By Guy Beiner
Published in Victorian Studies, 2025.
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Abstract

What makes a historical event and, more particularly, what makes it memorable? Addressing this question in a Victorian context, a time of obsessive preoccupation with memorialization and commemoration, the essay considers the case of the Great Irish Famine, with comparative reference to other contemporary notable events. It argues that scale alone—even when it impacts the lives of millions of people—is not sufficient for attaining prominent historical recognition and that the conditions for major occurrences to be remembered in public may depend on narratability (with reference to how they can be related to familiar narratives of previous events), mediation (through journalism and literature), and politicization.