Anne Whitehall presents a history of the concept of 'memory' and its uses, encompassing both memory as activity and the nature of memory. She introduces the reader to key thinkers in the field, from Ancient Greece onwards.

The concept of 'memory' has given rise to some of the most exciting new directions in contemporary theory. In this much-needed guide to a burgeoning field of a study, Anne Whitehead:

• presents a history of the concept of 'memory' and its uses, encompassing both memory as activity and the nature of memory
• examines debates around the term in their historical and cultural contexts
• introduces the reader to key thinkers in the field, from ancient Greece to the present day
• traces the links between theorisations and literary representations of memory.
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Theories of Memory provides a comprehensive introduction to the rapidly expanding field of memory studies. It is a resource through which students will be able both to broaden their knowledge of contemporary theoretical perspectives and trace the development of ideas about memory from the classical period to the present. The Reader is organised into three parts: *Part I, Beginnings, is historical in scope. Its three sections, Classical and Early Modern Ideas of Memory; Enlightenment and Romantic Memory, and Memory and Late Modernity lay out the key psychological, rhetorical, and cultural...

This title was first published in 2000. Incorporating studies of Freudian and Marxist approaches to questions of history and memory, this timely collection illuminates how history is being refigured in contemporary literary, cultural and theoretical studies. The contributors to this volume invite the reader to attend to the forms - linguistic, visual, monumental - by which a connection with, or separation from, the past takes place. It is current thinking about memory's relationship to history, and the ongoing critical reassessment of historicism, that preoccupies this collection. The volume...