Remembering the Past, Coloring a Life-Time

Everybody has to face the past, their own personal past, and the collective and historical past. In this course we will explore the different ways all of us deal with the past and the memories it evokes. Bringing together individual and historical approaches, and drawing on the narratives and reflections of course participants, we will look at literature, cinema, and a variety of researches from the field of anthropology and the social sciences. We will try to understand how family memory and memories of romantic love work. Both of these types of memories inspire a great deal of literature, TV, and film. Together we will look at the rituals and symbolic values of these memories in individual’s private life. We will also work on the uses of collective memory and commemoration in contemporary societies, and particularly in France today. Prior to the course I invite you to reflect on this statement: Memory is the present of the past. Do you agree?

Required text:
- Anne MUXEL, Individu et mémoire familiale : ISBN : 978-2-01-279318-7