ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I provide a critical overview of the core currents in memory studies’ ‘third phase’ (Erll 2011a). I show how the movement of memory products (narratives, discourses and performances) through time, from one societal context to another, has been the field’s main interest. I overview three key works of memory studies’ third phase that have quickly become canonical over the last two decades (Rothberg 2009; Erll and Rigney 2009; Bond and Rapson 2014) and outline what the main epistemological and ethical assumptions are that link those works. I then introduce some of the critiques of the field for not being concerned enough with individuals. I argue with Gensburger (2016), Confino (2008), Kansteiner (2010) and Lebow (2006) that it can be helpful to rethink our epistemologies of the past as epistemologies of the collectively remembering human subject, to bring Menschen back to the center of our thinking about collective memory and develop a synchronic, interactional approach.
