Michel Margue

Peripheral memories. Public and private forms of experiencing and narrating the past

Elisabeth Boesen, Fabienne Lentz, Michel Margue, Denis Scuto, and Renée Wagener’s laudable contribution to memory studies should mark a turning point in how we work through memory by introducing a new conceptual apparatus: that of peripheral memory, which is connected to a particular sense of ‘memories on the move’ (Boesen, 7). Peripheral Memories: Public and Private Forms of Experiencing and Narrating the Past, aims to develop new, exciting conceptual and theoretical adages, in addition to particular, local, and regional objects of inquiry. Altogether, the contributions consider memory as all at once an intertwining of individual and collective processes and actions, all at once a pressing matter of translation “between intrapsychic, cognitive processes on the one hand and public, cultural processes on the other” (11). The contributing authors elucidate local, regional, and peripheral memory accounts through a variety of interview-based studies of subjects whose lifeworlds are founded in memory objects, processes, places, and spaces. Each contribution makes its own set of rich theoretical insights that should give rise to a more general conversation about ‘memories on the move’ in a post-social world. The collection’s most admirable quality is its methodological innovation, which spans new empirical domains such as familial memory, intergenerational communication, autobiography, historical ethnography, and written testimony. Such a methodological variety, Boesen notes, is:

Medieval Myths and the Building of National Identity: the Example of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

The celebrations of the one-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Luxembourg’s independence in 1989 took place in the context of several landmark moments for the European integration process: the Single European Act came into effect in 1987, the project of monetary union had just been accepted, and the Schengen agreement was under discussion. European integration was evolving, but it was counterbalanced by a heightened sensitivity for expressions of national identity, such as celebrations of the national past. That same year France celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the Fall of the Bastille, and Germany commemorated the fortieth anniversary of its Basic Law. Luxembourg answered by extolling its independence. The celebrations in 1989 were sponsored and financed by the government, including a major exhibition called ‘From State to Nationhood, 1839–1989. 150 Years of Independence’ [De l’Etat a la Nation, 1839–1989. 150 ans d’independance], designed by a committee of historians under the direct supervision of a commission of the state ministry. Although the exhibition was intended to focus on the previous 150 years of local history, considerable space was allocated to the medieval period.