Memorialisation

Asking how we cope with change and compensate for loss, both cognitively and culturally, ‘Memorialisation’ brings together leading scholars in museum studies and art history, literature and trauma studies, theology, psychiatry, neuroscience and cultural anthropology. In nine papers, this book traces the changing role of cultural vehicles for memorialisation and offers thought-provoking insights into biological, economic and political reasons for collecting and museum-building as well as into the practice of forensic archaeology pushed by sites of atrocity and genocide. Exploring discourses in trauma and (self-)life writing, this volume also ventures into new fields of research, such as digital mourning, and deals with practical examples of memorialisation from (auto-)biography, music, stage-design and sculpture to city-wide exhibitions. ‘Memorialisation’ addresses issues of topical concern (the role of memory in post-conflict states, the cultural and religious contexts for commemorating victims of history) and aims to make cultural theory and practice meet.