Why Memory Matters: 'Remembered Histories' and the Politics of the Shared Past

· BWB Texts Book 104 · Bridget Williams Books
Ebook
155
Pages
Tools

About this ebook

'Behind the foreground narratives of justification, real or symbolic wounds are stored in the archives of cultural memory.'

From curriculum to commemoration to constitutional reform, our society is in the grip of memory, a politics and culture marked by waves of loss, grief, absence and victimhood. Why are certain aspects of the past remembered over others, and why does this matter? In response to this fraught question, historian Rowan Light offers a series of case studies about local debates about history in New Zealand. These provisional judgements of the past illuminate aspects of what it means to remember - and why it matters.

'Behind the foreground narratives of justification, real or symbolic wounds are stored in the archives of cultural memory.' From curriculum to commemoration to constitutional reform, our society is in the grip of memory, a politics and culture marked by waves of loss, grief, absence and victimhoo...

Discover more

About the author

Dr Rowan Light is an historian and curator at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and a Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, History, at the University of Auckland. He specialises in the public use of history, memory, and commemoration, specifically as it relates to war and violence. His writing on these subjects has been recognised with awards, including the Ken Inglis Postgraduate History Prize and the Keith Sinclair Memorial Scholarship.

Dr Rowan Light is an historian and curator at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and a Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, History, at the University of Auckland. He specialises in the public use of history, memory, and commemoration, specifically as it relates to war and violence. His writing on thes...

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.