ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how we develop, throughout our lives, specific relations to history and may thereby become critical or challenge the dominant narratives in a given sociocultural context. To do so, a series of interviews with intellectuals and artists in Belgium who are interested in history is analysed, where the life-trajectory of the participants is reconstructed. Two such “trajectories of remembering” are presented in this chapter and illustrate not only the important role history can have in people’s lives, but the circumstances under which they may develop unique understandings of collective memory. In particular, this chapter shows that encounters with alternative representations of history – such as the narratives that may be told in other countries – or with new sources of information – such as a book or an engaging professor – can profoundly transform how we understand the past.
