Wow! eBook
Cultural Memory and Identity
Author(s): Martin Bommas (Author, Editor)
- Publisher: Continuum Publishing Corporation
- Publication Date: 1 Oct. 2011
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 192 pages
- ISBN-10: 1441120505
- ISBN-13: 9781441120502
Book Description
How did ancient societies remember and commemorate the past? And how was cultural identity, both individual and collective, formed and articulated? In recent years memory has become a central concept in historical studies, following the definition of the term ‘Cultural Memory’ by the Egyptologist Jan Assmann in 1994. Thinking about memory, as both an individual and a social phenomenon, has led to a new way of conceptualizing history and has drawn historians into debate with scholars in other disciplines such as literary studies, cultural theory and philosophy. The aim of this volume is to explore memory and identity in ancient societies. ‘We are what we remember’ is the striking thesis of the Nobel laureate Eric R Kandel, and this holds equally true for ancient societies as modern ones. How did the societies of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome remember and commemorate the past? And, how were relationships to the past, both individual and collective, articulated? Exploring the balance between memory as survival and memory as reconstruction, and between memory and historically recorded fact, this volume unearths the way ancient societies formed their cultural identity. Spanning Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome “The Cultural Memory and History in Antiquity” series contributes to our understanding of how ancient societies remembered and commemorated the past. Memory has become a central concept in Historical Studies in recent years but this is the first series to focus specifically on the ancient world. Broadly interdisciplinary, these series will be relevant for scholars working in Ancient History, Classics, Historical Studies, Literary Studies and Cultural Theory.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Martin Bommas is senior lecturer in Egyptology at the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham, UK. He was a research associate of Professor Jan Assmann at the University of Heidelberg until 2000, and has published five monographs on ancient Egyptian rituals, religious texts, and memory. Elena Theodorakopoulos is a lecturer in Classics at the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham, UK. She researches in Latin literature and classical reception studies.
