Collapse of Memory – Memory of Collapse

Narrating Past, Presence and Future about Periods of Crisis

Contributions by Uta Bretschneider Contributions by Elizabeth Oxfeldt Contributions by Philipp Wagner Contributions by Florian Peters Contributions by Marielle Wijermars Contributions by Valur Ingimundarson Contributions by Gunnþórunn Guðmundsdóttir Contributions by Franziska Sajdak Edited by Volha Olga Sasunkevich Edited by Joachim Schiedermair Edited by Barbara Törnquist-Plewa Edited by Alexander Drost

Book cover: Collapse of Memory – Memory of Collapse

Extent: 404 pages

Publisher: Böhlau Verlag Köln

Subjects: Cultural Studies

Language: English

Paperback (Forthcoming)

(April 2019)

ISBN: 9783412225377

6.1 x 9.06 inches

Price: $49.00

In stock

The attraction of crises keeps going an entire sector of the media industry. Authors, painters, photographers and directors tell fascinating stories about the decline of empires and democracies as much as earthquakes and infectious diseases. Hereby, catastrophe and collapse evolve as a complex construct of experience, interpretation and emotion. The resulting narrative combines analyses of facts about the collapse with a retrospect evaluation, update and confirmation of these facts in the cultural memory of a given society. The random occurrence becomes a memorable event.


The attraction of crises keeps going an entire sector of the media industry. Authors, painters, photographers and directors tell fascinating stories about the decline of empires and democracies as much as earthquakes and infectious diseases. Hereby, catastrophe and collapse evolve as a complex construct of experience, interpretation and emotion. The resulting narrative combines analyses of facts about the collapse with a retrospect evaluation, update and confirmation of these facts in the cultural memory of a given society. The random occurrence becomes a memorable event. The contributors of this volume have taken a narratological approach in examining collapse, disaster, catastrophe and how these in turn manifest themselves across different types of media.

  • Contributions by Uta Bretschneider
  • Contributions by Elizabeth Oxfeldt
  • Contributions by Philipp Wagner
  • Contributions by Florian Peters
  • Contributions by Marielle Wijermars
  • Contributions by Valur Ingimundarson
  • Contributions by Gunnþórunn Guðmundsdóttir
  • Contributions by Franziska Sajdak
  • Edited by Volha Olga Sasunkevich
  • Edited by Joachim Schiedermair
  • Edited by Barbara Törnquist-Plewa
  • Edited by Alexander Drost