Memory and Culture

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 1999

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss memory. At the start of the twentieth century Freud put memory at the centre of our psychology, and as the century has worn on what a nation remembers and what it should try to forget has become one of the binding political questions that modern societies face. As every second passes, humanity has a moment more to remember, and perhaps this fact alone goes a long way to explaining the ever changing role of memory, both in the mind of individuals and at the heart of the body politic. Memory, what to remember and when to forget, has personal and national implications. Whether we look to Chile, South Africa, Germany or Northern Ireland, these are all societies where the issue of memory is at the centre of the dilemmas and challenges they face. And in the mind of the individual too - as ever more forms of information crowd for space in our minds, and the image from someone else’s photograph can be more enduring than our own first hand experience of an event, can memory itself forever remain unchanged in its role within our psychology? Have our ways of remembering changed? Not in the sense neuro-biologists would explore the subject, but in its cultural and collective, as well as its individual, sense. “Memory is decidedly in fashion” writes Dr Nancy Wood, “whether attention is focused on the so-called return of repressed memories of the abused individual, or on the black holes in a nation’s recollection of its past. The topic of memory has become a compelling preoccupation”. With Professor Malcolm Bowie, Marshall Foch Professor of French Literature at Oxford University and Director of Oxford’s European Humanities Research Centre; Dr Nancy Wood, Chair of Media Studies, University of Sussex and author of Vectors of Memory.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next BBC.co.uk.
0:49.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:52.0	Hello, as every second passes, humanity has a moment more to remember,
0:56.0	and perhaps this fact alone goes some way to explaining the ever-changing role of memory
1:01.0	both in the mind of individuals and the individuals and at the heart of the body
1:04.0	politic. Memory has personal and national implications. Whether we look to
1:08.8	Chile, South Africa, Germany or Northern Ireland, these are all societies where the issue of memory is at the
1:14.0	centre of the dilemmas and challenges they face. And for the individual too, as ever
1:18.6	more forms of information crowd for space at our minds and the image from someone else's photograph can be more
1:24.2	enduring than our own firsthand experience of an event can memory itself forever
1:28.6	remain unchanged in its role within our psychology.
1:32.8	Malcolm Bowie is Marshall Fauch Professor of French Literature at Oxford University
1:36.3	and also the Director of Oxford European Humanities Research Centre.
1:39.7	He's a scholar of Proust, Freud and Lacan, and his most recent book is Proust Among the Stars.
1:45.9	Dr Nancy Wood is head of media studies at the University of Sussex, where her research is chiefly
1:50.5	in the areas of popular history and memory. She is the author of
1:53.7	vectors of memory which is to be published in September this year. Markenbauer at the
	...

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