Memory Spaces and Cultures of Remembrance – Reflections on the Career of “Memory Studies” in the History of Medicine

Abstract

Since the end of the 1990s, “Memory Studies” have become an important approach in cultural history, asking questions about who remembers the past how and why. Aleida and Jan Assmann distinguish between social memory as a more oral form of memory and cultural memory characterized by rituals and recording the past. Pierre Nora coined the concept of memory spaces (“lieux de mémoire”), defined as a place of attachment for shared memory. Medical specialty societies can be understood as memory spaces, because they structure how their members and, in part, the public, remember. The authors offer an overview of the literature on memory studies, describe its application in the history of medicine, and provide an outline of the following articles in this issue.