"Forget-Me-Not": Flowers as Collective Memory Shapers in School Anthologies

Abstract:Flowers in literary works in school anthologies shape consciousness and private/collective memory. Using cognitive and conceptual semantics philological and semantic tools, I compare literary works in school anthologies of Israel's various educational systems from its establishment in 1948 to the present and in reading lists of anthroposophic and Montessori schools. I attempt to identify structures of consciousness and awareness that help shape collective memory among schoolchildren and which expose the differences between Israel's educational systems.Flowers can represent the need to return to a normal routine after a great loss or can be metonymies of the blood of fallen soldiers, commanding us to remember them and their sacrifice. I hope this study will enable teachers and educators to be more critical of school anthologies and to appreciate the capacity of anthology editors for structuring reality and shaping schoolchildren's consciousness.