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

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. Maurice Halbwachs (1877–1945) was a member of the second generation of the Durkheimian sociological school. He studied philosophy with Bergson before he met Durkheim and turned to sociology. Halbwachs published on various subjects, and some of his writings were continually reissued in France and translated into English already in late 1950s and early 1960s. His first book on social memory entitled Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire was first published in 1925, and later on it was followed by the paper La mémoire collective chez les musiciens (1939) and the book La Topographie légendaire des évangiles en terre sainte: étude de mémoire collective (1941). The previously mentioned paper was also included into the La mémoire collective, a posthumous volume compiled from various manuscripts by Halbwachs’s sister Jeanne Alexandre, and published in 1950. Among Polish sociologists interest in social memory appeared long before the topic became popular within Anglo-Saxon social science. Its first sign was a paper entitled “Żywa historia”. Świadomość historyczna: symptomy i propozycje badawcze (“Living history”. Historical Counciousness: “Symptoms and Research Proposals”), published in the journal Studia Socjologiczne by Nina Assorodobraj-Kula, a former disciple of Polish Durkheimian Stefan Czarnowski, and an exponent of historical sociology [Assorodobraj 1963]. In her paper she focused on popular concepts and social uses of history, especially on shifts in historical consciousness caused by deep structural social changes, and she suggested an ambitious programme for the research of such phenomena. Although her paper was full of references to various historical works, philosophy and structuralist anthropology, Halbwachs was cited only once. Still, not his general concept of social memory, but his concern for nobility’s special devotion to history was mentioned there PřeHledová STať