Introduction: Afterlives of Empire(s) in the Public Imagination

The introduction situates this collection of essays at the intersection of postcolonial and memory studies. It begins by highlighting the role of historical forgetting in the long- term persistence of colonial power relations. Against this backdrop, it brings into focus the revisionist nature of postcolonial culture and its political significance, tracing the cross-fertilization of memory studies and postcolonial studies and the emergence of a postcolonial awareness in the public debate. Building on the notion of public history, it develops and broadens the category of the “historical imaginary” and argues that it can usefully contribute to a transmedial understanding of postcolonial cultures. Highlighting the interplay of history and memory, it focuses on the role of aesthetic artifacts and discourses in producing an awareness of the colonial past and on its social and political implications. In the final section, it situates the contributions included in the collection within this framework.