Research Files of Dr. John Neff
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
8-4-2009
Abstract
We are, all of us, people of memory. Our daily lives are shaped by our individual and collective past. What is new and novel is interpreted through a filter made up of previous experience and recollection. How we think about ourselves and our world today is inextricably linked to how we have thought about ourselves and our world. We are not imprisoned by our memory, but neither can we be completely free of its influence. It is always with us, helping us make sense of things: our feelings of progress or inertia, our sense of newness or familiarity, our connections to place and tradition, our longings and our hopes. Through memory we are insulated from the shock of the new, but also made brave enough to withstand each startling new day.
So dependent are we on our memory that it would not seem necessary to provide structure or guidance when memory is the subject of our research interests. Nevertheless, numerous scholars have crafted intellectual tools and frameworks that can be of great assistance as we grapple with what questions to ask and what some of the answers may help us see.
Although by no means exhaustive, the following list of scholarship seeks to outline the basics in the theoretical approaches to memory research. Almost all researchers into memory are indebted to either Maurice Halbwachs or Pierre Nora, or both, and so their works head the list. Additional works of importance follow, and are included either for their contributions to the theoretical aspects of memory or for the exemplary nature of their application and method.
Relational Format
report
Recommended Citation
Neff, John, "Resources: Theory" (2009). Research Files of Dr. John Neff. 8.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/neff_research/8
Accessibility Status
Searchable text
Comments
This work in progress originally appeared on the website of the Center for Civil War Research at the University of Mississippi. Additional detail is available in the "Memory Database" data set, posted separately.
Additional files include alternative formats.