Orientador: Alexandre Mate / Banca: Flávio Desgranges / Banca: Carminda Mendes André / Resumo: Através da sua memória e de documentação existente, o autor traça uma trajetória de sua formação como espectador passando pelas diversas fontes que o alimentaram: o circo, o rádio, a música, os livros, o cinema, a televisão com ênfase no teatro, objeto da pesquisa. As livrarias, os cinemas, os teatros e a própria cidade de São Paulo são o pano de fundo para os espetáculos teatrais assistidos no período de 1964 a 2011. O autor faz um recorte, analisando mais detalhadamente os 27 espetáculos teatrais mais significativos de sua vida de espectador. Em tese, essa visão do espectador está isenta dos habituais didatismos de um professor, da alardeada neutralidade do crítico, do rigor analítico requerido aos historiadores e pesquisadores e permite transitar com a reação espontânea, a emoção, recordações que a memória guardou, acontecimentos curiosos ligados ao contexto da apresentação e tão importantes quanto aqueles ocorridos no palco. O estudo é completado com uma análise da presença/ausência do espectador na literatura teatral e com um levantamento das atividades da Casa do Espectador, entidade muito importante para o meio teatral paulistano, surgida em 1960 e desaparecida no início dos anos 1990 / Abstract: The author relyes on his memory and on documents to outline the trajectory that lead to his education as a spectator going by the several sources that nourished him: the circus, the radio, the music, the books, the cinema, the television and mostly the theather, the very object of the research. The bookstores, the theathers and the city of São Paulo itself build the background for the plays seen from 1964 to 2011. The author analyzes in depht the 27 more signficant spectacles of his life as a spectator. In theory, the point of view of the spectator is free of the dictacticism of scholars as well as free of the often mentioned neutrality of the critics and the analytical rigor required from historioagraphers and researchers, and allows his spontaneous reaction on emotions, memories and curious events related to the spectacle itself, as important as the ones that took place on the stage. The study is completed with an analysis of the presence/absence of the spectator in the theatrical literature and the story of Casa do Espectador, a very relevant entity in the theatrical scene in São Paulo, founded in 1960 and closed in 1990 / Mestre

Cultural memory and its media have a productive power in constructing historical nar- ratives. Especially, in Central and Eastern Europe, memory is mostly created through bottom- up processes: The past is mediated in the public sphere and imagined in popular culture (Blacker, Etkind 2013: 10). The velvet revolution is followed by a memory boom in the Czech Republic, in which media acts as memory activists addressing tabooed memories. At a time where the last witnesses of the expulsion are passing away, the dying voice is taken up by media This thesis aims to explore the determinant patterns of the Czech narrative in post-1989 fiction. Particularly, it focuses on postmemorial representations. The thesis is based on an anal- ysis of five fictional works dealing with the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans. The expulsion is embedded in the century-long co-habitation with the Sudeten German depicted as a neigh- bour. However, the Sudeten Germans are only incorporated into a regional but not the national Czech identity. While the expulsion is reframed in an ethical-legal framework, on a narrative level strategies of individualisation and universalisation are employed to make the past acces- sible for those born later.

This essay examines the concept of memory through a literature study of articles in three prominent archival journals. The aim of the study is to investigate if, and in that case how, the concept of memory is made visible in relation to archives as an institution and collection in three archival journals. The three archival journals that are under examination are Archival Science, American Archivist and Archivaria, with articles published between the years of 2013 to 2020. My study follows the previous research of Trond Jacobsen, Ricardo L. Punzalan and Margaret L. Hedstrom in the 2013 article Invoking ‘‘collective memory’’: mapping the emergence of a concept in archival science. My essay examines the seven following years; 2013-2020. This essay aims to provide a broader view of memory in archival science as it focuses on the concept of memory instead of “collective memory”. Three themes are found and examined; memory and identity, remembering and forgetting, and the archivist’s role in the establishment of memory. Assmann (2006; 2011) uses four different memory formations to illustrate the complexity of the concept. Jimerson (2009) also gives the study a theoretical framework by explaining the power structure and the relationship between the archivist and the concept of memory. The results show that the concept of memory is complex and that there are multiple definitions and understandings of memory. To use a universal definition of the concept of memory is problematic because of it’s multiple understandings. This thesis agrees with the articles examined in that we need interdisciplinary views on how the concept of memory is made visible in relation to archives as an institution and collection, and that archivists need broader tools of how to understand and problematize the concept of memory.

