Maurice Halbwachs
Maurice Halbwachs | |
---|---|
Born | 11 March 1877 Reims, France |
Died | 16 March 1945 (aged 68) |
Relatives | Jeanne Halbwachs (sister) |
Region | Western Europe |
School | Structuralism[citation needed] |
Main interests | Sociology, Philosophy, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Psychology |
Notable ideas | Collective memory |
Maurice Halbwachs (French:
Early life and education
Born in
He returned to France in 1905 and met
Career
Throughout
Personal life and death
He was married to Yvonne Basch, who introduced Halbwachs to her father, the president of the League for the Defense Human Rights and also influenced him to join the Jewish religion (he was born Catholic).[6] He had a son, Pierre Halbwachs, who influenced Deleuzian theory in the 1940s.
A longtime
In 1940, Halbwachs' brother in-law, Georges Basch committed suicide. His parents in-law Victor and Mme Basch aged 84 years old at the time were murdered by Germans.[5]
Part of his books were offered by his widow to the library of the Centre d'études sociologiques and are now held at the Human and Social Sciences Library Paris Descartes-CNRS.
In 1950, his work on collective memory was published posthumously by his daughter.[9]
Main ideas
Halbwachs' most important contribution to the field of sociology came in his book La Mémoire collective, 1950 ("The Collective Memory"), in which he advanced the thesis that a society can have a collective memory and that this memory is dependent upon the "cadre" or framework within which a group is situated in society. Thus, there is not only an individual memory but also a group memory that exists outside of and lives beyond the individual. An individual's understanding of the past is strongly linked to this group consciousness because every person can contribute a different memory or perspective to the collective group memory. Group memory is also different for every group that experiences a certain event, therefore "every group has its own collective memory and that collective memory differs from the collective memory of other groups.[10] This idea of memory being pursued proves people's expression of commemoration in our culture. Commemoration offers collective memory ties to society and its conceptions where physical monuments and rituals fix and affirm collectivity.[2]
Halbwachs Collective Memory includes two laws governing how this form of memory will evolve: a Law of Fragmentation, and a Law of Concentration.[11]
Halbwachs also wrote an important book on suicide, Les Causes du suicide, 1930 ("The Causes of Suicide"). In this book he followed the footsteps of his mentor Émile Durkheim (who was also a French Sociologist) expanding and elaborating upon the former's theories on suicide. Specifically, he focused on ideas such as, the ways in which rural and urban styles of life explain variations in suicide rates. Halbwachs also continued to further Durkheim's conceptualization of how specific family styles and religious backgrounds alter rates of suicide.[1]
Halbwachs included in his Les Cadres Sociaux de la Memoire (1952) the significance of the collective memory operating on the systems of family, religion and social communities.[2]
Halbwachs takes an interesting perspective regarding the relationship between memory and history. He believed that memory and history oppose each other when it comes to reliability. Memory can be transformed based on perspective, which makes it a questionable form of scholarly appreciation for the past. Whereas historians analyze history from a completely unbiased perspective, analyzing it in a critical way from a distance.[2]
Halbwachs contributed to the world of social psychology as well with his thesis on La Classe ouvrière et les niveaux de vie which translates to, "The Working Class and the Standards of Living".[5] This work allowed Halbwachs to analyze and observe how working-class families managed their budgets. He discovered that families and individuals not only plan out their budget for what they need in the moment but what they also need in the future, which forces them to put into perspective what is necessary in the moment. His research is a modification of Durkheim's theory of collective representation.[5]
Influence and legacy
Halbwachs showed how memory can not exist without society influencing the mind, embracing how collective consciousness impacts us each and every day. This taught us that social structure shapes the way we think an act on the world. He also establishes the difference between memory which is subjective and history is factual in its background.[12]
Inspirations
Halbwachs was influenced by ideas of Emile Durkheim, such as collective consciousness, with adding more to this term by individual and collective memory.
