'Christina Kraenzle and Maria Mayr’s edited volume, The Changing Place of Europe in Global Memory Cultures, is a needed contribution to the growing literature on Europeanization of memories, focusing especially on the “imaginative arts.” This book is at the cutting edge of theoretical and empirical research in memory studies, taking concepts like “multi-directional” and “travelling” memory seriously and problematizing notions of globalization, cosmopolitanization, and transnationalism. The contributions represent a wide range of disciplinary sensibilities, regions within Europe (Catalonia, Germany, Romania, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland), and beyond (Canada, China), and texts (museums, memorials, film, novels).' – Eric Langenbacher, Georgetown University, USA This book investigates the transnational dimensions of European cultural memory and how it contributes to the construction of new non-, supra, and post-national, but also national, memory narratives. The volume considers how these narratives circulate not only within Europe, but also through global interactions with other locations. The Changing Place of Europe in Global Memory Cultures responds to recent academic calls to break with methodological nationalism in memory studies. Taking European memory as a case study, the book offers new empirical and theoretical insights into the transnational dimensions of cultural memory, without losing sight of the continued relevance of the nation. The articles critically examine the ways in which various individuals, organizations, institutions, and works of art are mobilizing future-oriented memories of Europe to construct new memory narratives. Taking into account the heterogeneity and transnational locations of commemorative groups, the multidirectionality of acts of remembrance, and a variety of commemorative media such as museums, film, photography, and literature, the volume not only investigates how memory discourses circulate within Europe, but also how they are being transferred, translated, or transformed through global interactions beyond the European continent. . |