Glossary of Terms related to Memory Studies - Part 1

Post-Memory 

Marianne Hirsch coined the term post-memory. The term first appears in the essay 'Family Pictures: Maus, Mourning and Post Memory. Holocaust photographs carried by the survivors to America are the reference point. Marianne Hirsch quotes from Susan Sontag's book 'On Photography' and Roland Barthes book 'Camera Lucida' She proposes the term post-memory as a reflection on memory. Post memory can be (like memory) 'constructed', 'mediated' by 'narration' and 'imagination'. Marianne Hirsch says that photography is the medium connecting memory and post-memory. Post memory is about second-generation memory, particularly in the context of the Holocaust. It refers to the memory transmitted by forbearers to their descendants as narratives or images. It is all about the 'indirect remembrance of the past. 

References: 

 Hirsch, Marianne. “Family Pictures: Maus, Mourning, and Post-Memory.” Discourse, vol. 15, no. 2, 1992, pp. 3–29. 

 In: [Comparing Grief in French, British and Canadian Great War Fiction (1977-2014)](https://brill.com/view/title/36499)

 Author: [Piotr Sadkowski](https://brill.com/search?f_0=author&q_0=Piotr+Sadkowski)

What is counter-memory? 

It is a practice of memory formation that is both social and political. It is the one that runs counter to the official histories of governments, mainstream mass media and 'the society of the spectacle' (a critique of contemporary consumer culture and commodity fetishism, deals with issues like class alienation, cultural homogenisation and mass media. Guy Debord wrote a book with this title - The Society of Spectacle ) The term counter-memory is seen in association with the work of Michel Foucault. According to Foucault counter-memory is the process of remembering in a socio-political context. Counter-Memory is a form of praxis. It is a form of resistance against the official discourses of historical continuity of the so-called regimes of truth. It is exercised by those who are marginalised by power. Foucault's definition is closely related to counter-culture. Counter-memory represents a reversed perspective - a bottom-up. It serves as an act of democratisation and pluralisation and remembering. It is a political act and aims at influencing the existing power relations.