This thesis focuses on eight Swedish museums, who collected intangible and tangible memories of how everyday life was affected during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020-2021. These contemporary collecting projects were conducted by Eskilstuna stadsmuseum, Jönköpings läns museum, Klostret i Ystad, Nordiska museet, Skellefteå museum, Stockholms läns museum, Värmlands museum and Västerbottens museum. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with the museum professionals responsible for the collecting process, the aim was to collect data on how the projects were organised and which collecting methods that were used. Further, the aim was to discuss and analyse the contemporary collecting projects from the theoretical perspectives of cultural memory studies and participatory memory practices. The results of the study show that the museums started the collecting projects in haste when the pandemic broke out and that the main collecting method being used was questionnaires. Other collecting methods, such as interviews, field studies and collecting of photographs, diaries, social media posts and tangible objects, were used as a complement. The museum’s purpose was to reach out as wide as possible with the collecting projects, to collect memories from different social groups in society. In conclusion, the collected materials, the intangible and tangible memories collected from participating individuals, will together take place in cultural memory side by side with documentations of historical events and be of use for future generations. Memories were collected all over Sweden, from people of different age and gender. The projects would not have been possible to conduct without the voluntary participation of people sharing their memories of how everyday life was affected during the coronavirus pandemic. This is a two years master’s thesis in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies.

Embedded in the quilt top, the fabric patches are relays, time pathways to stories and memories of their former owners. Through the quilts, the voices of the past survive. The stories trace a path of connection between oral traditions, storytelling, the invention of meaning, and the preservation of cultural memory. The theory and method described herein use the quilt patchwork metaphor as the basis for a web interface for designing and modeling knowledge-based graphical, narrative, and multimedia data. More specifically, the method comprises a digital storytelling and knowledge management tool that allows one or more users to create, save, store, and visually map or model digital stories. The method creates a digital network of a community's stories for digital ethnography work. Digital patches that represent the gateway to the stories of an individual are pieced together into a larger quilt design, creating a visual space that yields the voices of its creators at the click of a mouse. Through this narrative mapping, users are able to deal with complexity, ambiguity, density, and information overload. The method takes the traditional quilt use and appropriates it into a digital apparatus so that the user is connected to multiple points of view that can be dynamically tried out and compared. The hypertextual quilting method fulfills the definition of a deconstructive hypertext and emancipatory social science research methodologies by creating a collaborative, polyvocal interface where users have access to the code, content and conduits to rewrite culture's history with subaltern voices. In this digital place of intertextuality, stories are juxtaposed with images in a montage that denies the authority of a single voice and refuses fixed meaning. In dialogue, contestation, and play, the digitextuality of the Digital Story Quilt provides a praxis for critical theory. The Digital Story Quilt method concerns itself with questions of identity, the processes through which these identities are developed, the mechanics of processes of privilege and marginalization and the possibility of political action through narrative performance against these processes.

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This study explores how Chinese ancient cultural memory is constructed, and specifically how it is reconstructed through Chinese Xianxia TV dramas during the past five years. Ancient Chinese culture has become a hit in Chinese popular culture today, in which Xianxia TV dramas draw the biggest audiences. This study focuses on the ways, namely the transformations between cultural memory as storage memory to cultural memory as living functional memory, in which the Xianxia genre reconstructs the past. Bringing together a ritual view of communication, cultural memory and participatory culture, it applies a cultural approach to communication, which refers to the production and the fandom reception of Xianxia TV drama. Meanwhile, the perspective of culture industry provides a critical dimension to look into this highly commercial genre. This study is based on the analysis of content and representations of the theme song lyrics, posters and the general narratives of six selected Xianxia TV dramas, as well as a virtual ethnography of fan-generated videos and their comments. The findings suggest that, the reconstruction of ancient Chinese cultural memory in Xianxia TV dramas is a complex interplay between the culture industry logics of Xianxia production and the passionate participatory fan culture. The limited representations of the past in the series are absorbed and practiced by the fan audiences. Through fan practices, the fans extend the media text with their passion and knowledge of ancient culture, attaching the cultural memory into their present real-life cultural identity and hence vigorously transforming cultural memory from storage memory into functional memory.  This study speaks to the lack of bottom-up perspectives in the studies of the ancient culture revival trend in China, and it contributes to a deeper scholarly understanding of the Xianxia genre.

