Towards the Fourth Phase of Memory Studies: Critical Memory Studies

Starting from Aristotle’s classification which identified three strata of memory, «mnēmē», «anamnesis» and «hypomnesis», my work will analyse the three phases of memory studies, from collective memory (first phase, theorized by Maurice Halbwachs), lieux de mémoire and cultural memory (the second phase, represented by Pierre Nora and Jan Assmann) as well as the numerous paradigms referring to the way in which memory is transmitted from one generation to another (the third phase of memory studies). These paradigms were established by different specialists from various fields (literary studies, history, sociology, psychology, philosophy and psychoanalysis). They enriched memory studies at the end of the 20th century and in the first two decades of the 21st century, but they also brought the discipline into a crisis characterised by fragmentarity and methodological heterogeneity. In the final part of this chapter, starting from a recent interview of Andreas Huyssen (2018) and the volume «Critical Memory Studies» edited by Brett Ashley Kaplan in 2023, I will elaborate on the present stage of what represents critical memory studies (the fourth phase of memory studies), with references to the contemporary age, posthumanism, the ecological crisis and the notions of post-witness era and post-testimonial era. Several case studies will be presented to demonstrate that memory nowadays can be transmitted not only through human agents and not only through life writing. I will focus on other types of narratives: ways in which objects in museums ensure the transfer of memory, and in which witnesses become digital or virtual witnesses.