Collective Remembering
Memory in the World and in the Mind

Isurin presents a case study of Russian collective memory as it is constructed by producers and consumed by people.

Ludmila Isurin (Author)

9781316627761, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 September 2019

330 pages, 2 b/w illus. 20 tables
23 x 15.3 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

'While work on autobiographical memory has primarily focused on the individual or the self, the current work approaches this topic from a collective perspective. This notion of a 'shared' autobiographical memory is novel and innovative, and indeed aptly harnesses the power of the collective mind in uncovering the construction of worldviews from collective memories.' Jeanette Altarriba, University of Albany, State University of New York

This interdisciplinary study explores collective memory as it is presented by official producers (such as textbooks and media) and reflected by consumers (group members). Focusing on a case study of Russians and Russian immigrants to the USA and their memories of seminal events in the twentieth-century Russian collective past, Isurin shows how autobiographical memory contributes to the formation of collective memory, and also examines how the memory of the shared past is reconstructed by those who stayed with the group and those who left. By bringing together historical, anthropological, and psychological approaches, Collective Remembering provides a new theoretical framework for memory studies that incorporates both content analysis of texts and empirical data from human participants, thus demonstrating that methodologies from the humanities and the social sciences can complement each other to create a better understanding of how memory works in the world and in the mind.

Introduction
Part I. Theoretical Background: 1. Collective memory
2. Autobiographical memory
3. Crossing the boundaries: collective memory, individual memory, and immigration
Part II. Russian Collective Past as a Case Study: 4. Study on Russian collective memory: methodology
5. Collective memory in the world: historical events reflected in the text
6. Russian wars, prominent figures and crises: the producers' side of the story
7. Collective memory in the mind: Russians' remembrance of the past
8. Role of individual memory in the construction of collective memories
Part III. Memory in the World and in the Mind: 8. The interplay of memory in the world and in the mind
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Memory [JMRM], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Psychology [JM]