Abstract : The Mi’gmaq colonial experience is not unique among North American Native peoples, but being among the earliest in Canada to be colonized by Europeans, who arrived largely from the East, our people have had to contend with over 500 years of colonization and assimilation. The goal of this research is to explore the cultural practices of continuity and cultural memory as applied in selected examples of Mi’gmaq stories/literature, past and present. As a Mi’gmaq woman, having spent most of my life in the First Nations community of Listuguj in Quebec, I felt the need to focus my research on Mi’gmaq culture and stories. I believe our culture is rich and interesting in its history, language, and literature; I wish to showcase this in my thesis. By providing an overview of the still emergent literature of the Mi’gmaq Nation in its various forms (storytelling, novel, memoir, autobiography, poetry), I intend to illustrate that the Mi’gmaq people as well as their culture and language have been and still are continuously evolving. The stories presented in this thesis assure cultural continuity by creating and keeping a collective memory in the form of narratives that can be read, expressed, and interpreted many times over. My own understanding of cultural continuity stems from the Mi’gmaq sense of culture which is made up of three aspects: traditions, consciousness or identity, and language. I identify “continuity” as the forward-motion study of culture and the consistent existence of Mi’gmaq values, knowledge, and stories and how they have continuously evolved. Mi’gmaq culture is in a constant state of renewal while it still upholds a sense of influence from our collective past. Jan Assmann’s theorization of the concept of cultural memory is a way society ensures cultural continuity by transmitting its collective knowledge through generations. In accordance with Assmann’s notion of cultural memories as stores of knowledge from which members of a community construct their collective and individual identities, my idea of “cultural memory” is deeply related to narrative memory in the sense that story (in its many forms) inevitably preserves, defines, and transmits memories as well as teachings of Mi’gmaq culture and beliefs. Through the (re)interpretation of past stories and the formation of new ones, Mi’gmaq literature constitutes a means of defining our cultural identity for ourselves and for others. The forward motion of cultural continuity in my study does not idealise a pre-colonial past nor does it encourage leaving our shared history behind, but rather I wish to demonstrate that Mi’gmaq literature re-members and shapes our cultural past as it relates to our ever-evolving present to assist us on our journey towards the future. The goal of my thesis is to show that examples of Mi’gmaq traditional and modern literature and stories depict a Mi’gmaq culture and identity that is not stunted in the past, but rather syncretises cultural memories and visions for the future. The four chapters in this paper reflect the past, present, and future of Mi’gmaq stories, though not in a strictly linear manner. By means of applied reading of selected texts and exploring the significance of the past in the present and its relationship towards the future, I intend to represent a mixture of linear and cyclical concepts of time. Chapter One will begin in the past with a discussion of the cultural practice and functions of traditional Mi’gmaq storytelling and pre-colonial worldview. This chapter illustrates how Mi’gmaq history and traditional stories are interrelated as stores of cultural memory and knowledge. Chapters Two and Three explore differing patterns present in contemporary Mi’gmaq literary representations. Chapter Two explores the issues of Native cultural authenticity as well as the myths of the “Imaginary Indian” (Daniel Francis) and the “timeless condition” (Anne-Christine Hornborg), which posit Native culture and peoples as relics of the past with no future. Namely by analyzing two historical novels with Mi’gmaq characters that are written by non-Mi’gmaq authors, The Deserter (2010) by Paul Almond and Cibou (2008) by Susan Young de Biagi, this chapter presents the importance of questioning and analyzing what we as Mi’gmaq people read about our own culture. Chapter Three depicts Mi’gmaq self-representation in the form of non-fiction residential school Survivor narratives, specifically Out of the Depths by Isabelle Knockwood and Song of Rita Joe by Rita Joe. Both authors write about the past in order to encourage individual and collective healing, following residential school experience, with a hopeful vision for the future. Having both survived the assimilatory and abusive system of the Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia, Knockwood and Joe depict personal, and sometimes