As outlined by Erll and Nünning in, “Where Literature and Memory Meet: Towards a Systematic Approach to the Concepts of Memory in Literary Studies” in Literature, Literary History and Cultural Memory, the last area of intersection between cultural memory and literature on its face reads literature as a means of transmission, and hints at the already debunked notion of neutral carrier. We know that as a type of media, literature will leave its mark on the (re)construction and interpretation of cultural memory; so what does or could this look like? Should we take it passively and look at it in its strictly media functions? Is it, as Martin Sexl states in, “Literature as a Medium by which Human Experience can be Transmitted”
a means to convey the human experience?140 Maybe C.W.R.D Moseley’s argument that it is the shared memory of art and story coming together to form cultural and national identities?141 Do we, as Herbert Grabes insists, do ourselves a great disservice by seeing it just as a reading of the past?142Could the solution be a mix of any or all of these, or some other possibility? As a type of media, literature is already endowed with certain characteristics and when viewed structurally, similarities with memory emerge andperhaps this is the starting point in understanding how the two interact with regards to mnemonic objects, their encoding, and their use to create memory stories. Erll points to three areas where cultural memory and literature meet: condensation, narration, genre and it is here we may see how, through these intersections, literature as a medium actually serves cultural memory.
The production of mnemonic objects by way of condensation (also known as
convergence in media discussion) allows a wide swath of information regarding an event or experience to be distilled to composite signs and symbols that are then inculcated with meaning derived from their role in events.143 Similar to cultural memory, the signs and symbols are
140 Martin Sexl. “Literature as a Medium by which Human Experience can be Transmitted,” in Methods for the Study of Literature as Cultural Memory: Proceedings of the XVth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association ‘Literature as Cultural Memory, ed. Theo D’haen, (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000), 83-92.
141 C.W.R.D. Moseley. “Ancestral Voices,” in Literature and Cultural Memory, ed. Andreea Paris, Dragoş Manea and Mihaela Irimia, (Netherlands: Brill, 2017), 63-71.
142 Herbert Grabes. “The Value of Literature for Cultural Memory,” in Literature and Cultural Memory, ed. Andreea Paris, Dragoş Manea and Mihaela Irimia, (Netherlands: Brill, 2017), 31-49.
143 Erll, Kollektives Gedächtnis, 168.
selected because they are deemed to have relevance and will serve as identifying features of an event or experience. The resulting objects must then be combined in some way to form a narrative which is a process central to both memory and literature. “Cultural memory rests on narrative process. More precisely, every conscious remembering of relevant past events and experience, both individual and collective, goes along with strategies which are also foundational for the makeup of literary texts.”144 The central purpose of narration for cultural memory is temporal, it connects the past, present, and future, but this should not be read as an importation of a narrative formed in the past, rather it uses mnemonic objects that signify a past, reconstructs and interprets memory in the present to sustain memory and identity for the future.Memory is not a static collection of elements from the past, instead it is fluid because it is always being (re)constructed and interpreted in the present according to the needs of the group. Fluidity allows, theoretically, for varying (re)constructions of a memory because the group always has the ability to use or ignore mnemonic objects to construct a narrative. They also have the ability to create new mnemonic objects or exclude previously encoded signs and symbols which reinforces the sentiment that the group will always dictate the significance of not just a memory but also the objects that construct its narrative.
Genre, familiar in literature as a means to group works according to similarities in form, style, etcetera also shapes how cultural memory is configured. “Genres are conventionalized manners of encoding events, and genre conventions are themselves ever-present in memory.”145 Whether aware or not, when we summon a memory, particularly autobiographical memory, we do so by way of genre schemata where we format and arrange mnemonic objects (signs and symbols) into a narrative.Similar to media, genre schemata are not neutral, they are encoded and convey values, norms, worldviews, and otherwise reveal themselves in the way we craft memory stories.146 Genre itself is the object of cultural memory, derived from our socialization and enculturation so while it sets the framework for arranging memory, it does not exist without cultural memory. Given the similar fundamental structures to cultural memory, and knowing that as media it will leave a shadow of itself, how does literature serve cultural memory outside its
144Ibid.
145 Erll, Kollektives Gedächtnis, 169. Translated by Tanya Doss.
146 Erll, Kollektives Gedächtnis, 65. Translated by Tanya Doss.
role as external repository and vehicle of circulation?In analyzing selected works from Alfred Reitz and Gertrud Gross-Hering, I hope to draw closer to an answer that will elucidate what it means for literature to serve as a medium for cultural memory.
CHAPTER 5 Literary Analysis
In examining what literature does in serving as a medium for cultural memory, a case study involving six short stories from authors, Alfred Reitz and Gertrud Gross-Hering will be
examined. Close reading will be utilized so as to focus on multiple elements in the texts. Unless noted, all translations are by me.