Literary texts are paths or tracks into cultural memory, not direct
access to unmediated memory. Cultural memory studies are about
how the past is mediated, how memory is produced and circulated. It
is not about history “as such”. The Old Testament was created in periods
of globalization. The writing is a piece of memory work meant
for creation of national or local identity, and particularity in a global
world. Memory as counter-activity is always present, focusing on the
local, small tradition, the particular narrative, and creating its own way
of coherence. Memories are not ready-prepared refl ections of the past.
They are both eclectic and selective reconstructions. Remembering and
forgetting the past refl ects the needs in the present. It is an active and
ongoing, not predetermined process. Memory studies do not represent
a coherent fi eld, but are coming from different disciplines and discursive
areas. It is an analytic instrument and a heuristic tool focusing the
socio-cultural context.