The hidden power of implicit collective memory

Abstract

Over the past decades, the field of memory studies has produced a wealth of research on explicit (conscious, commemorative, official) collective memory. But beyond this realm of the visible, there is a largely hidden world of ‘implicit collective memory’. Elements of this invisible world include narrative schemata, stereotypes, patterns of framing, or world models, which are usually not explicitly known or addressed, but get passed on from generation to generation – in order to shape perception and action in new situations. Implicit collective memory is pervasive and powerful. But it is difficult to trace. It is therefore time to join forces for its systematic study: Drawing on approaches from psychology, sociology, communication studies, anthropology, media culture studies, literary studies, and mnemohistory, this article proposes some building blocks for a future transdisciplinary field of research on implicit collective memory.

The Political Force of Memory: The Making and Unmaking of Brexit as an Event

“…The majority of Comparative Studies in Society and History these articles are of immediate relevance to the question of how memory arguments are being used in the political and public arena. While this search strategy privileges explicit representations of collective memory over implicit forms (Erll 2022), this method provides access to the latter in at least two ways: first, the transnational perspective gives rise to implicit framings-for instance, the common distinction in the UK between "British" and "European" history understood as "continental" history can spark controversy in discursive communities which consider the UK belonging to "European" history as a matter of fact. Second, the use of explicit key terms is often only an indication that the source is of relevance for the study, whereas the actual historical narrative that shapes the meaning of the event is articulated in greater forceand sometimes in more implicit ways-in other parts of the text.…”

“…Who mobilizes what kind of historical references to provide a meaningful temporal structure for making a political event in the present? The narration of previous experiences impacts perspectives on an emerging event, given the long afterlife of older events, which provide frames and patterns for new topics (Tamm 2015; Erll 2022: 11). Such narratives, by reflecting on embedded memories and social identities, shape what is politically feasible.…”

Themes for future research on memory, mind and media

“…The constant effort to find the narrative arc in media productions and to control the narrative in political discourse are just a couple of contemporary indicators of this, but ever since Aristotle explored these issues in Poetics, we have recognised that humans are storytelling animals. This is a claim that is constantly recycled in ever-changing media environments, which often focus on the explicit uses of narrative, but we argue that narratives can also have deeply embedded implicit influences (Erll 2022).…”

“…This applies nowhere more clearly than in the case of narratives. These are shared cultural tools provided by the sociocultural contexta sort of off-the-shelf-technology used by members of a group, and these tools can shape what we say and think to such a degree that they can be said to co-author our utterances (Erll 2022;Wertsch 2021). At the same time, narratives do not make us say or do anything.…”

“…This reflects a bidirectional, topdown, as well as bottom-up system of knowledge production. The latter takes the form of implicit collective memory as discussed by Erll (2022), and in combination with the cultural, institutional, and political forces behind textbooks, can make national memory very resistant to change. This is consistent with the widespread recognition that propaganda is most effective when it accords with existing belief systems.…”