Halbwachs was also influenced by Henri Bergson's stance on subjectivity, which creates states how this impacts our consciousness and intuition.[13]
Published works
- Halbwachs, Maurice, On collective memory, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1992
- translated from: Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1952, originally published in Les Travaux de L'Année Sociologique, Paris, F. Alcan, 1925
- edited, translated and introduction by Lewis A. Coser, includes a translation of the conclusion of: La Topographie légendaire des évangiles en terre sainte: étude de mémoire collective, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1942
- Halbwachs, Maurice, The collective memory, New York, Harper & Row Colophon Books, 1980, 182 pages
- pdfs of chapters 1 and 2 available (pp. 22–49 and 50–87) on UCSB Collective Memory seminar website
- translated from: La mémoire collective, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1950
- Complete synthesis on all of his observations of memory
- Published after his death
- introduction by Mary Douglas, includes a translation of: ‘La mémoire collective chez les musiciens’, Revue philosophique, no. 3 – 4 (1939)
- Halbwachs, Maurice, La topographie légendaire des évangiles en Terre sainte, 1941
- Reprinted in 2017, can be found on Amazon (ISBN 978-2130788973)
- Studies how memory is changed over a period of time in a single-setting
- Complete synthesis on all of his observations of memory
- Published after his death
- Reprinted in 2017, can be found on Amazon (
- Halbwachs, Maurice, The Psychology of Social Class, London, Forgotten Books, 2017
- Reprinted Classic available on Amazon in both hard and paperback copies (ISBN 9-78028-290759-4)
- Reprinted Classic available on Amazon in both hard and paperback copies (
- Halbwachs, Maurice, Les causes du suicide, Paris, Presses Universitaries de France, 1930
Further reading
- Michel Verret, Lectures sociologiques: Bourdieu, Passeron, Hoggart, Halbwachs, Janet, Le Play, Girard, Naville, Paris, Harmattan, 2009 (ISBN 978-2-296-10391-7).
- Dietmar Wetzel, Maurice Halbwachs, Konstanz, UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, 2009 (ISBN 978-3-86764-106-7).
- Marie Jaisson and ISBN 978-2-7288-0387-3).
- Annette Becker, Maurice Halbwachs, un intellectuel en guerres mondiales 1914-1945, Paris. Agnès Viénot, 2003 (ISBN 2-914645-46-5).
- Gérard Namer, Halbwachs et la mémoire sociale, Paris, L’Harmattan, 2000 (ISBN 2-7384-9595-8).
- Marra, Realino (1988). "Halbwachs, la memoria collectiva e lo spazio giuridico (Halbwachs, la mémoire collective et l'espace juridique)". Sociologia del Diritto. 15 (1): 141–150. INIST 12017840.
- Russell, Nicolas (2006). "Collective Memory before and after Halbwachs". The French Review. 79 (4): 792–804. JSTOR 25480359.
- Hirsch, Thomas; Hamilton, Peter (2016). "A Posthumous Life: Maurice Halbwachs and French Sociology (1945–2015)". Revue française de sociologie. 57 (1): 48–71. JSTOR 26567186.
References
- ^ ISBN 0-226-11594-1.
- ^ JSTOR 23232416.
- ^ "Maurice Halbwachs | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
- ^ On Collective Memory.
- ^ S2CID 144272350.
- ^ "Halbwachs, Maurice (1877–1945) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
- ISBN 978-0618082322.
- ^ Jorge Semprun: Schreiben oder Leben (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1995), pp. 28 ff.
- ^ "Maurice Halbwachs - Buchenwald Memorial".
- JSTOR 25480359.
- ^ Errll, Astrid (2008). Cultural Memory Studies - An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook. Walter de Gruyter.
- JSTOR 25480359.
- ^ "Maurice Halbwachs - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics". www.sciencedirect.com. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
External links
- Timeline of Halbwachs's life Archived 2014-11-17 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
- https://www.cmh.ens.fr/ (Center created in Memory today)
- Biographical Video
- [1]