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Collective memory of historical events can be transmitted across generations not only through cultural memory but also through communicative memory; that is, transmitted by people who have lived through these particular times. Yet, few studies have examined the temporal horizon of a particular type of communicative memory: family historical memories. In this article, we examine the intergenerational transmission of memories from the Second World War in families with an ancestor who resisted during the German Occupation. We interviewed 20 French‐speaking Belgian families over three generations. During these individual interviews, participants narrated an anecdote about their ancestor and the Resistance. Then, for the middle and youngest generations, we provided a short cue related to the story chosen by the oldest generation and enquired whether they could tell us the story in their own words. Memory transmission was analysed through two processes: retelling and recalling. Our main result revealed that there was a loss of details across generations, but not complete oblivion. We also found some instances of family myth transmitted across all generations. This study provides evidence that family historical memories fade away after a generation or two, even when these memories describe historical events deemed important for family and society.
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Do public speeches induce “collective” forgetting? The Belgian King’s 2012 summer speech as a case study
Although social scientists have examined how political speeches may help forge and/or shape collective memories, they have done so with little to no input from psychologists. We address this deficit, demonstrating how a modified version of a well-established and empirically derived psychological phenomenon—socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting—helps explain the mnemonic consequences associated with political speeches, in this case, the Belgian King’s 2012 summer speech. To this end, we analyzed the responses of 43 French speakers and 49 Dutch speakers. Of these individuals, 35 attended to the speech (16 French speakers; 19 Dutch speakers). Our results suggest that the Belgian King’s speech induced French-speaking Belgians who attended the speech to recall less information related to what the King mentioned in the speech. We found no such deficit for Dutch-speaking Belgians. Rather, the Dutch-speaking Belgians exhibited a trend toward greater recall of related and unrelated information when attending relative to not attending to the speach. These results bolster the importance of including a psychological approach in the study of collective memories and the moderating role of social identity.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1827182
- PAR ID:
- 10547879
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Memory Studies
- Volume:
- 15
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 1750-6980
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 713-730
- Size(s):
- p. 713-730
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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