Maurice Halbwachs and Social Memory Studies in Poland and Bohemia: on Two Translations and their Contexts

Abstract

In the fall of 2010 Prague Sociologické nakladatelství (SLON) published the Czech translation of Maurice Halbwachs’s book La mémoire collective [2010]. The French sociologist is considered the founder of social memory studies, popular research field of contemporary humanities, including sociology, cultural anthropology, cultural studies and history. Halbwachs is cited in almost every sociological publication on that subject, so little wonder that increasing interest in social memory roused interest in his works, including publication of translations. They appeared surprisingly late, as the first English translation of any of his studies on memory was published only in 1980 [Halbwachs 1980]. This paper is an attempt to put in a context and to asses the role played by the translation of Halbwachs’s book Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire, which appeared as early as in 1969 [Halbwachs 1969], in the development of Polish sociological research on social memory, as well as the possible impact of the recent Slon’s edition on Czech sociology.