Institute of Historical Research

The Generational Transmission of Memory and Identity through 'Family Heritage'

Anne-Marie Kramer

(University of Nottingham)

This paper will explore the generational transmission of memory and identity through a focus on the role of 'family heritage'. It will analyse what form remembrance practices take, map and problematize the relationship between the family and public archive/history in understanding and interpreting the legacy of the past, and begin to tease out some consequences of these acts of 'remembrance'. IT will therefore ask a number of related questions. First, what forms of 'value' accrue to family history and heritage? Second, what does performing 'remembrance' mean in this context, and what role are texts and material objects expected to play in 'remembering'? Third, who and what is remembered, to what ends, and with what effects? Fourth, what role does family history and heritage play in reproducing and/or challenging official histories, and how do such projects imagine the relationship between individual, family, community and 'nation'? Lastly, how are these practises of remembrance used to re/construct relationships and connectedness in the past/present/future, between and among the generations?

Public History seminar series