contrasting, views of the residential school legacy. Deena Rymhs’ parallel analysis of residential schools as prisons, how residential schooling caused a significant rupture in cultural continuity by enacting spatial and ideological diaspora as defined by Neal McLeod, as well as Aboriginal resilience and healing are key theorizations in this chapter. Finally, Chapter Four looks at the discourse of the past in the present in examples of Mi’gmaq contemporary literature. The notions of belonging and identity construction are significant in Mi’gmaq literature. In the colonial past (and to an extent still today), Native peoples have not been in control of their own cultural identities. In order to contextualize the current issues surrounding Mi’gmaq/Native identity that are reflected within the narratives in this chapter, Indian Status as a legal identity conferred on Native peoples and its implications on personal and cultural identity as well as community belonging are explored. Keeping in mind the negotiations of both ascribed and self-ascribed cultural identities, Stones and Switches by Lorne Simon, My Mi’kmaq Mother by Julie Pellissier-Lush, two books for children by Michael James Isaac, as well as selected poetry by Shirley Kiju Kawi, will be analysed with a view to recognizing a modern hybrid Mi’gmaq identity. On the whole, Mi’gmaq people (and those who wish to learn more about Native and Mi’gmaq people) can always find useful and relevant information in our collective past. Mi’gmaq storytelling and literature, in their multitude of forms, represent viable stores of cultural memories that link both past and present traditions, values, and realities as our culture moves into the future. / Résumé : Ce travail de recherche vise à explorer les pratiques de continuité et de mémoires culturels en utilisant une variété d'exemples provenant de la littérature Mi'gmaq du passée et du temps présent. L'expérience colonial du peuple des Premières Nations Mi'gmaq n'est pas unique en ce qui concerne les Autochtones d'Amérique du nord mais ils ont cependant été parmi les premières Nations autochtones à être colonisés au Canada par les Européens, qui sont arrivés de l’est, et ont donc eu à vivre avec les effets de plus de 500 ans de colonisation et d'assimilation. En tant que jeune femme Mi’gmaq, ayant vécue la majeure partie de ma vie dans la communauté des Premières Nations de Listuguj, Québec, j’ai senti le besoin de centrer mes recherches sur la culture et les histoires Mi’gmaq. Dans ce mémoire, je souhaite mettre en valeur la richesse de l’histoire, la langue et la littérature de mon peuple. En donnant un aperçu de la littérature encore émergente de la Nation Mi’gmaq sous ses différentes formes (les contes, les romans, les mémoires et biographies, la poésie, etc.), ce projet a pour but d’illustrer que la culture et le peuple Mi’gmaq sont en évolution constante. Les histoires présentées au cours des chapitres suivants s’inscrivent dans une tradition de continuité culturelle car elles créent et entretiennent une mémoire collective sous la forme de récits qui peuvent être lus, exprimés et interprétés à de nombreuses reprises. Nous définissons le terme "continuité" comme étant l'étude de la culture et de l'existence persistante des valeurs, des connaissances et des histoires Mi'gmaq ainsi que la façon dont ces éléments ont évolués au cours de leur existence. Deux aspects importants de la continuité culturelle sont la littérature et la langue. Dans ma conception de continuité, je m’informe de la définition Mi’gmaq du concept de la culture qui comprend trois aspects : les traditions, l’identité et la conscience, et la langue. J’identifie la notion de continuité comme étant un mouvement vers l’avant dans l’étude de la culture et de la survie des valeurs, de la connaissance et des histoires Mi’gmaq en relation avec leur évolution dans le temps. Effectivement, la culture Mi’gmaq est en constant état de renouvellement. Sa littérature reflète cette réalité en contribuant à préserver et à rétablir les traditions et les valeurs du passé tout en détenant une vision directrice et encourageante pour l’avenir de notre culture, de notre identité collective. Les exemples de littérature traditionnelle et moderne Mi’gmaq tracent alors une ligne de continuité dans le temps qui avance vers le futur avec l’information culturelle du passé. La culture Mi’gmaq est en état de renouvellement continuel tout en conservant ses racines dans notre passé collectif. La théorisation du concept de mémoire culturelle par Jan Assmann est une façon pour la société d'assurer une continuité culturelle en transmettant son savoir collectif à travers les générations. Conformément à la notion de mémoires culturelles d'Assmann en tant que réserves de connaissances à partir desquels les membres d'une communauté construisent leurs identités