L'avènement mondial de la mémoire The Global Rise of Remembrance

Abstract

In this article, Pierre Nora tracks the indications since the late 1970s of a resurgent and heightened awareness concerning the import of collective remembrance. Nora considers the unprecedented expansion of the functions of collective memory and media to the point of an explosion of societal memories across the world in response to the acceleration of history – an expansion which has brought about a "great coup" in the relationship between memory and history, such that the two concepts have become practically synonymous. The concept of identity has similarly witnessed a 'coup,' with its realm expanding beyond the individual, in an age of globalization of memory. Nora cautions against the task of memory becoming, in time, one of insulation and exclusion. For Nora, the work of memory is to establish of justice and to reinforce it in a democratic way.