Multidirectional memory

Multidirectional memory – a term conceptualizing what happens when different histories of extreme violence confront each other in the public sphere with the focus on sites of extreme tension involving the remembrance of the Nazi genocide of European Jews in relation to slavery, colonialism, and decolonization. The term is an attempt to get beyond the phenomenon of “competitive memory.” It proposes that rather than seeing the memory of various events as competing with each other for public attention, he suggests memory can work productively through negotiation, cross-referencing, and borrowing. The term was coined by Michael Rothberg and described in his book “Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization” (2009) and explained in his article.