Rethinking social memory through Vygotsky and Halliday: the transmission of contested memories of the recent past in Uruguay

ABSTRACT

This paper explores social memory as a dynamic, agentive and semiotically mediated process drawing on some key principles from Vygotsky’s and Halliday’s work. These authors’ basic principles are defined and later applied to the analysis of the transmission of contested memories of the recent past in Uruguay. The paper concludes by reflecting on how this dialectical, historical and semiotic approach to investigating complex phenomena provide a unique lens to understanding social memory.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mike Cole for the encouragement to write this paper. I would not have been able to do this work without Brian Carpenter’s continued support and feedback. I’m also thankful to the XMCA list for the virtual discussions that enrich my understanding of learning and language. All the mistakes are my responsibility.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.