ABSTRACT
Uncovering and understanding the emotions of the ancients through mostly literary and archaeological evidence is a complex task, but one that can deepen knowledge of historical consciousness and human experience. The study of emotions and emotional responses to personal and historical events can be approached from different methodological perspectives and interpretative lenses. All theoretical treatments of the memory of trauma hinge on one specific aspect: the fragmented and refracted reception of the past. Physical ruins or the image of the burning city are kept as the site of trauma, articulating memory through the implicit refusal of a temporal continuum, while simultaneously creating a spatial unity that transcends time. Ruins can enflame imagination, desire, and can be envisioned as restored in people’s mental maps. Marianne Hirsch has developed the concept of post-memory applicable to Holocaust studies, which can be highly illuminating for the study of literature and history.
