KL: Astrid Erll: New Directions and Challenges in Cultural Memory Studies: Past, Present, Future

This lecture discusses how cultural memory is studied today in different disciplinary, national and regional contexts – and how it might, or should, be studied tomorrow. After a quick look back at the evolution and main crossroads of the field in the past three decades, I will try to recapitulate some of the most important developments of memory studies in recent years. I am quite aware, however, of the sheer impossibility of constructing one single ‘state of the art’ of memory studies. Instead, I will show some of the more interesting ‘states’ that this highly diverse, international and interdisciplinary field has reached. Finally, I will zoom in on some examples (taken mainly from literary, media, and transcultural memory studies), and ask where the preoccupation with cultural memory may lead us in the future. 

Prof. Dr. Astrid Erll (Professor of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main)