“Erinnerungsr(?)ume”:Research On Aleida Assmann’s Cultural Memory Theory

Aleida Assmann is one of the representatives in German cultural memory theory.Compared with previous memory studies,Aleida’s innovation is that she can break away from the bounds of historical time and turn to the spatial perspective of cultural memory.“Erinnerungsr(?)ume” is a key word for Aleida to connect culture,memory,media and many other elements.This theory pays more attention to the structure,formal,media relations,communication rules and functional power of cultural memory.This thesis is devoted to exploring the possibility and feasibility of Aleida’s “Erinnerungsr(?)ume” theory as a literary and artistic research method,and looking for a new perspective for evaluating literary and artistic topics.In the history of memory thought,we found that cultural memory brings various factors together such as individual consciousness,social interaction and cultural changes on memory.It is the inheritance and development of memory research in the fields of individual psychology,social psychology and cultural studies.Cultural memory is the internal logic and inevitable trend of memory study.Cultural memory use the symbolic media to replace the ecological media of human memory.But the goal of cultural memory is not only the storage but also the construction of cultural memory.“Erinnerungsr(?)ume” can be regarded as a storage space and construction of memory culture.“Erinnerungsr(?)ume” is displayed with the double image of uninhabited “storage memory” and manned “functional memory”.Functional memory provides direction and power for storage memory,while storage memory supports and corrects functional memory.As a result,the theory was built and matured.Under the discourse of “Erinnerungsr(?)ume”,the interpretation of literature and art breaks through the previous research and gives rise to different critical interpretation methods.The text can be regarded as a symbolic form of memory and circulation,so as to encode and store the memory.The writing of memory expands the concept of text,and make it pays more attention to the meaning of construction and identification in collective culture.The writing of memory is not a clear description.It is more like a metaphorical and powerful expression.In addition,writing means absence.The integrity of history should be found in the “traces” of the remaining memory.As a matter of fact,writing of cultural memories can be self-improved and updated.In the different area in art and literary,the thoughts of the “Erinnerungsr(?)ume” have been practically criticized and practiced.In a word,Aleida’s “Erinnerungsr(?)ume” theoretical discourse is practical significant and value-added.The main body of space activates some informations from the past and constructs a symbolic memory to the future.Cultural memory uses symbolic media to preserve memories in specific spaces,and create the eternal value by continuous meaning.With the memories,meanings about life existence,identity,cultural inheritance will be continuously experienced and generated.There is a saying that “everything is deconstructed in postmodern moment”.I believe that the construction and production of cultural memory will become more and more prominent.In the being,reflection,and reconstruction of memories,the “Erinnerungsr(?)ume” is constantly revised and improved.The cultural memory really completes the historical leap from “past to future” and “tradition to innovation”.