Articulations temporelles de la mémoire et de l’histoire : une interprétation de la mémoire collective à partir de l’œuvre de Reinhart Koselleck // [Temporal articulations of memory and history: an interpretation of collective memory starting from the work of Reinhart Koselleck]

In his work as an historian Reinhart Koselleck continually rejected the concept of collective memory. Memory, as he often stated, belongs to individuals and not to collectivities. This study, while recognizing the originary status of personal memory and the fact that groups as such do not remember, no more than they have an autonomous, substantial existence, attempts to interpret the nebulous concept of collective memory that Koselleck so firmly criticized. Through close examination of the grounds of Koselleck’s critique of this concept, and of the theory of historical time he elaborated, I aim to delineate, through interpretation of the symbol and of the public scope of symbolic interaction, the specific domain in which collective memory comes to expression.