¶ … Wang, Q., & Brockmeier, J. (2002). Autobiographical remembering and cultural practice:
Understanding the interplay between memory, self and culture. Culture and Memory, 8(1), 45-64.
Autobiographical memory is a critical component of how an individual defines his or her sense of self in Western culture: the stories we remember and tell ourselves define how we see ourselves as human beings. According to Wang & Brockmeier (2002), not all cultures conceive of memory in such a personal and individualistic fashion: when asked to recollect a memory from childhood, Chinese undergraduates were more inclined to talk about collective experiences (Wang & Brockmeier 2002: 49). A more dependent and less individualistic concept of the self within a culture conspires to create different memories. Memories are not absolute and static, even highly personal ones; they are culturally contextual. Chinese residents even have later recollected memories than their American counterparts. "Personal remembering in these cultures evokes and preserves an important social orientation that serves to engage individuals in ongoing relationships and further reinforces the idea of one's self as an interdependent entity" (Wang & Brockmeier 2002: 52). Memory is not only an intensely subjective process: it also reveals as much about culture as the self.
The U.S.-Chinese...
Parents shape the trajectory of their children's recollections. Chinese parents are more apt to shape their children's memories with directive questioning than to permit the children to embellish their recollections and thus "American children frequently provide more event information than do their Chinese peers during family memory-sharing" (Wang & Brockmeier 2002: 56). Once again, this underlines how autobiographical memory is not a cross-cultural construct but something which is shaped by specific, culturally bound forces and which impacts the child's sense of his or her autonomy vs. his or her place in a larger society. For American children, individuality and a unique personal perspective is affirmed in a way it is not in more collectively oriented cultures.
Memory article review:
Fernyhough, C. (2012). The Martha Tapes (chapter 101). Pieces of Light, Kondon, UK: Harper.
"The Martha Tapes" chronicle the times Fernyhough (2012) interviewed his Jewish Lithuanian-born grandmother to gain a better sense of her history and past. Martha suffered persecution as a young woman under the shadow of Nazism, raised many children and grandchildren, and eventually settled into a comfortable life in England. Fernyhough notes that while Martha was often asked to recall the…
