How do memory and space meet? Perspectives from ancient history

This paper offers a critical overview of the cross-fertilization between memory and spatial studies, with a focus on ancient Greek history. It provides a selective survey of foundational works and research trends combining memory and space. The starting point is provided by Maurice Halbwachs’ seminal work on The Topography of the Holy Land (1941), followed by Lefebvre’s The Production of space (1971). Then, attention shall be paid to geographers and social theorists who pioneered the spatial turn in the ‘70s and ‘80s, as well as to Nora’s, Winter’s, and Assmann’s historical works of the ‘90s. Finally, the most recent and multidisciplinary insights on ‘memoryscapes’ and ‘mnemotopographies’ will be illustrated. In a second step, the paper discusses how scholars of ancient Greece have turned to these innovative hermeneutic paradigms, and how they have shaped them further.