Shadows of Trauma: Memory and the Politics of Postwar Identity
Assmann, Aleida. Shadows of Trauma: Memory and the Politics of Postwar Identity. Translated by Sarah Clift. New York: Fordham University Press, 2016.
This book examines the transformation of the past from an individual experience to a communal construction, applying specific attention to instances where personal memories conflict with collective commemoration. Assmann reviews controversial debates around memory culture that have emerged following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the gradual creation of a German memory of the Holocaust.