Sociology of collective memory

Content

Objective

The aim of this course is to examine the formation, transmission, and reconstruction of social memory from a sociological perspective. It explores the relationship between practices of archiving, documentation, collecting, and display and the power relations underlying them. Museums and literary works are approached as sites of social memory. Through Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence, the course investigates Istanbul’s urban memory in relation to time, space, objects, everyday life, gender, and subjectivity. It aims to critically examine the relationship between individual and collective memory through a deconstructive approach.

Course Content

The course introduces key concepts in the sociology of social memory, focusing on national memory, counter-memory, and individual memory. Archiving, documentation, collecting, and display practices are examined in relation to power, subjectivity, and narrative. Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence, both as a novel and a physical museum, serves as a case study for exploring Istanbul’s urban memory and social transformations from 1975 to the early 2000s. The course addresses experiences of time and space, the relationship between objects and memory, everyday life, gender, class distinctions, East-West dichotomies, and subjectivity. It also examines how literature, museology, photography, and documentary cinema record, represent, and reconstruct social memory. Discussions are based on theoretical readings, selected chapters from the novel, and the documentary The Innocence of Memories (2015).

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

Explain the fundamental concepts and theoretical approaches in the sociology of social memory.

Analyse the relationships among national memory, counter-memory, and individual memory.

Evaluate archiving, documentation, collecting, and display practices in relation to power structures.

Interpret museums and literary works as sites where social memory is produced and transmitted.

Analyse Istanbul’s urban memory through The Museum of Innocence in relation to time, space, and objects.

Discuss everyday life, gender, class, and subjectivity from the perspective of social memory.

Compare how literature, museology, photography, and documentary cinema represent and reconstruct memory.

Critically evaluate social memory through a deconstructive approach.

Teaching and Learning Methods

Lectures and theoretical discussions

Instructor presentations and conceptual analysis

Critical reading and analysis of literary and theoretical texts

Case study on the relationship between literature and museology

Documentary film screening and discussion

Student-centred classroom discussions

Film review assignment

Midterm and final examinations

References

Primary Readings

Pamuk, O. (2009). The Museum of Innocence. Translated by Maureen Freely. Faber and Faber.

Pamuk, O. (2006). Istanbul: Memories and the City. Translated by Maureen Freely. Vintage Books.

Pamuk, O. (2012). The Innocence of Objects. Translated by Maureen Freely. Abrams.

Pamuk, O. (2010). The Naive and Sentimental Novelist. Translated by Nazlı Eray. Harvard University Press.

Pamuk, O. (2018). The Innocence of Memories. Translated by Ekin Okalp. Faber and Faber.

Theoretical Readings

Benjamin, W. (2006). “Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting.” In H. Arendt (Ed.), Illuminations. Schocken Books.

Berger, J. (1972). Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books.

Derrida, J. (1996). Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. Translated by Eric Prenowitz. University of Chicago Press.

Foucault, M. (1972). “The Statement and the Archive.” In The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language. Translated by A. M. Sheridan Smith. Pantheon Books.

Huyssen, A. (1995). Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia. Routledge.

Huyssen, A. (2003). Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory. Stanford University Press.

Kandiyoti, D. (1988). “Bargaining with Patriarchy.” Gender & Society, 2(3), 274–290.

Lefebvre, H. (2004). Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. Translated by Stuart Elden and Gerald Moore. Continuum.

Ocak, E. (2014). “New Media Documentary: Playing with Documentary Film within the Database Logic and Culture.” In A Digital Janus: Looking Forward, Looking Back (pp. 255–262). Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Özbek, M. (1997). “Arabesk Culture: A Case of Modernization and Popular Identity.” In S. Bozdoğan & R. Kasaba (Eds.), Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey (pp. 211–232). University of Washington Press.

Sellie, A., Goldstein, J., Fair, M., Hoyer, J., & Lapin, A. (2015). “Interference Archive: A Free Space for Social Movement Culture.” Archival Science, 15, 453–472.

Documentary Film

Gee, G. (Director). (2015). The Innocence of Memories [Documentary film].

Assessment System

Relation of Proficiency