Cultural Memory

Bringing together neuroscientists, social scientists, and humanities scholars in cross-disciplinary exploration of the topic of cultural memory, this collection moves from seminal discussions of the latest findings in neuroscience to variegated, specific case studies of social practices and artistic expressions. This volume highlights what can be gained from drawing on broad interdisciplinary contexts in pursuing scholarly projects involving cultural memory and associated topics.

The collection argues that contemporary evolutionary science, in conjunction with studies interconnecting cognition, affect, and emotion, as well as research on socially mediated memory, provides innovatively interdisciplinary contexts for viewing current work on how cultural and social environments influence gene expression and neural circuitry. Building on this foundation, Cultural Memory turns to the exploration of the psychological processes and social contexts through which cultural memory is shaped, circulated, revised, and contested. It investigates how various modes of cultural expression―architecture, cuisine, poetry, film, and fiction―reconfigure shared conceptualizing patterns and affectively mediated articulations of identity and value. Each chapter showcases research from a wide range of fields and presents diverse interdisciplinary contexts for future scholarship.

As cultural memory is a subject that invites interdisciplinary perspectives and is relevant to studying cultures around the world, of every era, this collection addresses an international readership comprising scholars from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, from advanced undergraduates to senior researchers.

Donald R. Wehrs is Hargis Professor of English Literature at Auburn University, Auburn, AL, as well as editor or co-editor of four collections, including The Palgrave Handbook of Affect Studies and Textual Criticism (2017), and author of three monographs on African fiction. He has also published on comparative literature, Shakespeare, and literary theory.

Suzanne Nalbantian is Professor of Comparative Literature at Long Island University and an interdisciplinary scholar. Her eight books include Memory in Literature: From Rousseau to Neuroscience (2003), and her edited volumes The Memory Process: Neuroscientific and Humanistic Perspectives (2011) and Secrets of Creativity: What Neuroscience, the Arts and Our Minds Reveal (2019).

Don M. Tucker is CEO and senior scientist at The Brain Electrophysiology Laboratory Company, and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Oregon. He has published Mind From Body: Experience from Neural Structure (2007), Cognition and Neural Development (2012, with Phan Luu), and Out of the Cave: A Natural Philosophy of Mind and Knowing (2021, with Mark Johnson).