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Transcript
Social Theory: Collective Memory Bin Xu Assistant Professor of Sociology and Asian Studies Florida International University Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945) • Influenced by Henri Bergson and Emile Durkheim Halbwachs: Social Frameworks of Memory • “…it is in society that people normally acquire their memories. It is also in society that they recall, recognize, and localize their memories.” (p.38) • Compared to Durkheim’s idea about suicide and sociological theory in general • Different types of social frameworks: family, religion, social classes, etc. Marcel Proust’s madeleine • Read the passages from Remembrance of Things Past. • Is Proust’s memory triggered by madeleine a remembrance within social frameworks? • Why? • Do you have similar experience? More about Proust and madeleine (for fun) • How much did Proust know about madeleines? • The term “involuntary memory” coined by Proust might be an inaccurate description of the memory process in the passages. Reconstruction of the Past • “…the past is not preserved but is reconstructed on the basis of the present” (p.40). Reconstruction of the Past • Case: Nostalgia • Why are the old days always good? • Why do old people tend to be more nostalgic? Social Classes and Collective Memory • Memory at the core of the nobility’s identity • The rising bourgeoisie and its clash with the nobility • Invention of the new nobility Social Classes and Collective Memory: Major Arguments • Collective memory and class identity • Collective memory as symbolic capital • Technical and cultural aspects of modern bureaucracy