What are

Communities of
Memory?
MEMORY STUDIES
Who wants whom to
remember what, why,
and how?
History (claims just the facts) vs.
Memory (claims the emotional,
subjective, cultural, and
conflicting accounts of the past)
Is memory ALWAYS social (e.g.
collective memory)? Is there such
thing as individual memory (e.g.
autobiographical memory)?
 1. Collective memory is processual: it
constantly forms, clashes, changes, shifts, is
forgotten, and is performed.
2. Collective memory is
unpredictable: the ways we
remember events changes
unpredictably and often
irrationally (what sticks
with us?, appropriation, &
today’s glory is tomorrow’s
shame).
3. Collective memory
is partial: no single
memory contains all
we know about the
remembered.
4. Collective memory is
useable: we use memory to
do things (connecting to
people/community, ideas,
arguments; selling
products; arguing about
laws (think zoning);
praising and blaming).
5. Collective
memory is both
particular and
universal: we
remember
individually in
groups.
6. Collective
memory is
material: we
remember through
things and places.
Key Ideas on Collective Memory
Keywords: authenticity, persuasion, hegemony, commemoration, tradition, ritual, god memories,
inequity, forgetting, trauma, time, space, technology

1. Collective memory is processual: it constantly forms, clashes, changes, shifts, is

forgotten, and is performed.
2. Collective memory is unpredictable: the ways we remember events changes
unpredictably and often irrationally (what sticks with us?, appropriation, &
today’s glory is tomorrow’s shame).
3. Collective memory is partial: no single memory contains all we know about the
remembered.
4. Collective memory is useable: we use memory to do things (connecting to
people/community, ideas, arguments; selling products; arguing about laws
(think zoning); praising and blaming).
5. Collective memory is both particular and universal: we remember individually in
groups.
6. Collective memory is material: we remember through things and places.
From Barbie Zelizer’s “Reading the Past Against the Grain”
What is a community
of memory? How do we
analyze one?
Afro-Futurism

• Who wants whom to remember what,

why, and how?
• What do we need to know to study Afro-
futurists as a community of memory?
• What does this piece teach us about the
nature of collective memory?
• What memory work is being done here?
• Is afro-futurism a nostalgic culture? An off-
modern one? A neostalgic one?
• Sankofa bird (Akan people of Ghana):
“Go back and get it,” “it is not taboo to
fetch what is at risk of being left behind.”
• Counter memory à Counter futurism
Cottagecore
• Who wants whom to remember
what, why, and how?
• What does this piece teach us
about the nature of collective
memory?
• What memory work is being
done here?
• Is cottage core a nostalgic
culture? What does it rhetorically
seek to do?
• What does it mean for Black
creators to participate in a
culture of memory that
historically excluded/abused
them? What does this tell us
about the nature of memory?
Activity

WHAT COMMUNITIES ARE YOU INTERESTED IN?