Notes towards a historical, critical theory of memory constellations: Postcolonial nationalist memory in Michael Anthony’s King of the Masquerade

Abstract

The historical and critical theory of memory constellations addresses two challenges in cultural memory studies: the detachment of memories from socio-historical contexts and the risk of critical concepts becoming dogmatic. Instead of imposing a memory concept top-down, memory constellations analyse cultural memories from the bottom-up by triangulating these with their historical precedents and the social conditions that enable the memories to emerge. The tensions, conflicts and contradictions between memory, genealogy and social conditions enable a fundamentally historical critique. The description of the steelpan in Michael Anthony’s novella King of the Masquerade and wider societal as well as transnational dynamics reveals a memory war that can be described as a memory constellation of postcolonial nationalist remembrance.