popular, non-canonical
texts. Her methodology (along with concepts explored by Nünning, Neumann and
30
Jan Assmann, ‘Collective Memory and Cultural Identity’, trans. by John Czaplicka, New
German Critique, 65 (1995), 125–33 (p. 132).
31
Aleida Assmann, ‘Was sind kulturelle Texte’, in Literatur Kanon – Medienereignis –
kultureller Text. Formen interkultureller Kommunikation und Übersetzung, ed. by Andreas
Poltermann (Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1995), pp. 232–244.
32
A. Assmann, ‘Was sind kulturelle Texte’, p. 242, cited in English translation in Erll, Memory
in Culture, p. 162.
33
Erll, Memory in Culture, pp. 162–63 (with reference to A. Assmann, ‘Was sind kulturelle
Texte’).
34 Rigney, ‘Portable Monuments’, p. 367.
38