Series 1 - Key Figures in Memory Studies

 

Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945) 

He is a famous social scientist or sociologist. He died at the concentration camp at Buchenwald. He is influenced by Emile Durkheim. He interpreted social behaviour in terms of 'collective representations. Being a sociologist, he studied the wants and standard of living of workers. He realised that different collective representations characterised each social class. He is described as a man of rare attainment with a heart whose sensitivity rivalled its generosity' He is one social scientist who liked to keep himself informed by 'collecting and analysing the trends of public opinion. Maurice Halbwachs was permeated with a rare sense of social responsibility. He was imprisoned at a time when he was appointed the Chair of Social Psychology in the College dé France. He was also getting ready to do his research in that difficult field where Psychology and Sociology overlap. He was influenced by Henri Bergson. He was also inspired by Leibniz. He worked with Emile Durkheim. Halbwachs's thesis was titled 'The Working Class and the Standards of Living' His mind is described as a 'flexible one which was forever emancipated from a system'. His study of the industrial workers shows us that personal needs/ wants are in accordance with the theories of collective representation. Halbwachs differs from his teacher and improves upon him and is influenced by Marxist Sociology. Another notable work of Maurice Halbwach is the study on suicides which was published as 'The Cause of Suicide'. In this study, he proposed that Catholics have a lower suicide rate than Protestants. Another major study by Halbwachs is 'The Legendary Topography of the Gospels in the Holy Land'. This was part of the essay 'The Social Framework of Memory' Pilgrims wanted to find, locate, and perceive by their senses, the whole iconography of their cathedrals. Towards the end of his life. Halbwachs became increasingly absorbed in social morphology and demography. Halbwachs last work on Memory appeared posthumously in 1950 and was translated as 'The Collective Memory' Halbwachs’s interest in memory is due to his teacher, the philosopher Henri Bergson. Halbwachs made the relationship between memory and society his central program. In his book 'The Social Framework of Memory,' he argued against considering memory as an exclusively individual faculty. According to him, to remember 'means to be tied to a collective framework of social reference points that allow memories to be co-ordinated in time and space'. Halbwachs believed that memories are acquired through society, they are recalled, recognised, and located socially. Memory also orders the experience and ensures collectivities. Collective memories are not pure recollections but reconstructions. To remember one needs others, to remember is to understand a relation. The memorable events in the lives of groups to which the individual belongs to serve as a coherent system of reference points for recall. 

 Émile Durkheim - Life and Times 

Émile Durkheim was a famous French philosopher and Sociologist. He is known as the father of the French School of Sociology. He is known for his method of combining sociological theories and empirical research. He is the one who studied the concept of collective memory. The term is found in the book 'The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. In the book, Durkheim provided the foundation for connecting Sociology and Memory. Durkheim was interested in the social power of commemorative rites. The common emotions are evoked like this helped to reconstitute the social body. The sociology of memory traces its origin to Emile Durkheim and his student Maurice Halbwachs. The interest of the former is in the commemoration and the latter is fascinated about how the past is reconstituted in the present. Both these concepts are the main research areas in Memory Studies.