New Discontent with Memorial Culture

In her book, German historian and theorist of cultural memory Aleida Assmann argues against those who doubt the value of memorial culture, which has become the dominant way of engaging with the past since the 1970s and 80s. The increasing "discontent" is provoked by the transformation of a traumatic past into an object of political and economic bargaining. The "Holocaust industry," fierce competition for victim status, and painful attachment to a sense of guilt are the most notable manifestations of how modern forms of cultural memory operate. Partially acknowledging the validity of her opponents' position, Aleida Assmann attempts to construct a memorial perspective in which the responsibility for crimes committed, the ethical readiness to share a sense of guilt, and legal frameworks that allow the voices of victims to be heard would turn engagement with the past into one of the important factors of a conscious movement toward the future.