Contesting and Surviving Memory: Space, Nation, and Nostalgia in Les Lieux de Mémoire

In this paper I explore the writings of Pierre Nora on lieux de mémoire (realms of memory). Nora's work is a standard reference in geographical writings on memory, yet there are various assumptions in his work that often go unchallenged. An investigation of the concept of nostalgia allows certain levels of yearning to be made clear in Nora's writings. A melancholic nostalgia for ‘real environments of memory’ and for the unifying power of the nation-state pervades this work. However, Nora hints at the possibility for the survival of memory in the body, and for its defence through the mobilisation of counterhistorical narratives. I conclude through using interdisciplinary theories on embodied memory and sites of countermemory to expand the range of spaces in which the memories of a nation might be constructed, contained, and contested.