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the past in the present. While history is something left behind and analysed only with subsequence, memory lives on in the minds of individuals, groups and society as a whole. Still a relatively new area of study, history and memory has a long way to go in the pursuit of shared objectives. Until the aims and validity of both separate notions can be brought together, surely the relationship between history and memory will continue to be detrimentally one-sided. That, of course, is assuming that it is possible to reconcile the two in the first place. But In terms of gaining a true depth of understanding about the past, memory studies and oral history represent major milestones in the study of history. Where we were once often presented with a drab, lifeless, cut and dried portrait of the recent past, we now frequently find it enlivened by the personal memories of participants. They might serve to distort the past, but this distortion itself can often help us to understand an event or period in greater detail. There is a timely realisation that 40 straightforward history can only take our understanding so far.
Artwork by Elli Graham
Footnotes 1. Confino, Alon. ‘Collective Memory and Cultural History: Problems of Method’. American Historical Review. (December 1997): 1386-1403, p.1386 2. Fraser, R. (1979), Blood of Spain, London: Penguin, pp.31-322 3. Hodgkin, K and S. Radstone, eds. (2003), Contested Pasts: The Politics of Memory, London: Routledge, p.4 4. Ibid. 5. Caruth, C (1995) (ed.), Trauma: Explorations in Memory, John Hopkins University Press 6. Hodgkin, K and S. Radstone, eds. (2003), Contested Pasts: The Politics of Memory, London: Routledge, p. 7 7. Ibid., pp. 7-8 References Bal, M., J Crewe and L. Spitzer (eds., 1999), Acts of Memory, Cultural Recall in the Present, Hanover, NH and London: University Press of New England Boym, S (2002), The Future of Nostalgia, New York: Basic Books Caruth, C (1995) (ed.), Trauma: Explorations in Memory, John Hopkins University Press Confino, Alon. ‘Collective Memory and Cultural History: Problems of Method’. American Historical Review. (December 1997): 1386-1403 Fraser, R. (1979), Blood of Spain, London: Penguin Hodgkin, K and S. Radstone, eds. (2003), Contested Pasts: The Politics of Memory, London: Routledge Samuel, Raphael (1998), Theatres of Memory, vols. 1 and 2, London: Routledge Wertsch, J (2002), Voices of Collective Remembering, Cambridge: CUP