Its condition of existence lies both in its capacity to take a recognizable cultural form within a given context and to break away from that very context, in order to be transmitted across time, space and generations. Memory lives in its more or less provisional, semiotic materializations: texts, monuments, images, music, performances, rituals and daily interactions and practices. The memory of the former Italian concentration camp of Fossoli will serve as an exemplary and illustrative case study. The aim of this article is, then, to provide an interpretative theory of memory, and to identify and describe the methodological tools capable of implementing such an approach.
By investigating memory-making and oblivion-making in processes of interpretation, the semiotic perspective elaborated by Umberto Eco allows us to envision memory-as-containment and memory-as-flow in a combined analysis, where the twofold conception of memory – either as movement or as form – merges. Yet, in linking past with present, and when connecting different spaces and generations, memory is always the result of circulation (flow) as well as of local semiotic conditions of production and use (containment). These two models are often presented as mutually exclusive and counterposed. In the multidisciplinary field of memory studies, remembering and forgetting have mainly been analyzed following two ideal-typical models: memory-as-containment (exemplified by the notions of framework and site of memory) and memory-as-flow (epitomized by the notions of afterlife and mnemohistory).
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