Towards an economy of memory: Defining material conditions of remembrance

Abstract

The following proposes a reframing of approaches to Memory Studies from a materialist perspective. Memory Studies emerged simultaneously with the decline of materialist theories and political economy in historical and cultural studies. Despite attempts to generate alternative genealogies and methodological updates, materialism and political economy have been omitted from the study of memory. Several possibilities to define frameworks for future work on memory will be explored here. First, working on memory as part of a mode of production; second, understanding memory as a field that organises internal hierarchies; and third, defining memory as an ideology that ensures the reproduction of the mode of production. This theoretical proposal is supported by fieldwork and experience in the study of memory practices and policies related to the Spanish Civil War and Francisco Franco’s Dictatorship.