The weight of memory: memory frictions in contemporary literature, a review

Abstract

It is a review of Memory Frictions in Contemporary Literature, book edited by Ma Jesus Martinez-Alfaro and Silvia Pellicer-Ortin and published in 2017.Memory Frictions in Contemporary Literature is a valuable contribution to memory studies that calls for a transformation of trauma studies from those with a focus on Euro-American events to a different kind where the multicultural and diasporic nature of contemporary culture is considered. The volume is composed of fourteen chapters divided into 4 parts that, according to Robert Eaglestone, deal with the relationship between memory and politics, memory and trauma, and in a more subtle way, memory and ethics, following the postcolonial debate on memory studies (277).