Memory, Individual and Collective

This article considers the relevance of individual and collective memory in political analysis. It proposes that there are four formats of memory and these are individual memory, social memory, political memory, and cultural memory. It argues for the existence of collective memory and explains that human beings do not only live in the first person singular, but also in various formats of the first person plural. It contends that each ‘we’ is constructed through specific discourses that mark certain boundary lines and define respective principles of inclusion and exclusion and suggests that to acknowledge the concept of collective memory is to acknowledge the concept of some collective identity.