ABSTRACT
The Introduction rethinks the concept of ‘Remembering the Reformation’ in two ways. On the one hand, it discusses how the experiences of the tumultuous years of the Reformation are reflected in complex and often contradictory processes of memorialisation. On the other hand, it reassesses the surge of important interdisciplinary work in the last few decades on how societies remember, especially in relation to violent change and trauma. At the heart of this is a two-way process: how the Reformation transforms public and private experiences of memory; in turn, how the theory of memory affects the way that the events and people of the Reformation are interpreted and analysed. The Reformation is revealed as a complex ‘theatre of memory’, with examples taken both of the evaluation of key figures such as Martin Luther; and also from memory studies across a wide spectrum, including ancient and early modern theories of memory; Freud; Nietzsche; Pierre Nora; and Aleida Assmann.
