The Memory of Catastrophe

Memories of catastrophes--both those which occur naturally and those which are consequences of human actions--loom large in the modern consciousness. The volume opens with an investigation of the concepts of catastrophe and collective memory, and the relationships between them. Arguing that a pervasive catastrophic memory may be as disabling as it is instructive, Gray and Oliver stress the necessity of rendering the phenomenon subject to secular critical inquiry. The value of such an approach is then demonstrated in a series of case studies.