Beyond Memory

Beyond Memory: Silence and the Aesthetics of Remembrance analyses the intricate connections between silence acts of remembrance and acts of forgetting and relates the topic of silence to the international research field of Cultural Memory Studies. It engages with the most recent work in the field by viewing silence as a remedy to the traditionally binary approach to our understanding of remembering and forgetting. The international team of contributors examine case studies from colonialism war politics and slavery from across the globe as well as drawing examples from literature philosophy and sites of memory to draw three main conclusions. Firstly that the relationship between remembering and forgetting is relational rather than âhermeticâ and the space between the two is often occupied by silence. Secondly silence is a force in itself capable of stimulating more or less remembrance. Finally that silence is a necessary and key element in the interaction between the human mind and the âouter worldâ and enables people to challenge their understanding of art music literature history and memory. With an introduction by the editors discussing Memory Studies and concluding remarks by Astrid Erll this collection demonstrates that acceptance and consideration of silence as having both a performative and aesthetic dimension is an essential component of history and memory studies. . Language: English