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Palgrave Macmillan
Book cover

Lessons from the Past?

Memory, Narrativity and Subjectivity

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Bernhard Forchtner

    1. School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

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  • Only book which comprehensively reconstructs/conceptualises and theorises claims to know the lessons from past wrongdoing
  • Draws on modes of analysis and interpretation rarely used in the field of social memory studies
  • Contributes to developing a theory of collective learning processes

Part of the book series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies (PMMS)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Lessons from the Past? Introducing the Rhetorics of Learning

    • Bernhard Forchtner
    Pages 1-15

  3. On Plot Grammars and Modes of Emplotment

    • Bernhard Forchtner
    Pages 17-39

  4. The Rhetoric of Judging

    • Bernhard Forchtner
    Pages 41-76

  5. The Rhetoric of Failing

    • Bernhard Forchtner
    Pages 77-109

  6. The Rhetoric of Penitence

    • Bernhard Forchtner
    Pages 111-149

  7. The Rhetoric of Judge-Penitence

    • Bernhard Forchtner
    Pages 151-186

  8. Narrating Lessons and Collective Learning Processes

    • Bernhard Forchtner
    Pages 187-213

  9. Concluding Remarks

    • Bernhard Forchtner
    Pages 215-226

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 227-234
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Keywords

About this book

This book reconstructs how claims to know ‘the lessons’ from past wrongdoings are made useful in the present. These claims are powerful tools in contemporary debates over who we are, who we want to be and what we should do. Drawing on a wide range of spoken and written texts from Austria, Denmark, Germany and the United States, this book proposes an abstract framework through which such claims can be understood. It does so by conceptualising four rhetorics of learning and how each of them links memories of past wrongdoings to opposition to present and future wrongdoings. Drawing extensively on narrative theory, Lessons from the Past? reconstructs how links between past, present and future can be narrativised, thus helping to understand the subjectivities and feelings that these stories facilitate. The book closes by considering if and how such rhetorics might live up to their promise to know ‘the lessons’ and to enable learning, offering a revised theory of collective learning processes.

Reviews

“Lessons from the past? addresses questions that are urgently raised, yet rarely tackled explicitly, in the ever-expanding body of literature on collective memory. In the process, Forchtner provides a valuable conceptual apparatus not only for scholars of memory but also sociologists of culture, politics, and knowledge more generally.” (Christina Simko, European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, Vol. 5 (03), 2018)

“This book opens up new horizons in the sociological study of memory. It is not only a theoretical adventure, trying to push a critical approach to memory studies, going beyond Habermas, but also an empirical study full of insights into the workings and transformations of the collective memories we live with and the claims to know the lessons from the past which arise from them. It is required reading for everybody looking to make sense of the dynamics of everyday discourse and political discourse in present-day societies about their pasts.” (Klaus Eder, Humboldt-University of Berlin, Germany)

“It has almost become cliché to claim to have ‘learnt from history’ in commemorative rhetoric. But what does this mean? Which lessons are to be taken? And how do these lessons vary when referring to Our or Their past wrongdoing? In this erudite and provocative book, Forchtner outlines and analyses four rhetorics of learning – each of which, whilst presenting history as a teacher, are characterised by different narrative grammars. Lessons from the Past? is vital reading for anyone interested in Memory Studies and the politics of commemoration.” (John E. Richardson, Loughborough University, UK)

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom

    Bernhard Forchtner

About the author

Bernhard Forchtner is Lecturer at the School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, UK. He has published in the field of memory studies, environmental communication, the far right in Europe and at the interface of sociological theory and critical discourse studies.

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