Religion and cultural memory: ten studies = Religion und kulturelles gedachtnis 9780804745222, 0804745226, 9780804745239, 0804745234

Table of contents :
Introduction : what is 'cultural memory'? --
Invisible religion and cultural memory --
Monotheism, memory, and trauma : reflections on Freud's book on Moses --
Five stages on the road to the canon : tradition and written culture in ancient Israel and early Judaism --
Remembering in order to belong : writing, memory, and identity --
Cultural texts suspended between writing and speech --
Text and ritual : the meaning of the media for the history of religion --
Officium memoriae : ritual as the medium of thought --
A life in quotation : Thomas Mann and the phenomenology of cultural memory --
Egypt in Western memory

Citation preview

Cultural Memory m

the Present Mieke Bal and Hent de Vries,Editors

RELIGION AND CULTURAL MEMORY Ten Studies

Jan Assmann Translatedby RodneyLivingstone

STANFO

R D UN IV ERSITY

STANFO

RD , CALIFORN

2006

PRESS IA

Stanford University Press Stanford , Ca liforni a English tran slation © 2006 by the Boa rd ofT rustees of th e Leland Scan ford Juni or University. All righ ts reserved.

Religionand Cultural Memory was originally publi shed in Ge rman in 2000 under th e titl e Religionund kulturellesGeddchmis, © Verlag C. H . Beck oHG , Miinchen 2000. Assistance for the translation was provid ed by Int er Nation es.

Assmann , Jan . [Religion und ku rurel le ~e iliiehtni s~English) Religion and cultural memory : ten studie s/ Jan Assman n ; translated by Rodn ey Livingstone. p.

cm . -

(Cultur al memory in the present )

Include s bibli ogra phic al references. ISBN0-8047-4522-6 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN0-8047-4523-4 (pbk . : alk. pap er) 1.

Memory-Religious

and cu ltur e.

aspects .

2.

Memory-Social

I. Livingston e, Rodn ey. II . Title.

aspects.

3. Religion

III . Series.

BL65.M43A87132005 306.6-

o c22 200 5024771

Original Printing 2006 Last figure below indicates year of this printing: 15 14

13 I2

II

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09

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Contents

Preface

lX

Introduction: What Is "Culcural Memory "? r. Invisible Religion and Cultural Memory 2.

31

Monotheism, M emory, and Trauma: Reflections on Freud 's Book on Moses

3. Five Stages on the Road to the Canon: Tradition and Written Culture in Ancient Israel and Early Judaism

63

4. Remembering in Order to Belong: Writing ,

Memory , and Identity 5. C ulcural Texts Suspended Between Writing and Speech

81 101

6. Text and Ritual: The Meaning of the Media for the Hi story of Religion 7. O./ficiumMemoriae: Ritual as th e Medium ofThought

122

139

8. A Life in Quot ation: Thomas Mann and the Ph enomenology of Cultural Memory 9. Egypt in Western Memory

Notes

155

178

I9I

Preface

"Being chat can be understood is langua ge": thi uccincc statement contains Han s-Georg Gadamer's formula for the "ontological turn in herm eneutics."' T he theory of culcural memory , which amounts co a kind of "ontological turn in tradition ," could be summ arized with th e words "Being char can be remember ed is cexr." Languag e is dialogu e, exchange of views, communication. Text, on the ocher hand, is co nstitut ed on the basis of prior communi cation . Ir always involves the past. Memory br idges rhe gap between chen and now. Th e me senger memorize s th e mes age that he is supposed to convey to the rec ipient; rhe old man remem bers what he was caugh t by his grand father and passes it n to his own g rand ·on , enri ched by his own experie nce. ln thi s way "text s" com e into being. Linguisci communicat io n takes p lace in che co urse of conve r ation ; rexes, however, ar ise in rhe "exten d ed co nt ext" of tradi tion .' T he need to recor d t:vent s is so great chat from a very early stage mankind has had recour e 1 all sorts of mn emoni cs and systems of not ation with which co fa ilirace ub sequ ent access( f hi need has given ri e to wr itin g, and writing has ext ·nded rhe fund of memory in leaps an d boun ds co the point where th e giganric a rchives of the "fields of memory" can no long er be surveyed. J I lenn ene ucics co ncentr ates on che role of und erstan ding by accessing the text of memorable ve nrs; rhe th eor y of cultur al memory , in contr ast, investigates the co ndition th at enable that text co be establi shed and ha nd·,,/itmd Rf'prese111 ation Elissa Marder, / Mrl li111r ': 7empornlDisordersin the Wakeof Modernity (Baudelni1·f'1111d Flrwbert) Reinhart Ko ·II· k, The Practice of ConceptualHistory:Timing History,Spacing Concept Nik.las Luhmann, T/1,,Reality of the Mass Media Hubert Damis h, A 'hildhoodMemory by Pierodel/,aFrancesca Hub ert Damis h, A 7heory of/Cloud!- Towarda Historyof Painting Jean-Lu c

ancy, The peculativeRemark: (One of Hegel'sbon mots)

Jean-Frarn;:ois Lyorard, SoundproofRoom: Malraux'sAnti-Aesthetics Jan Patocka, Plato and Europe Hubert Damisch, Skyline: The NarcissisticCity Isabel Hoving, In Praiseof New Travelers:Reading CaribbeanMigrant Women Writers Richard Rand , ed., Futures: Of JacquesDerrida

William Rasch , Niklas Luhmann'sModernity: The Paradoxes of Differentiation Jacqu es Derrida and Ann e Dufourm anrelle, Of Hospitality Jean -F rani;:ois Lyotard, The Confessionof Augustine Kaja Silverm an , WorldSpectators Samuel Weber, Institution and Interpretation:ExpandedEdition Jeffrey S. Librett , The Rhetoricof Cultural Dialogue:Jews and Germansin the

Epochof Emancipation Ulrich Baer, Remnants of Song: Traumaand the Experienceof Modernity in

CharlesBaudelaireand Paul Celan Samu el

. Whee ler III , Deconstruction as Analytic Philosophy

David S. Ferris, Silent Urns: Romanticism, Hellenism, Modernity Rodolph e Gasch e, Of Minimal Things: Studies on the Notion of Relation Sarah Wint er, Freudand the Institution of Psychoanalytic Knowledge Samuel W eber, The Legendof Freud:ExpandedEdition Ari s Fioreros, ed., The Solid Letter: Readingsof FriedrichHolder/in J . Hilli s Miller / Manuel Asensi, Black HolesI j. Hillis Miller; or, Boustrophedonic

Reading Mir ya m Sas, Fault Lines: CulturalMemory and JapaneseSurrealism Peter Schwenger, Fantasm and Fiction: On Textual Envisioning Didi er Maleuvre , Museum Memories: History,Technology, Art Jacqu es Derrid a, Monolingualismof the Other; or, The Prosthesisof Origin Andrew Baruch Wachtel , Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation: Literature and

Cultural Politics in Yugoslavia Nikla s Luhm ann, Love as Passion: The Codification of Intimacy Mi eke Bal, editor , The Practiceof Cultural Analysis: ExposingInterdisciplinary

Interpretation Jacques Derrid a and G ianni Yattimo , editor s, Religion Jennifer A. Jordan , Structuresof Memory: Understanding Urban Changein Berlin

and Beyond