Memory, ideology and power: Towards a materialist framework

Abstract

This article critically interrogates the theoretical foundations of memory studies, foregrounding the field’s long-standing neglect of Marxist ideology theory and the consequences of this omission. While constructivist and postmodernist paradigms have shaped memory studies by emphasising subjectivity, narrativity and epistemological plurality, this article argues that these approaches have frequently attenuated materialist critique and obscured the structuring role of institutions, power and hegemonic interests in the production of collective memory. By re-examining foundational figures – above all Maurice Halbwachs – and by engaging critically with the theoretical frameworks of Jan and Aleida Assmann, Astrid Erll and their successors, the study exposes the idealist assumptions that underpin dominant cultural memory discourse and highlights the systematic misreadings through which its depoliticised canon has been consolidated. It contends that a renewed engagement with ideology critique can recover the material, institutional and political dimensions of how memory is produced, contested and mobilised within specific socio-economic formations. In doing so, the article offers a substantive intervention into memory studies, advocating for a historically grounded, politically engaged materialist framework capable of reinvigorating critical analysis within the field.