Collective memory as a metaphor: The case of speeches by Israeli prime ministers 2001–2009

Abstract

This paper presents a critical reading of the metaphor “collective memory”, coined by the French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs in the 1920s. The main argument is that collective memory scholars have lost awareness of the concept’s metaphoric character and have come to perceive the concept as expressing a concrete reality. In the research context, automatic adoption of collective memory as a concrete entity rather than a metaphor has shaped a “fixed” or “static” picture of historical events. In the political context, ignoring collective memory as a metaphor prevents our seeing the manipulative uses of collective memory to create the illusion of an ostensibly consolidated and unified “collective,” adhering to a coherent repertoire of memories.

The corpus includes all the speeches delivered by two Israeli prime ministers, Ariel Sharon (in office 2001–2005) and Ehud Olmert (in office 2006–2009). The methodology was inspired by Charteris-Black’s critical metaphor analysis, an approach incorporating Critical Discourse Analysis and corpus linguistics. The analysis also used the Cultural Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CCDA).