Storage memory

The term memory memory was coined by Jan Assmann and Aleida Assmann . It is based on the definition of cultural memory as social memory that arises not only in, but above all between people (see Maurice Halbwachs ). The image of the past is formed in the present.

The storage memory, unlike the functional memory, describes a pool of records that are not needed today, but which can be accessed. The storage memory is latent; its holdings have no direct reference to the present, they are autonomous and unstructured. The memory is thus anachronous. It describes, so to speak, the horizon of all knowledge, all accumulated texts, patterns of action, etc.

Nevertheless, the memory takes on important functions:

• It can be reevaluated by future generations (renaissance);
• it makes the functional memory more difficult to manipulate;
• and it can be corrective for functional memory.

literature

• Aleida and Jan Assmann: Yesterday in Today. Media and social memory. In: Klaus Merten et al. (Ed.): The Reality of the Media. An introduction to communication science. Opladen 1994.
• Aleida Assmann: memory spaces. Forms and transformations of cultural memory. Munich 1999.
• Aleida Assmann: How true are memories? In: Harald Welzer (Ed.): The social memory. History, memory, transmission. Hamburg 2001.