Description

This volume brings together twenty original essays by scholars from the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany. It focuses on the centrality of memory and commemoration to the formation, affirmation, and revision of American histories and identities over the course of more than two centuries. Individual studies engage theoretical issues and perspectives of American memory studies (Michael Kammen, Aleida Assmann), discuss literary texts that position themselves at the intersection of personal and cultural memories and countermemories (Klaus Benesch, Joseph C. Schopp, Francois Pitavy, Ulfried Reichardt, Nicolas Witschi, Renate von Bardeleben), interpret theatrical performances and civic festivities as enactments of individual and collective remembering (Kurt Muller, Winfried Herget, Heike Bungert, Udo J. Hebel), explore the potential of films, folk songs, and public buildings as commemorative media and memorial spaces (Winfried Fluck, James Olney, John Seelye, William Boelhower), and address the political and cultural implications of literary anthologies, national archives, and virtual libraries (Werner Sollors, Caroline Sloat, Christopher Mulvey, Hanjo Berressem). The collection offers a seminal contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship on sites of memory in American literatures und cultures.