Dilemas of Postmemory

Interview with Marianne Hirsch

Resumen

Marianne Hirsch is William Peterfield Trent Professor Emerita of English and Comparative Literature the Institute for on the Study if Sexuality and Gender at Columbia University. Hirsch was born in Romania in 1949, she immigrated to the United States in 1962 and studied at Brown University. She combines feminist theory and memory studies, particularly the transmission of memories of violence across generations. She is a leading scholar in her field and best known for coining the term postmemory in 1990, when writing about Art Spiegelman. Recent events have brought to attention a discussion of the concept of postmemory. Marianne Hirsch (2024), in her essay on Holocaust memory after the events of October 7, 2023 explores the complexities of postmemory. She emphasizes that while descendants of survivors deeply identify with the experiences of their ancestors, this connection is vicarious, mediated by imagination and cultural artifacts rather than direct memory. Hirsch cautions against the uncritical reenactment of inherited trauma, which can lead to a fixation on victimhood that obscures the broader contexts of historical and ongoing injustices, such as the plight of Palestinians. She advocates for a relational approach to memory that fosters solidarity and justice, acknowledging shared vulnerabilities across groups and challenging cycles of defensiveness and exclusionary narratives. The interview was organized by the two interviewers and conducted in person by Fernando Gomes Garcia in October 2024 in New York City.