Is your memory gendered?

 

Memory and remembrance encompass a wide range of definitions

and concepts.'

 

Remembering is defined as the process of »bringing to the

surface« and constructing the past. Remembrance is the result of this process.

Memory is described as the structure of storage or the ability to store

these remembrances (Er11 2005: 7). The term memory culture is complex.

It refers to the contents and the forms of representation of memory as well

as to the social functions of memory.

Above all, the works

of Maurice Halbwachs (Halbwachs 1985) have been influential until today.

Halbwachs coined the term »collective memory« and emphasized the constructed

and socially determined character of individual memories.

According to Halbwachs an individual is always a member of several social

groups, e.g. a family, a party, or a nation. It is the combination of the

memories of these different collectives that constitutes the differences in

the memories of the individuals. This group-specific relation to the past is

central to the shaping of the identity of the individual.

 

As you walk about your city, let us take Paris and London as examples. In Paris there will be many statues to women

in London apart from Queen Victoria and Boedecea very few.  This fact genders memory. As does your memory of your

family as you recall it. In all probability it will be heavily influenced by a dominant make and a caring mother.  So family incidenets you recall are gendeer coloured by these family dynamics.

 

Remembering is a process. This leads to the co-existence of

many, hegemonic and marginal, cultures of memory.

The process of producing a common remembrance

that creates meaning mirrors social debates about the interpretation

of the past.  These debates, led by 'experts' are more often than not male led. The resulting mainstream interpetation

has a male basis.

 

Memoiyand gender are, however, multiply intertwined: gender is a product of cultural

remembrance, is called up by memory and social practices and is

constantly re-inscribed into the collective memory. Memories are, moreover,

gendered.

 

This not something one would do all the time but on occasions it is worth pausing to ask who remembers what, how, why and for whom (Penkwitt 2006: 1).