Collective Memory and Unremembering

Abstract

Maurice Halbwachs demonstrated that memory is shaped by social forces. I argue that collective memory is mediated in symbolic representations. National collective memory is unstable and open to revision and is a site for dispute between alternative representations. Changes in media lead to changes in collective memory. The trauma within collective memory is passed down through generations. I argue that collective memory is not a process of remembering and forgetting, but remembering and unremembering. Unremembering is a process of concealment. Literature is significant in shaping collective memory, but so too are film, memoir, public media like newspapers and television, as well as works of historical scholarship. I end this chapter with a factual summary of the Indonesian War of Independence.