Culture Memory:From Trauma To Identity

Cultural memory is a concept proposed by the German historian Jan Assman,referring to reusable texts,images,festivals,ceremonies,buildings,museums in every society that can be used to stabilize and communicate collective images.The paper attempts to explore the form of culture memory and the relationship between cultural memory,trauma and identity,including the ways in which trauma is incorporated into cultural memories,how cultural memories are constructed and unified and the interaction between trauma and identity.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,there are four chapters in this paper.The first chapter mainly discusses the scope and connotation of cultural memory.At the same time,it analyzes memorial ceremonies,literary classics,old objects and museums how to record,preserve and reproduce cultural memory.The second chapter discusses the relationship between trauma and cultural memory,including the relationship between the emergence and disintegration of trauma and memory,how the trauma is expressed in physical and literary ways,how the construction,transmission and cure of cultural trauma are possible.Although the trauma caused great harm to the body,it has also deepened the memory,so it’s a lasting physical memory.Personal traumatic experience can be interpreted within the framework of collective,which can become cultural trauma when it enters the level of identity and affects collective identity.The third chapter deals with the relationship between cultural memory and identity,involving memory how to maintain and renew the consistency of identity and how to participate in the construction of national identity.Cultural memory has dual functions,it can not only build identity,promote national formation,but also divide different groups and strata within the community.Cultural memory is an important source of shaping national identity.The construction of national culture involves the re-selection,arrangement and re-interpretation of texts,values,symbols and rituals.The fourth chapter discusses the impact of trauma on identity.This chapter focuses on the Holocaust and examines its hindrance to postwar German identity and the promotion of Jewish identity.The shame and guilt of post-war Germans have greatly hindered and destroyed their original identity.The Jewish identity was precisely based on trauma.The Holocaust promoted the awakening of Jewish national consciousness and unified their collective identity.