| Abstract | The first part of this article introduces the notion of public memory, considering its relationship with the media. It discusses public memory as part of the public sphere, and underlines its role in the social construction of what we may call “cultural traumas”. The central part of the article focuses on an exemplary case, that of the representations of the colonial past circulating (or not) in the Italian public sphere. In reality, after the Second World War Italians almost forgot their colonial past. However, in recent years it has started to re-emerge in a variety of new representations, conveyed by different media. The conclusion discusses the moral and political implications of these different representations of the past, and highlights the special value of what is known as “self-critical memory”, in other words a series of representations of the past that can circulate in the public sphere and help to raise awareness of colonial ideologies and crimes. While there are other, conflicting forms of public memory in circulation, this particular kind of memory may construct colonialism as a “cultural trauma”.
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