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Topic · Literature and Literary Theory

Literature and Cultural Memory

Literature and Cultural Memory is a research topic within Literature and Literary Theory. Science Explorer counts 6.3k research works in it since 1950. 10.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers revolves around the literature and poetics of W.G. Sebald, focusing on themes such as history, memory, photography, authenticity, ruins, narrative, melancholy, and identity. The works explore the intersection of fiction and reality, the representation of traumatic pasts, and the construction of personal and collective narratives.

  • W.G. Sebald
  • literature
  • history
  • memory
  • photography
  • authenticity
  • ruins
  • narrative
  • melancholy
  • identity
Research works
6.3k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
683
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+19%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Germany
50% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Literature and Cultural Memory

Which countries lead Literature and Cultural Memory research?

By volume, Germany and the United States publish the most (623 and 177 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Germany 623 works
  2. 2 United States 177 works
  3. 3 Austria 85 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 78 works
  5. 5 France 65 works
  6. 6 Italy 57 works
  7. 7 Switzerland 54 works
  8. 8 Poland 44 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 30 works
  10. 10 Brazil 27 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Germany: 50.2%United States: 14.3%Austria: 6.9%United Kingdom: 6.2%6 others listed: 22.4%50%largest
Germany623 · 50.2%United States177 · 14.3%Austria85 · 6.9%United Kingdom78 · 6.2%6 others listed277 · 22.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Literature and Cultural Memory research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Göttingen publishes the most Literature and Cultural Memory research, followed by Freie Universität Berlin and University of Freiburg.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of GöttingenGermany 29 works
  2. 2 Freie Universität BerlinGermany 26 works
  3. 3 University of FreiburgGermany 22 works
  4. 4 Goethe University FrankfurtGermany 18 works
  5. 5 University of ViennaAustria 17 works
  6. 6 University of CologneGermany 17 works
  7. 7 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 16 works
  8. 8 Universität HamburgGermany 15 works
  9. 9 Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany 14 works
  10. 10 Bielefeld UniversityGermany 13 works

Who are the leading researchers in Literature and Cultural Memory?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Literature and Cultural Memory include Wolfgang K. Huber and Michael J. Mack.

  1. 1 Wolfgang K. Huber Germany 239k citations
  2. 2 Michael J. Mack United States 154k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Literature and Cultural Memory?

The most cited paper in Literature and Cultural Memory is "Why Buildings Are Known" (Donald Appleyard, 1969), with 283 citations. Next come "Artist of Dissonance: Albrecht Wellmer and Critical Theory" (211) and "Post‐Soviet Hauntology: Cultural Memory of the Soviet Terror" (142).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Why Buildings Are Known Donald Appleyard · Environment and Behavior Dec 1969 283
2 Artist of Dissonance: Albrecht Wellmer and Critical Theory Axel Honneth · Constellations 31 Aug 2007 211
3 Post‐Soviet Hauntology: Cultural Memory of the Soviet Terror Alexander Etkind · Constellations Mar 2009 142
4 The spectral geographies of W.G. Sebald John W. Wylie · Cultural Geographies Apr 2007 134
5 Genre Memories and Memory Genres: A Dialogical Analysis of May 8, 1945 Commemorations in the Federal Republic of Germany Jeffrey K. Olick · American Sociological Review Jun 1999 130
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Literature and Cultural Memory research done?

The largest centres of Literature and Cultural Memory research in 2022-now are Berlin (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Göttingen (Germany) and Hamburg (Germany). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Göttingen and Freiburg.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BerlinGermany 66 works
  2. 2 ViennaAustria 49 works
  3. 3 GöttingenGermany 30 works
  4. 4 HamburgGermany 29 works
  5. 5 CologneGermany 28 works
  6. 6 MunichGermany 27 works
  7. 7 FreiburgGermany 24 works
  8. 8 ZurichSwitzerland 23 works
  9. 9 Frankfurt am MainGermany 22 works
  10. 10 ParisFrance 20 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. GöttingenDE · 30.0 works41×
  2. FreiburgDE · 23.8 works24×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Literature and Cultural Memory than the world average.

See Literature and Cultural Memory on the map

Where is the best place to study Literature and Cultural Memory?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Göttingen, Freie Universität Berlin and Goethe University Frankfurt score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 11.37%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Ludwig-Maximilians-U…University of Göttin…Goethe University Fr…Freie Universität Be…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of GöttingenGermany 82.212.0%57.9×29 +391.2%
2Freie Universität BerlinGermany 71.46.9%45.2×26 +112.3%
3Goethe University FrankfurtGermany 71.311.4%29.6×18 +91.5%
4Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany 69.213.6%13.2×16 +18.9%
5Universität InnsbruckAustria 69.220.4%22.5×9 +182.6%
6Universität HamburgGermany 66.414.7%14.2×15 +11.0%
7University of CologneGermany 65.510.3%27.6×17 +32.4%
8University of FreiburgGermany 62.66.8%34.1×22 +87.9%
9Humboldt-Universität zu BerlinGermany 61.87.9%28.4×14 +303.8%
10Johannes Gutenberg University MainzGermany 58.09.7%22.4×12 +71.4%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Literature and Cultural Memory, country by country

Is Literature and Cultural Memory research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 19% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Literature and Cultural Memory.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Literature and Cultural Memory as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0070% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Literature and Cultural Memory0.0068% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Literature and Cultural Memory over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting10%20%30%Literature and Cultural Memory9.7% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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