Cultural Memory Studies and the Idea of Literature: A Cosmopolitan Critique

Abstract

This essay examines the implications of a turn to cosmopolitanism in humanities and social sciences for cultural memory studies. The essentialistculturalist assumptions of cultural memory studies regarding identity and belonging are criticized from a cosmopolitan perspective. Contrasting the provincialism and parochialism of cultural memory studies with a universalist orientation in cosmopolitanism is expected to bring to light some of the possible ways in which an interdisciplinary dialogue can be established between the two.

Keywords

• cultural memory studies
• cosmopolitanism
• world literature