Memory Boxes an Experimental Approach to Cultural Transfer in History, 1500-2000

The metrics and poetics of historical drama

“…Lately many scholars have shifted emphasis from the definition of mnemonic locations to the questions of transfer: how exactly are collectively shared understandings, interpretations and experiences of the past (memories) transmitted diachronically? To answer this question, Rogge and Salmi () adjust Aleida Assmann's and Bernd Roeck's concept of memory as a box. As Rogge and Salmi define it, memory boxes ( Erinnerungsschachteln ) encapsulate memories, or material references to memory, for later, potential activation.…”

“…Such a metaphorical container needs to be perceived and opened in order to be conceived as a chest of memories from the past. It can be a means for cultural transfer not only between borders in a social and geographical sense but also for temporal shifts from the past to the present and from the present to the future (Rogge & Salmi, , 16–17). The metaphor I like to think with—story space—is very close to Rogge and Salmi's memory vessel, but its ‘spaciousness’ makes it easier to imagine a series of nested mnemonic circles.…”