Family remembrance in the high school German literature curriculum in the Netherlands The down memory lane method

This dissertation investigates the educational potential of integrating intergenerational family remembrance into high school literature education, focusing on a German literature curriculum implemented at a Dutch gymnasium. At its core, the study asks how the reading and discussion of contemporary German literature can foster emotional engagement among students and shape their understanding of history and identity. It explores how literature education can open a space for students to narrate and explore difficult family histories and how this process generates new forms of remembrance, identification, and intergenerational dialogue.
Rather than equating family remembrance with Hirsch’s concept of postmemory, the study conceptualizes the two in interaction, foregrounding the active and dialogical dimensions of students’ engagement with the past. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from multidirectional memory, and cultural memory, it introduces a pedagogical method titled “Down Memory Lane”—a structured approach that brings literature and memory studies together in the classroom.
Through qualitative case studies, including oral examinations, classroom conversations, and student-created visual narratives inspired by works such as Nora Krug’s Heimat, the dissertation shows how students develop both emotional resonance and intellectual depth in relation to their family pasts and broader historical contexts. Their responses illustrate how German literature can serve as a catalyst for family storytelling, historical reflection, and cultural self-understanding. The study also addresses ethical questions and the role of teacher positionality in memory-centered education, recognizing the vulnerability and care such work demands.
By demonstrating how literature education can cultivate students as critical interpreters, active heirs, and conscious narrators of history, this research contributes to memory studies, educational theory, and literature pedagogy. It argues for embedding memory work into the heart of literature teaching—not only to deepen learning but to humanize it.