collectives et individuelles, notre interprétation du terme "mémoire culturelle" est profondément liée à la mémoire narrative, parce qu'une histoire dans toutes ses formes va préserver, définir et transmettre inévitablement les souvenirs, l'histoire, les croyances et les enseignements de la culture Mi'gmaq. Par la réinterprétation des textes traditionnels du passé et la création de nouvelles histoires contemporaines, la littérature Mi’gmaq constitue un moyen de définir notre identité culturelle autant pour nous-mêmes que pour les autres. La proposition d’un mouvement vers l’avant, vers l’avenir au cœur de notre recherche n'a pas comme but d'idéaliser le passé précolonial ni d'encourager l'abandon de notre histoire partagée, mais de démontrer que la littérature Mi'gmaq commémore et forge notre passé par sa relation avec notre présent en constante évolution pour nous assister dans notre voyage à travers le temps, vers un futur. L’objectif de ce projet est de démontrer que des exemples de littérature Mi’gmaq (traditionnel et contemporain) mettent en valeur une culture et une identité Mi’gmaq qui n’est pas éclipsé par les ombres de son passé, mais au contraire, s’informe et s’inspire des mémoires culturelles de son passé afin de mieux s’épanouir de manière créative au temps présent et d’assurer sa continuité dans le futur. Les personnes Mi'gmaq, leur culture et leur langue ont été et sont encore en évolution continuelle. Ces quatre chapitres reflètent le passé, le présent et le futur des histoires Mi'gmaq mais pas nécessairement de façon strictement linéaire. En faisant lecture critique d'une sélection de textes et en explorant la signification du passé pour le présent et sa relation envers le futur, nous avons l'intention de représenter une combinaison d'éléments relatifs aux concepts du temps, d'un point de vue à la fois cyclique et linéaire. Chapitre Un débute dans le passé en étudiant la fonction des histoires traditionnelles Mi'gmaq et la vision précoloniale de celles-ci. Le premier chapitre illustre comment les rapports historiques et les contes traditionnels sont étroitement liés en ce qui concerne leur valeur en mémoire et en connaissance culturelle. Certains aspects de la mythologie/cosmologie traditionnelle Mi’gmaq y ont expliqué à travers deux exemples de contes précoloniaux. De plus, la perspective Mi’gmaq dans certains rapports historiques coloniaux sont explorer. Ensuite, dans les Chapitres Deux et Trois, les diverses représentations littéraires actuelles des histoires Mi'gmaq sont explorées. Le deuxième chapitre examine les grandes questions de l’authenticité culturelle ainsi que les mythes de l’Indien rêvé (Imaginary Indian de Daniel Francis) et de la condition intemporelle (« timeless condition » de Anne-Christine Hornborg) qui positionnent les cultures et les peuples amérindiens comme des vestiges du passé sans avenir. Notamment avec l’analyse de deux romans historiques à propos de personnages Mi’gmaq au 17e siècle écrits par des auteurs non-Mi’gmaq : The Deserter (2010) de Paul Almond (traduit en français en 2013 sous le titre Le déserteur) et Cibou (2008) de Susan Young de Biagi, ce chapitre présente l’importance de questionner et analyser ce que nous lisons à propos de notre propre culture. Les deux romans sont le fruit d'une recherche historique détaillé sur l'histoire Mi’gmaq à l'époque de (ou un peu avant) la colonisation. Cependant, la représentation des personnages Mi’gmaq ne va pas au delà du champ d'application limité du passé colonial et perpétue les exemples de stéréotypes qui se retrouvent souvent dans la littérature populaire et romantique à propos de la culture amérindienne d'aujourd'hui. Le troisième chapitre reflète l’autoreprésentation littéraire Mi’gmaq sous la forme de récit documentaire de survivants de pensionnats indiens, particulièrement Out of the Depths de Isabelle Knockwood et Song of Rita Joe de Rita Joe. Ayant survécues au système d’assimilation et d’abus du pensionnat indien de Shubenacadie au Nouvelle-Écosse (le seul pensionnat pour enfants autochtones de ce genre à être établi dans les provinces maritimes du Canada), Knockwood et Joe écrivent leur passé (et donnent voix à plusieurs autres survivants et survivantes) dans leurs récits afin de favoriser le processus de guérison et de réconciliation au niveau individuel et collectif en encourageant la voie à un avenir plus prometteur. Par la lecture de ces récits de vie, ce chapitre découvre les blessures physiques et psychologiques infligées aux cultures amérindiennes par le système des pensionnats. L'analyse parallèle de Deena Rymhs sur les pensionnats autochtones en tant que prisons, comment la vie dans les pensionnats autochtones a causé une rupture significative dans la continuité culturelle en promulguant une diaspora idéologique et spatiale comme définie par Neal McLeod ainsi que la