by collective contexts.'13 The memories that we have are often shaped by interac
tions with people and media that surround us. The memory of how participants
experienced Forum and how they felt that others were experiencing this event
is thus important towards gaining a better understanding of this social context.
Forum's image in the media, such as newspapers, pictures and video, is also im
portant to consider. These external factors like a conversation, a book or a place
provide us with a schematic framework with which we recall and shape new ex
periences and memories. They make us remember in a socio-cultural context.
The 'collective' aspect of cultural memory refers to the metaphysical order: the
media, institutions and practices by which social groups construct a shared past.
Memory then becomes a metaphor, since societies do not actively or literally 're
member. Rather, they selectively reconstruct a shared past which is adapted to
the present knowledge and needs of the people.14 The role of institutions and
social practices in providing individuals with a framework for their memory will
be particularly applicable to the study of Forum.
Media and memory
The importance of institutions and media is further developed in an idea of Astrid
Erll, who explains that there is no such thing as pre-cultural individual memory,
nor 'a collective or cultural memory which is detached from individuals and em
bodied only in media and institutions.'15 Erll adds to the cultural memory theory
that it is 'the sum total of all the processes (biological, medial, social), which are
involved in the interplay of past and present within sociocultural contexts.'16 In
addition, she accentuates the role of media in this interplay by stating that: 'what
ever we know about the world, we know through media and in dependence on
media. The images of the past which circulate in memory culture are thus not ex
trinsic to media.'17 Different media, like religious texts, historical painting, histo
riography, TV documentaries, monuments and commemorative rituals, all have
their specific way of remembering and will leave their trace on the memory that
is created. The key question that Erll is interested in, is why some media are more
powerful at creating and moulding collective memories and images of the past
Eva Langerak
223
13 Erll, Cultural Memory Studies, 5.
14 Erll, Cultural Memory Studies, 5.
15 Erll, Cultural Memory Studies, 5.
16 Astrid Erll, Memory in Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011,100.
17 Erll, Memory in Culture, 114.
