This handbook represents the interdisciplinary and international field of cultural memory
studies for the first time in one volume. Articles by renowned international scholars offer
readers a unique overview of the key concepts of cultural memory studies. The handbook not only
documents current research in an unprecedented way it also serves as a forum for bringing
together approaches from areas as varied as sociology political sciences history theology
literary studies media studies philosophy psychology and neurosciences. Cultural memory
studies - as defined in this handbook - came into being at the beginning of the 20th century
with the works of Maurice Halbwachs on mémoire collective. In the course of the last two
decades this area of research has witnessed a veritable boom in various countries and
disciplines. As a consequence the study of the relation of culture and memory has diversified
into a wide range of approaches. This handbook is based on a broad understanding of cultural
memory as the interplay of present and past in sociocultural contexts. It presents concepts for
the study of individual remembering in a social context group and family memory national
memory the various media of memory and finally the host of emerging transnational lieux de
mémoire such as 9 11. EM>such as 9 11.