résilience et la guérison autochtone sont des éléments clés de la théorisation de ce chapitre. Finalement, dans le quatrième chapitre, nous explorons les thèmes du passé reliés au présent par des exemples de la littérature Mi'gmaq contemporaine. Les notions d'appartenance et de construction d'identité sont significatives dans la littérature Mi’gmaq. Durant la période colonial (et dans une certaine mesure, encore aujourd'hui), les Autochtones n'ont pas été en contrôle de leur identité culturelle. Afin de mettre en contexte les problèmes actuels affectant les Mi’gmaq/Autochtones et qui se reflètent dans les histoires qui se retrouvent dans ce chapitre, le statut d'indien en tant qu'identité légale accordée aux Amérindiens et ses implications sur l'identité personnelle et culturelle ainsi que l'appartenance à la communauté amérindienne sont explorées. En gardant à l'esprit les négociations entre l'identité culturelle accordée et l'identité culturelle choisie, le roman Stones and Switches de Lorne Simon, la mémoire My Mi’kmaq Mother de Julie Pellissier-Lush, les deux livres pour enfants écrits par Michael James Isaac ainsi que des sélections de la poésie par Shirley Kiju Kawi seront analysée dans le but d'y reconnaitre l'hybridité de la nouvelle identité Mi'gmaq moderne. Dans l'ensemble, les Mi’gmaq, et les gens voulant apprendre à connaitre davantage les Autochtones et les Mi’gmaq, peuvent trouver de l'information pertinente dans notre passé collectif. Les histoires et la littérature Mi'gmaq, dans ses multiples formes, représentent des réserves de connaissances viables qui relient les traditions, les valeurs et les réalités du passé et du présent au fur et à mesure que notre culture progresse vers l'avenir.

Este trabalho é uma análise de três obras do escritor angolano Ondjaki, a saber: Bom dia camaradas, Os da minha rua e AvóDezanove e o segredo do soviético. Expoente da literatura angolana contemporânea, nestas três obras, Ondjaki apresenta o mesmo narrador – um menino de classe média que vive em Luanda. Embora sejam obras independentes, em todas o narrador explora as possibilidade do texto a partir do tempo mítico da infância. Nossa análise parte do conceito de “memória cultural”, desenvolvido pelo egiptólogo alemão e teórico da cultura Jan Assmann. Segundo ele, a memória cultural é a memória que conduz a história a partir de uma perspectiva narrativa, não oficial. Assim sendo, a memória cultural se insere nas esferas da tradição e do mito, passada de geração em geração através das mais diversas instâncias narrativas, tais quais as literaturas escrita e oral, a música, as lendas, a dança, as artes pictóricas e tudo aquilo que é parte da cultura de uma comunidade. A memória cultural difere da História na medida em que a primeira é dada pela história que narra, e a segunda pela história que investiga. Na edificação do conceito de memória cultural, Jan Assmann utiliza, como principais pressupostos, conceitos de Nietzsche e Freud, mais especificamente, o conceito nietzschiano de memória vinculante, a memória normativa que é forjada na dor, e o conceito freudiano de trauma. O objetivo deste trabalho é determinar de que modo as três obras de Ondjaki se coadunam com as teorias desenvolvidas por Assmann e como a memória cultural está presente nas narrativas do escritor angolano. / The current thesis presents an analysis of three novels by Angolan writer Ondjaki: Bom Dia Camaradas, Os da Minha Rua e Avó Dezanove e o Segredo do Soviético. Renowned contemporary Angolan writer, in these three books Ondjaki presents the same narrator, a middle class boy who lives in Luanda. Although the books are independent, in all of them the narrator explores the possibilities of the text from the mythical time of childhood. The analysis is built upon the concept of “cultural memory” developed by the German Egyptologist and culture theoretician Jan Assmann. According to him, cultural memory is that memory which conducts history from a narrative perspective instead of an official historical perspective. Therefore, cultural memory is integrant part of the traditional and mythical spheres of culture, being handed down from one generation to the next in the most diverse narrative media, such as written and oral literatures, music, dance, the visual arts and everything that is part of the culture of a community. Cultural memory is different from history in that the first is narrative, whereas the second is investigative. Jan Assmann builds the concept of cultural memory using as his principal presuppositions, Nietzsche’s concept of “linking memory,” that is, the normative memory that is forged in pain, and Freud’s concept of “trauma.” The purpose of this analysis is to determine how Ondjaki’s three novels are in line with Assmann’s theory and to explore the way cultural memory appears in the Angolan writer’s narratives.