oublies

Oublies is a term used in memory studies and historiography to describe elements that have faded from public awareness or have been marginalized within a culture’s shared memory. The concept foregrounds gaps in what societies remember and what they forget, and it is often employed to analyze how histories are selected for commemoration, education, and public discourse.

Etymology and usage: the word is derived from the French verb oublier, meaning to forget. In English-language scholarship, oublies is sometimes used as a coined plural to refer to multiple forgotten items or groups, emphasizing forgetting as a social process rather than a neutral absence.

Applications: it is used to discuss forgotten colonial histories, erased archives, marginalized communities, or overlooked ecological or architectural sites. The concept also appears in debates over monuments, memory policies, and education, where decisions about what to preserve or reveal shape a society’s collective memory.

Critiques and scope: some scholars warn that "oublies" can be too broad, risking the homogenization of diverse forgetting processes. Proper use requires a clear definition of scope, time frame, and sources, and attention to the power relations that produce and sustain memory gaps.