Family Memory

Radmila Švaříčková Slabáková is an Associate Professor of History at Palacký University Olomouc. She is the author of numerous publications on memory, oral history, gender and modern historiography.

Collective memory starts in the family. This rich and exciting collection provides deep insights into the dynamics of family memory across the globe. It is an indispensable companion for all those working in the field of transnational memory studies.Astrid Erll, Professor of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures, Goethe University Frankfurt, GermanyThis timely collection offers a rich history and a compelling argument for the study of family memory. It opens new and exciting paths for memory studies and beyond, and will become an instant touchstone for scholars across disciplines. The global take of this truly international volume is much-needed in a field that has often been national or euro-centric in focus. Ashley Barnwell, Senior Research Fellow in Sociology, University of Melbourne, AustraliaFamily is the most important memory community’, writes the editor of this wide-ranging collection. The essays in this volume exemplify, complicate, and challenge this claim. What kind of community is a family? What kind of inheritance is memory? How is it fashioned, passed on, re-remembered? How do collective memories mesh with or contradict other social and political narratives? And how does relating memories differ from storytelling? These are some of the questions which an impressive group of international scholars address in their rigorous and sensitive analyses of the concept of family memory and its uses in a research context. This is a fascinating collection which takes us into the very heart of the different ways in which we make and re-make our selves across time. It gave me much food for thought and inspiration for future projects. Alison Light, Senior Research Fellow in English and History, Pembroke College, Oxford, UK

• 1. Family Memory as a Prospective Field of Memory Studies: Past, Present, Future PART I: Private and Public Practices of Building Family Memory 2. Family Voices and the Practice of Memory: Five Generations of Women in Rome 3. The Buarque de Holanda: Family Memory and Political Engagement in the Public Space in Brazil 4. The Ntsimane Family Traditions and Rituals in Pre- and Post-1994 South Africa PART II: Intergenerational Transmission of Social and Political Values 5. Czech Family Stories of Communism: Family Memories at the Intersection of Family Values, Family Relations and National Memory 6. Family Memories for Communism in Bulgaria: Destiny and Resource 7. Family Memories of Second-Generation Republican Women Exiled to Mexico PART III: Family Memory of Violent Events and Genocide 8. "Facts, not Emotions": Changing Generational Needs and New Meanings of the Memory of the Armenian Genocide 9. Family Memories and the Development of the Genocide Ideology in Rwanda 10. Exile and Soviet Memoirs: Family Mansions in Aristocratic Family Memories after the Russian Revolution PART IV: Family Memory, Family Identity and Digital Media 11. Family Memories, Family Histories and the Identities of Settler Family Descendants in New Zealand 12. What do Family Memories Mean?: Navigating the Unfinished Archives after the Partition of India 13. "Got my Finn Tattoo!": Sharing Family Memories on Facebook