ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a critical assessment of “memory” as a concept of historical research. It challenges notions of “cultural memory” and its significance for a history of experience. Most significant for social historians, however, are the limits of knowing individual memories which are accessible only through narratives. Narrative material represents a small selection of what individuals can and do remember, according to their own – albeit socially constructed – system of relevance. The article argues that historians should accept subjective narratives as their main evidence and develop a more sophisticated method of listening and reading, by making use of an interdisciplinary approach.
