Introduction: Memory and the Future: Why a Change of Focus is Necessary

Abstract

For those who study memory, there is a nagging concern that memory studies is inherently backward-looking, and that memory itself — and the ways in which it is deployed, invoked and utilized — can potentially hinder efforts to move forward. It is the purpose of this book to challenge these assumptions by looking at how the study and practice of memory are ultimately about and for the present and future. This Janus-faced view of memory as looking to the past in order to shape the present and future is the basis for the increasingly relevant and pressing concerns and scholarship about the relationship of individual and collective memory to democratic politics; human rights and transitional justice; revenge, imposture and forgery; social movements and utopian moments; and historical facts and scientific technologies.