Peripheral Memories : Public and Private Forms of Experiencing and Narrating the Past

After a period of intense work on national memory cultures, we are observing a growing interest in memory both as a social and an individual practice.

Memory studies tend to focus on a particular field of memory processes, namely those connected with war, persecution and expulsion.

In this sense, the memory - or rather the trauma - of the Holocaust is paradigmatic for the entire research field.

The Holocaust is furthermore increasingly understood as constitutive of a global memory community which transcends national memories and mediates universal values.

The present volume diverges from this perspective by dealing also with everyday subjects of memory.

This allows for a more complete view of the interdependencies between public and private memory and, more specifically, public and family memory.